Networking Reviews

This is a combined review of the MN-500 / MN-510 / MN-610 since they are combined (the MN-610 is a kit of a MN-500 base station and MN-510 USB adapter). The base station installed up to the very end. It said that the installation could not complete because of a firewall or similar problem. I checked, re-checked and re-booted many times. However, I could get through to the Internet, so I had no idea why it would not continue the installation. I ended up calling technical support and they were very helpful. Since I was connecting to the Internet, everything was configured. It just would not complete and make a floppy that could be used on the other systems. So, that part had to be done manually. I was glad support was quick and helpful.

Installing the first other station was very easy, but the second was more problematic. Still, compared to other network installations, it was pretty easy.

Throughput is pretty impressive. In fact, it is just as fast on the others as it was on my base station BEFORE the wireless network. My base station varies from the same performance to THREE TIMES what it was before. I am guessing that the router doing the firewall instead of the OS doing it may account for most of the improvement.

Overall, we are very happy with it.

I live in a townhome with 4 bedrooms. I bought the Microsoft home base unit with 4 of these Wireless USB Adapters. We hooked up all 4 units with ease. The wizards worked flawlessly. Pretty much, all you need to do is click on "Next" and nothing else, and you're pretty much set. I have the base unit downstairs, and 3 of the USB adapters upstairs, and all of them get the reception fine... a "Very Good" rating instead of Excellent though. It's good enough to watch a movie wirelessly.

Also, I have a computer hooked up to it by ethernet cables, a laptop with integrated wireless, and an Xbox hooked up. Every machine is working fine.

I purshased this USB adapter to my computer to connect with my home network and it has worked great. I was interested in finding if the wireless network would work as well as a wired network and I am quite happy with its performance.

I bought this card after having lots of problems with a linksys card. I have a dell laptop and I'm running Windows XP Home. The linksys card had poor signal strength and repeatedly dropped signals, even if seated next to the router. This netgear card is phenomenal. The signal hasn't been dropped yet and I have a signal throughout my house (4000 sq. ft.) and outside! Avoid the linksys card and buy netgear! I can't say enough good things about this card. I love it!

I have been using an SMC wireless card for some time now (with XP Pro) and couldn't figure out why the signal was being dropped every 5 or 10 minutes. Incredibly aggrevating! My dad also had an SMC card and XP Pro with his laptop and was having similar problems. It wasn't until I read reviews on Amazon when I was looking for a new card that I realized it wasn't the router or the age of my card (dad had newer), but the compatibility of SMC with XP Pro. I ordered two of the Netgear MA521s for both of us and neither has had any problems since. It takes slightly longer on boot up for the card to recognize that the network is there, but after that, never drops the signal. It has good range, I've been everywhere in our two-story, four-bedroom house and have not had a problem anywhere. I would highly recommend this card, especially to anyone running XP Pro.

At first it will now work on my Compaq Armada 100s 550MHZ AMD K6 (June 2000) 16bit card bus with Win98 (not SE) giving out " NDIS.VXD NTKERN.VXD device loader for this device could not load the device drive {code 2)" error and exclamation mark under device driver. I suspect it to be either the previous PCMCIA LAN Card I used and interfering with this new wireless hardware or the anti-virus program. I have no time to find out. So I reload my laptop with a clean install of Win98SE (SE this time). This time it works and no more code 2 errors. It averages 85% signal strength and 85% link quality thru walls and close doors.

I bought this product to work with my Dell Inspiron laptop running WinXP Pro. So far it works great with my wireless mouse, keyboard, and digital camera plugged in simultaneously. The AC power ensures that your USB-powered devices will work properly. However, there is one issue to be aware of: this hub only works when plugged into AC power, which was not clearly indicated in the specs. For this reason, it is not a good hub for laptop users on the go, which is why I give it only 4 stars. Other than that, it is a solid performer. It is small, so it doesn't clutter your desktop too much, and has rubber feet to keep it from sliding. The AC adapter is sideways so that it only takes up one plug, which is a nice detail. This would be a good choice if you are planning to use it for a desktop, particularly if you have several USB-powered devices.

I have this hub hooked up to a Dell 5100 laptop. Installation was quick and easy. I have not had any issues and have the following devices hooked up to it: Hp printer, Creative Labs Extigy sound card, Microsoft Optical mouse and Palm Hotsync cradle. Scanner is connected to the spare USB port on PC. In reading some of the comments, I feel the need to say that scanners and web cams historically cause problems when hooked up to any USB hub as they tend to "HOG" the bandwith leaving little for the other devices. I am surprised that D-Link claims to have not had complaints on this issue. My advice would be to hook these items directly to the pc's USB port and use the hub for the other "less power hungry" devices.

I've had the D-Link DUB-H4 USB 2.0 4-Port Hub for about a week now. I've been using it with a Dell notebook running Windows XP. So far, the only devices that I have connected to it are an 80 GB external hard drive, a multifunction printer/scanner, and my Nikon Coolpix 3200 digital camera, all of which are devices that support USB 2.0. And like my title says, I've had no problems so far. All of the devices are running at USB 2.0 speed, and everything is running fine.

