Microsoft Wireless-G Notebook Kit

Average customer rating: 3.5

A Waste of Time and Effort
Excelent option for home office WLAN
Work perfectly
Microsoft has made this Extraordinary product Obsolete
pay attention

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Microsoft Wireless-G Notebook Kit

Manufacturer: Microsoft
Product Group: CE
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B0000BZO5U

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Up to $200

54 Mbps

54 Mbps

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802.11b Networking

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802.11g Networking

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Product Description

Broadband Networking Wireless Notebook Kit MN-820 gives you everything you need to set up an 802.11g wireless network for your desktop and notebook computers. Easy to set up, this kit includes a base station, notebook adapter, and Ethernet cable.

Customer Reviews:

A Waste of Time and Effort.......2005-03-30

What can I say? I spent 2 days struggling with this heap of junk trying to manually configure it for a small business network of mixed Linux and Windows machines. The router/access point froze, lost Dynamic IPs, refused to allow connections to the web based administration page and was, in general, a flakey bit of junk!

I nearly wore out the reset button on the router and NEVER even got to trying to install the G card on my laptop, but gave up in frustration and packed it all back up and returned it.

If you doubt my sanity, do a quick Google search on "MN-700 Wireless Station Problem" (the wireless router in this kit) and SEE what junk MS has foisted on the public. Seeing as how MS is dumping out of network hardware sales, it should give you a real clue as to their level of commitment to support this device.

Four thumbs DOWN. RUN AWAY!

Excelent option for home office WLAN.......2004-07-17

Im a CCNA and i am a fan of all that is networking, im always setting up workgroups at my house using wired networks for playing Age of Empires and Warcraft. It usually takes me 30 minutes to setup the network, sometimes even more. Since i get this wireless Kit, setting up the network is a first time 10 minutes...... Then... its just enter to the room and all ready to go. The router has a very good performance, i have very goog signal all over the house. Im very satisfaced with this product. The network performs great.
But this product is for a home or a home office network, por medium size business i don't recommend it. It`s better go with Linksys, it has a stronger signal but if you wanted to get wireless at your house, it is better this kit because it saves you money and has good performance. It is of easy installing and easy programing even if your are not a computer geek like me.
A friend of mine has a Netgear wireless card and when he comes home he has 0 trouble to connect to my network (obviosly i had disconected the security on my router)and has full signal.
I haven`t experienced any downside for the time been like some of the reviewers here. First time that Microsoft makes a product that fully satisfies me.

Work perfectly.......2004-07-14

We all have different configurations so some will have problems and others won't but this product worked perfectly for me the very first time and I've been using it for weeks now. The range is amazing. I can walk all over my house and my yard with maximum signal most of the time. I'm impressed and very happy. The price is also less than that of competitors 802.11g products.

Microsoft has made this Extraordinary product Obsolete.......2004-06-25

Microsoft will support Networking Hardware for another 2 years [countdown from summer 2004] and will not indulge in any recall of this [these] Wireless-G product(s). Nevertheless, Microsoft has decided to get out of networking hardware which is one reason why the price on this product is sinking.
I have tried almost every other competitive Wireless-B/G and Wired Network Base Station and PCMCIA Network Card products on the US market and absolutely nothing comes close to the elegance of setup, clarity of network management and simplicity of use. It is a thorough shame that Microsoft is exiting Networking Hardware.
If you buy this, you'd be very satisfied and just plunk the savings [$100 in some cases] in price-difference in a simple 2-year bank savings and you can easily afford to replace it in a few years with far faster technology, microsoft or not.
It is one of the few things from the entire Networking marketplace that could have hammered Apple Airport and its nifty music reciever, but alas... Bill Gates does not tolerate simplicity and well-working products just to maintain his "buggy-technology" image he has so well honed over the decades!

pay attention.......2004-06-15

Not paying attention to the type of network I had (I had assumed I had straight Ethernet,) getting this combination to work with a PPPoE pre-existing network is not a trivial task--as far as the amount of time and trial and error heuristic employed. When all else failed, only by scrapping all prior network related installations (router + network adapters + DSL modem) and rebuilding the stack from scratch got the whole thing working. Now, that everything is up and running on two different computers (802.11g and 802.11b,) the whole package behaves 90% as advertised/desired.

So, as suggestions for future buyers: open well your eyes as to what type of network you want this package to run onto. PPPoE can require some skill/luck and patience. When first installing the base, it's a good idea not to assume anything about the options you are presented with by the setup wizard. Click for help and understand what all the options on the screen can be about. Only then can you make your selection and hit next. As well, in an environment with different providers for the network adapters, be careful about the configuration of the non-Microsoft card. You need to know the name of the network, the encryption key, etc. Knowing (how) to use the web interface, once the base is installed, helps a lot. The IP numeric address is provided in the help section; you introduce it on a web browser and things will move from there.

Had the folks in Redmond done a more thorough testing of, at least, the major types of install in the U.S. and either documented properly or built the whole package not so sensible to, what I consider, slight variations of install steps/conditions, it would have deserved a 5 star rating. However, since this is not the case, Microsoft Wireless-G Notebook Kit barely gets a 4-star rating. Watch this space for an update in case anything deteriorates within the next 30 days.

Electronics:

Electronics

Electronics