Netgear MA401 802.11b Wireless PC Card

Average customer rating: 4.0

forget about the rebate amount
Worked better than internal 54g card
Great for OTHER operating systems and older laptops
Just stopped working
Easy, never fails

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Netgear MA401 802.11b Wireless PC Card

Manufacturer: Netgear
Product Group: CE
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B00005B8HO

Related Categories:

Wireless Networks

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Other Networks

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802.11b Standard

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802.11b Standard

Notebook Cards

802.11b Standard

Notebook Cards

Up to $50

Networking

Product Description

NETGEAR's MA401 802.11b Wireless PC Card gives you total freedom - it allows you to stay continuously connected to your Local Area Network without any wires. Roam freely throughout your office from one access point to another and continue to send and receive e-mail and use other network resources, such as files and printers, at 11 Mbps speed. Quickly and effortlessly network your employees, including those in remotely located offices in your building, minus the time and expense of Ethernet cabling. Standards-based 802.11b technology and 128-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption provide your network with the highest level of reliability and privacy. Designed for PCs running Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, and 2000, the MA401 performs with a wide range of wireless Internet services available in airports and hotels, and supports the vast majority of notebook PCs.

Amazon.com Product Description

Netgear's 802.11b wireless PC Card allows you to connect to your local area network without any wires. Whether you're setting up a new office or extending your existing workplace, it lets you quickly network your work force--including employees in remote locations in your building--without the time or expense of Ethernet cabling. With an operating range of 175 to 500 feet indoors and 835 to 1,650 feet outdoors, the MA401 enables roaming throughout your office from one access point to another to send and receive e-mail and share other network resources, such as files and printers, at a high-speed 11 Mbps data rate. Standards-based 802.11b technology and 128-bit wired equivalent privacy (WEP) encryption ensure maximum reliability and privacy for your network.

The MA401 performs with a wide range of wireless Internet services available in airports and hotels, and supports PCs running Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, and 2000 and most notebook PCs. Netgear provides a five-year limited warranty on the MA401 802.11b wireless PC Card.

Customer Reviews:

forget about the rebate amount.......2004-12-14

product works great. but i never recieved the rebate amount. Whatever product you will buy from Netgear, you will never get the rebate amount.

Worked better than internal 54g card.......2004-10-13

This card works great and I haven't had any problems with it in spite of abusing it. However, the price seems a little high. You can buy newer models and even 802.11g cards for less.

I have used this card on 2 laptops. I used it on a work laptop that I used for travel, and then gave it to my daughter for her laptop, which she abuses. There is even a dent in the metal case. I was worried because about a quarter of the card sticks out from the laptop (for the antenna).

It came right up on both my computers, and I don't think I even needed to use the installation disc (maybe I did, I can't remember, but if I did, it was so easy that I forgot about it). Both my laptops have Windows XP.

The signal is very good. It is much better than the factory installed card that came with a Compaq computer. It is about the same as the internal card I have on an IBM laptop.

Note that with a router and this card, I am not able to get a good connection everywhere in my house. I blame that on the router and not the card. There are only so many walls 802.11 technology can penetrate. To get wireless connection to a remote bedroom, I bought a Buffalo router and repeater kit. It works great, when it works (the router had to be sent back to be fixed.)

Note that I have researched wireless networking systems, and they don't seem to be very reliable, especially wireless routers. I had both a Netgear and Buffalo wireless routers where the radio portion went out. These cards are probably more reliable.

If all you need this for is the internet, 802.11b is sufficient, because DSL or cable modems are not any faster. If you want to send video data between computers then you should go with 802.11g.

Great for OTHER operating systems and older laptops.......2004-07-27

The Netgear MA401 802.11b Wireless PC Card is great for Windows 95, NT, Linux and Macintosh operating systems. The reason is that there are no other wireless cards that I know of that have DRIVERS for the wireless card to operate with the other operating systems. Newer Netgear products will not work.

The MA401 has a 16 bit PCMCIA interface is great for some older laptops that will not support a newer 32 bit cardbus interface.

This is in addition to the fact the MA401 is built well and has very good signal strenght.

Just stopped working.......2004-06-07

After using this with the MR814 router for over a year, my computer no longer recognizes this product as a wireless adapter. When it's plugged in, it's identified as the MA_(four box symbols), and won't recognize the drivers that are installed because of this bogus product name. The last time this happened, tech support, which was previously very helpful with set up (terrible, incomplete instructions included in the box), had me try to ping my router a few times and then said they couldn't help anymore. Since this problem has happened multiple times, I have fixed it by uninstalling the bogus name from the device manager list and then plugging the card back in, which usually worked. Once I had to do a system restore--I'd like to not resort to that again.

This may be a problem with the "hibernate" as in some previous reviews (my computer has hibernate issues anyway), but this latest problem occurred after a full shut down. When it works, I was pretty happy with it (wireless is amazing), but I've had regular enough headaches that I can't recommend it, at least not with my low-end Dell laptop.

Easy, never fails.......2004-01-27

I have 2 wireless cards, one being this one. It works better, never fails me, and gets better reception than my other one. It was easy to install. It, as does any wireless card, does stick out from the computer, but it's very sturdy and I've never had a problem during my daily travels with the computer.

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