I've only been using this for a couple of days, but it works seamlessly so far. With the computers I have, both running XP, I have to boot # 1 up first through this device and then # 2. But all works great like that and sure does make it much easier to go from one computer to the other. Both of my computers do have PS2 ports for mouse and keyboard. This unit does come with adapters, but I couldnt tell you how the unit works with older computers that need them. Anyway, I'm very pleased so far with this unit.

I've been using a KVM switch for over 2 years with a Linux and Windows box and I thought it was just the best way to go. I've gone thru two analog switches (the ones with the tangle of wires inside) and I bought a bunch of cables. I originally bought cheap monitor cables but the ghosting was terrible.

My old system worked fine at 1024x768 except occasionally it would lose the keyboard but the fix was to simply reinsert the keyboard plug.

I recently started working with a much larger monitor (running 1600x1024 under windows, 1600x1200 under Linux) and my old setup just couldn't handle the video bandwidth; the ghosting was terrible. So after checking out the reviews here I thought I'd give this one a try.

Its great. There might be a tiny bit of ghosting, but its too hard to say if its just the monitor itself. The only problem I've noticed, is that I can't get the mouse to work well under Linux/X windows. For some reason the resolution of the mouse just isn't great so the motion is a bit jerky. But its a small problem albeit annoying. The keyboard toggle between PCs works flawlessly and I've never lost the mouse or keyboard and the video is always centered (although thats probably a function of the monitor).

If you're using two PCs or a laptop and a PC this product is worth its weight in gold (its very light, as its sold state not the clunkly switch of old :)

The cost effectiveness of this item is superior.

Occasionally the double tap of the CTRL button does not work, but that is easily solved by pressing the button on the box.

The cables were of good quality and color coded for today's PC's.

Only drawback is that it's not expandable.

For once, I was actually completely happy with a computer product bought retail. I put it on 2 machines running win98 and it went literally without problem. The kit provides you with all the hardware, software, and manuals that any semi-computer literate person will need. I highly recommend this product to anybody who has need for a stable and easy to install network. Not to mention it's really fast.

Okay...I was a little leary. After reading all the reviews on this product and several similar products I was worried. I had seen where some had trouble with AMD PC's as well as the WinME operating system. Well both the PC's I wanted to network are AMD and one is running WinME. I ordered the Network in a box, with the thought in the back of my mind that I would probably have to return it.
However the install went great and the network was literally up and running in an hour. The instuctions are very clear, although they don't mention WinMe at all. I just installed both as Win98, but I did have to searcht he setup disk for the NIC drivers on the WinME machine.

Next we had a cable modem installed. Connected the modem to the switches uplink port, installed the sysgate software that came with the network on one machine as host and the other as client and both pc's had simultaneous Internet access!

I am a complete novice to networking so I was quite timid about all of this.

Completely happy with this product!

I've been changing operating systems a lot lately and have had no problem connecting two ME's, a ME and a W2K and a ME and an XP.

There's no much to do, really. Just hook it up and run the Home Network Connection Wizards. Assign the shared drives, printers, etc. and you're done. The manual is helpful and easy to follow.

After a 3 minute installation,

This 10/100 USB Network Card has worked flawlessly connected to my Cable Modem. This network card doesn't require its own IRQ which solved a lot of my hardware conflicts. However since it doesn't have its own IRQ it can slow other USB devices connected to your machine. For example I have a Microsoft USB Mouse also connected. I notice a slight pause in mouse movement whenever I open the browser. It isn't enough to hinder my progress, and certainly a USB device such as a scanner or CD writer wouldn't be affected due to the fact that these devices typically aren't used at the same time as browsing the internet.

In conclusion this USB device has worked great and even solved many of my hardware conflicts as it doesn't require an IRQ. I recommend it.

Got this for about a quarter of what the official Sony PS2 Network Adapter goes for. Plugged it in and my PS2 recognized it by name immediately. Works flawlessly with EverQuest: Online Adventures Beta 3. Haven't tested it with any other games, 'cause EQ is all I have. Haven't tested it in any version of Windows yet, either. Only gripe is that the color doesn't match all my other Linksys equipment. May try the USB100M with my PS2 soon.

I just received my USB100TX and connected it directly to my TiVo Series 2 with the supplied USB A-B cable. It does *not* come with a CAT-5 UTP Cable, but I have plenty spare and hooked it up. As soon as it was wired to both the TiVo and a hub in my nearby wiring closet the link light was activated. I did not need any of the manuals or driver disks that came in the package.

Within minutes I'd configured my TiVo to recognize the network adapter and my Linksys BEFSR41 Firewall/Router had allocated it a DHCP address.

I immediately ran the test-connection and also forced a daily update.

Downloading schedules are super quick compared to the dialup option. Obviously new firmware updates will also be significantly quicker. Plus the phone line won't be tied up during the call.

I had previously tried a different USB/Ethernet adapter and my TiVo did not recognize it (D-Link USB-650) so beware of using that on a TiVo.

The Linksys USB100TX is the wired adaptor recommended by TiVo and it works perfectly, first time.

