NETGEAR WG511NA Wireless G Pc Card by Netgear
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Digital camera reviews of NETGEAR WG511NA Wireless G Pc Card
Digital camera Review: Good Networking card - but needs updated driver
Summary: 4 Stars
I set up the network as recommended - but it kept disconnecting often. The driver on the CD is an outdated one - download and install the new driver from the netgear site www.netgear.com and it goes smoooooth.Digital camera Review: Good bang-for-the-buck
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm happy with this purchase. My very old laptop (HP Pavilion ZE4145) does not have WiFi built in and for the past two years, I've been using an Airlink 101 USB Wireless dongle. This PCMCIA card picks up more signals and is more secure on my laptop than any USB dongle could be. The software is ok, but I had difficulty entering a WEP password for use with my router. No problem, I just let Windoze control the card and it works exactly as I need.
In all, the card picks up weak signals, provides a solid physical connection to my laptop, and performs exactly as I had hoped.
Digital camera Review: Good product w/ an ugly flaw
Summary: 3 Stars
Good product, but the driver is not Win XP certified. What I experience on my laptop, is that after standby/hybernation, the driver almost freezes the laptop (even mouse becomes slow). Once you take out the PCMCIA card and plug it back in, everything becomes normal. Not a big deal, but not very nice either.BTW, my system is Compaq Presario w/ WinXP Home Edition.
Digital camera Review: Good product, works well
Summary: 5 Stars
The card works equally well for me on an 802.11g network at the office and a 802.11b network at home. The taskbar icon allows you to open the configuration and change the network profile very quickly. I've used it with a Netgear access point and a Linksys router, with and without WEP, and it does very well. The WG511's range and performance is almost as good as a built-in Dell 1300 wireless card, which is installed on another notebook in my office. On some rare occaisions, the driver crashes, but I have not tried any updates to the driver or firmware; in addition, it only occurs while coming out of hibernation after the network or card has been removed.Digital camera Review: Good reception but doesn't like to change access points
Summary: 3 Stars
This card installed and configured easily on Win2k for my home network (802.11b, WEP, no beaconing) and I immediately noticed better range and reception than with my Netgear MA401 card. But when I tried to reconfigure it for another access point, I ran into trouble: I had trouble getting WEP to work on the new network, and when I went back to my home network it took several tries to get this card to reassociate. The "Activate" button in the Profiles tab wasn't working, the "Connect" option in the Site Survey tab wasn't working, and even manually setting everything wasn't working--the card just kept scanning channels, never associating. The software has a channel menu but it's always grayed out. Finally I tried clicking Rescan just to see what would happen and it associated, but the status icon disappeared from the Windows System Tray and running the Configuration Utility (from Programs menu) didn't work. I also have been unable to upgrade to the latest driver.
I really like the Site Survey feature, it's almost like having Netstumbler but you can highlight an AP and click a button to connect to it (usually). I also like the Profiles feature compared to that of my MA401 card, having a summary of settings below the profile name, with Save/Delete/Activate buttons. Sometimes, however, "real" settings didn't match the stated "current profile" settings, which is confusing. I also like that this card has an activity LED, which my MA401 doesn't have--although sometimes the link light doesn't blink when scanning.
Overall I think this is just a so-so card due to the strange behavior I experienced. It was easy to install and configure the first time, it gets better reception than my old card, and I really like the Site Survey feature. There just seem to be some bugs in the driver/config software that I have to put up with and/or work around. It also doesn't do WPA, and there's no "wireless radio off" feature. Most brands of 802.11g cards are routinely on sale for $30-$40 so you might want to try your luck with something else.