Netgear MA 301 802.11b Wireless PCI Adapter

Average customer rating: 4.0

Easy to install, works fine.
Netgear MA301 is XP Compatible
This card works well
Incompatible with XP
easy to setup

Similar Items:

Netgear MA401 802.11b Wireless PC Card
Netgear WGR614 802.11g Wireless Router

Listmania:

Essentials for a Wireless Home Network

Netgear MA 301 802.11b Wireless PCI Adapter

Manufacturer: Netgear
Product Group: CE
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B00005B8HS

Related Categories:

Wireless Networks

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802.11b Standard

Desktop Cards

802.11b Standard

Desktop Cards

Amazon.com Product Description

Netgear's wireless PCI adapter enables you to easily network all of your employees with desktop PCs at 11 Mbps without installing any new wires. (The MA401 wireless PC Card is required and sold separately.) Whether you're setting up a new office or extending your existing workplace to remote sites in your building, your employees can immediately use your wireless network to access e-mail, file servers, and printers and to share cable/DSL Internet access. With an operating range of 175 to 500 feet indoors and 835 to 1,650 feet outdoors, the MA301/401 combination provides standards-based 802.11b technology and 128-bit wired equivalent privacy (WEP) encryption to ensure maximum reliability and privacy for your network.

Designed for desktop PCs running Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, or 2000, the MA301 wireless PCI adapter comes with a five-year limited warranty.

Product Description

Netgear MA301 wireless PCI adapter enables you to easily network all of your employees at 11 Mbps speed without installing any new wires. Set up a new wireless network or extend your existing workplace to remote sites in your building in no time, and escape the hassles and expense of Ethernet cabling solutions.You can use your wireless network to access e-mail, file servers, printers, and cable/DSL Internet access. Standards-based 802.11b technology plus 40-bit and 128-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption provide your wireless network with the highest level of reliability and security. Designed for PCs running Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, and 2000, the MA301 performs with the vast majority of desktop PCs and supports Plug and Play installation.

Customer Reviews:

Easy to install, works fine........2003-03-19

This product works great. The only complaint I have about it is there is no mention anywhere in the documentation on the correct way to insert the PC Card. The PC Card will go in both ways, and I had to experiment to see which way was the right way. Other than that, the card works great.

Netgear MA301 is XP Compatible.......2002-10-22

Ignore the Microsoft Warning upon installation that it is not compatible with XP. It is compatible with XP. I use it with XP and have no problems - once you get past the Microsoft XP installation warning. This apparently is a certification method recently installed by Microsoft in order to get additional control and income over the manufacturers. The Netgear website explains all this.

This card works well.......2002-06-03

I spent a lot of time reading the reviews about wireless access points, wireless routers and wireless network cards. I finally decided on the Linksys router and the Netgear MA 301/401 interface card. So, here's the deal. I have a PII-400 running Win98 that is connected to the router using Cat 5 cable, which is then connected to a cable modem. For those of you who don't know, Cat 5 cable is simply the standard ethernet cable. I then installed the MA 301/401 combo on another computer, a Packard Bell PII-233 running Win95. Unfortunately Win95 had an IRQ conflict with the PCI card (MA 301) that could not be resolved. I installed Win98 and the IRQ conflict disappeared.

After getting the Packard Bell system set up, the MA 301/401 would not link up with the Linksys router. I called Netgear tech support and discovered that the SSID on the card must be identical to the SSID on the router. I discovered that the Linksys SSID was "linksys" and the SSID on the card was "Linksys." When I changed the "L" to an "l", the card connected to the router immediately and I was in business.

The Packard Bell machine is on the 2nd floor of my townhouse and the Linksys router is in the basement. The signal, therefore, is passing thru 2 floors and 2 walls. The link quality and signal strength are consistently in the "good" category and sometimes they are "excellent." These are qualitative measures reported by the Netgear card's software.

As for performance, I downloaded a 19MB file off Microsoft's web site and it took less than 5 minutes via the wireless connection.

I have to admit that I was a bit apprehensive about buying the Linksys router. The reviews are mixed and some people have totally trashed it. I decided to give it a try, figuring that I would return it if it didn't work well. The same thing for the MA301/401 card; some loved it and some hated it. I was also concerned that having a router and card from different manufacturers would cause problems. It turns out that I didn't need to be concerned at all because both pieces are working perfectly.

Contrary to what others have said, my connection has not been lost and it takes only a few seconds to establish the wireless connection on startup. I have found that the documentation provided with both items was adequate. However, I wish each of them would have mentioned the importance of having the same SSID on the router and the card. I have not talked with Linksys tech support, but the two calls to Netgear went well.

Things to watch out for: 1)The Netgear MA 301, which is the PCI card that plugs into the desktop computer must be used with the Netgear MA 401 wireless PC card. This PC card will also fit in a laptop. 2) As I mentioned, the SSID must be the same on both pieces of hardware. 3)I have not activated the WEP encryption so I have no idea how it will affect performance.

The bottom line: I highly recommend the Linksys BEFW11S4 V.2 router and the Netgear MA 301/401 interface card.

Incompatible with XP.......2002-05-23

Be warned! You may think that wireless LAN is something pretty up to date and that you will be able to use a pretty standard PCI adapter with XP. You can't. The XP compatbility wizard managed to find this card and announce its incompatibility. And this is despite there being an XP drivers folder on the CD.

The version I've got doesn't even run under 2000.

AVOID

easy to setup.......2002-04-22

I loved the fact that this card installed without the PCMCIA card even present and worked perfectly when I put the PCMCIA card in. No messing around with installing drivers for this card, then for that card, etc.

So overall a slick install and a good piece of work.

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