I've seen some negative reviews of this card on other sites, but I can't seem to find a thing wrong with it. I purchased this card with the WGT624 and have had nothing but a great experience with it. Distance is great, stability, speed and features work as advertised. I'm thinking about getting another one for my wife as well. Great product!!

At least when paired with the Netgear WGT624 WAP/Router this card does indeed have a significant farther range than for instance the DLINK 614+ was was currently using. I can go from one corner of the house downstairs to a bedroom at the opposite corner of the house upstairs, on a waterbed at almost full speed (this gave the DLINK some trouble).

It also comes with a nifty utility that does a better job than Windows with settings and statistics (like actual network throughput).

One minor issue may be with how hot this card gets which is always a concern with a laptop. To the cards credit there are settings for Power Save and Transmit Power which may help.

I dont want to repeat all the good things said about this product. I have always been a netgear fan, because they make solid network equipment. This is my first netgear wireless equipment, and it works great just like other netgear products.

One thing to remember though...you need to download and install the new driver in order to take advantage of the new WPA firewall security feature.

Without purchasing an additional licence this unit only supports 8 computers. When I purchased the upgrade (which cost almost as much as the unit) it did not install correctly. Support was unable to resolve the problem and level 2 support never calls back although they reply to my emails by promising to do so. More trouble than it is worth. Other routers don't have this 8 node limit. I'll not buy netgear again.

Netgear has designed a nice looking, functional winner in it's FR314 Gateway Router.
Add WAN support and better technical support and you have a five star product.

Took 30 minutes or less to read the simple instructions, unplug my switch and replace it with the router. Configuration was simple and after that all I did was reboot my 3 PC's and 2 laptops. Read other reviews that mentioned problems with VPN and port assignment but I am not doing any of that. No more paying for 3 internet connections. I am now paying for 1 and have all 5 on the net, (my ISP limits homes to 3 IP addresses). I should mention that I actually have the FR 318 which is identical to the 314 except the 318 has 8 ports vs. the 314's 4 ports. This product has my recommendation.

I bought this network card at the same time as I bought the Linksys 4 Port Cable/DSL Router/HUB figuring I wouldn't have any compatibility issues. I was right. It's easy to install in your standard laptop PCMCIA/Cardbus slot. Windows 95 autosenses it. You load the drivers from a floppy. Reboot, and you're up and running. It took all of about 10 minutes, including re-boot time.

Performance is no problem, as it (and the router) autosenses the correct speed to send at. On a fast network (10Mbits; which is 10x faster than most broadband connections) it goes fast, on a faster network (100Mbits), it goes faster. For the money, you just can't go wrong.

This gave me access to the network for my older laptop. The only issue I've found is that the cable connection to the card is very fragile, and easily broken. I had the card about 2 months before it was rendered irritatingly inconsistant due to a connection problem between the card and cable. I would recommend being very careful with this product.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this card since it was priced so much cheaper than any other products of it kind (32bit 10/100 PCMCIA, what i found was a great product. I have had no problems with this device and the speed is amazing. I highly recommend it!

It works as advertized, and good for laptop use since phoneline PC card choices are limited and so-so. It would be good for desktop use if you do not want, or know how, to install a PCI card. However, for desktop use I would recommend the PA-301 PCI card. It is a great way to network home computers and share a high speed (broadband) internet connection without running wires through your house. The 10Mbs is very adequate, and comparable to wired ethernet, considering that (broad)bandwidth usually gets you 2-5Mbs. To some extent, the 10X phoneline networking through your existing phone wiring is more dependable than 802.11b wireless. However for laptop use, the whole idea of being mobile is to be free of wires. I bought it initially for laptop use, but decided in the end to go wireless. I use wired 10/100 for my main desktop, phoneline connection (PA-301) to network each of my kid's desktop, and wireless for my wife's laptop as well as mine. However, the PA-101 really works and does not interfere with regular phone use. You CAN actually surf the web (high speed connection) and talk on the phone at the same time....

After recently moving into a new house, I soon found there was no feasible way to get a wired ethernet setup going, what with architectural constraints.
I just wanted to share cable internet access among our 3 computers, without going wireless; the low throughput and limited range of an affordable wireless solution (802.11b) doesn't appeal to me.
After a bit of research, I picked up a Linksys HPRO200 router and ordered this litte gem.
It took one week to receive the PA-101, and within 5 minutes, my network was up; and I didn't have to configure an access point, WEP encryption, or any of the hassles of wireless. No need to route any ethernet cable between floors either.
It's too bad this technology is being rendered obsolete; sort of reminds me of the way Beta VCRs were supplanted by VHS. The inferior product was marketed more aggressively...
On the bright side, HPNA 2.0 adapters can be found for as litte as $5 now.
And yes, the PA-101 works just fine with windows ME, and 2000, and 98. I've tested all of them, and recommend this for anyone.

I don't know why these things don't exist in the market very much. Ethernet is all over the market, but you would need cabling for that. I connected my Windows XP computer to my father's (also XP) in the other room, and it's working very well, and couldn't be cheaper. You don't even need their software, XP recognizes the device and you can set up a small office or home network with XP - very easily. Arrived fast too. Really fast. Maybe because I'm in CA, and they ship from CA too.