Netgear MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card

Average customer rating: 4.0

A Really Great Product!!!!! A+ All The way!!!!!!
Good, economy wireless card.
Card not bad, but not the best
Excellent
Poor if you have a poor signal

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Netgear WLAN

Netgear MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card

Manufacturer: Netgear
Product Group: CE
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B000093IRS

Related Categories:

Accessories

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Network Cards

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Wireless 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

Wireless Network Adapters

Product Description

Go wherever you like and stay connected with NETGEAR's Wireless PC card. Once you've got one in your notebook computer, you can easily access the Internet from anywhere in your home or office, and from campuses, parks, airports, or public hotspots in bookstores and cafes. Whether you are in a conference room, waiting for a flight, or out on the quad on a warm day, you can be fully productive without being at your desk. Use this well-designed card to quickly network your employees without the time or expense of installing Ethernet cabling. It lets you experience data speeds of up to 11 Mbps, greater range with automatic speed adjustment, and greater safety with secure encryption - all for a moderate price. With NETGEAR, Everybody's connecting, and with the MA521, they can connect everywhere. If you have an 802.11b wireless router at home, you can access the Internet easily from your notebook PC at up to 11 Mbps. Share your broadband connection at home or gain total mobility in the office. Achieve superior range with distances of up to 300 feet with automatic rate fallback. Auto-adjustment transmit power provides longer battery life and reduces interference.Small-sized antenna prevents card from getting bent. Thorough testing ensures powerful throughput and dependable operability. The MA521 is configured to interoperate with other NETGEAR wireless products, and is compatible with any notebook PC having a processor speed greater than 400 MHz, with drivers available for Windows 98SE, Me, 2000 and XP.Secure 40/64 and 128-bit Wired Equivalency Protection (WEP) encryption provides secure data communication and increased shielding from wireless eavesdroppers.

Customer Reviews:

A Really Great Product!!!!! A+ All The way!!!!!!.......2006-09-25

I just purchased this card, and had it up and running in about 20 minutes! The package arrived in a Netgear box and was sealed from the factory. Instructions were clear, and easy to understand. However, the sales ad stated that it came with an installation cd with the drivers on it, but only came with instructions on how to download the drivers from thier website instead. I can understand this due to the fact that drivers are always being updated. No big deal, but it would have been nice to have been told that up front. As for functionality, this card rocks it hard! Don't waste your money on 802.11g, 802.11b has enough power to surf the web wirelessly without any problems at all. I have used both 11mps and 54mps, and don't notice any difference between the two. I have it installed on my IBM T22 Thinkpad, in conjunction with a Linksys Wireless 802.11b Router model BEFW11S4, and have 98% signal strength at over 100 feet away, and a signal that never drops! Even comming out of hibernation the signal is still up and running! People have said that the drivers are a pain, but I have not had a problem installing them on XP. Others complain that the drivers are not compatible with thier operating system, and take thier frustration out on the product, and give it a bad review.

Remember, just because a driver is not functioning properly, does not mean that the card is bad. As for install problems with Windows XP, it is usually the user who messes up the installation of the drivers, or downloads the wrong ones form Netgear! I did exactly what the instructions from Netgear told me to do, and had no problems!

Also, when purchasing any wireless card, you must take into account your wireless router! Alot of customers who have purchased this card, state that they have problems with dropped signals. Your wireless card will only work as good as your wireless router! If you have your router in a bad location, it will greatly effect the performance of your wireless card. If your walls are made of concrete, it will effect your range as well. I recommend not paying attention to customers who state that this card is crap, just because they have a poor or frequently dropped signal.I highly recommend this card!

In conclusion, this is a great wireless card that never drops signal at a great price! It arrived in a timely manner with no problems. I highly recommend this card!

Good, economy wireless card........2005-08-02

The card set up easily and works well. It's a lot better than the internal card most laptops now come with.

I bought the 11b to save money and it works well for the price.

Card not bad, but not the best.......2005-05-16

I bought this card for an old Toshiba laptop (Win98) that I got off of eBay, so I could access the DSL at home and school. I bought this card because 1)it was cheap and 2)it did not stick out of the laptop very far, which I hate about most PCMCIA wireless cards.

I wiped the hard drive and put XP Home SP2 on the laptop, and popped in this card. It asked for the drivers from the CD, and in less than five minutes I was connected and up and running on my wireless at home. So far so good, but I soon discovered that this card has a few odd quirks:

1) I ordered this card from a Zshops seller on Amazon.com, and I got a Comcast MA521, which is basically the same as the Netgear, uses Netgear drivers and utility etc. Same card, just rebranded.

2) When I am connected to my Linksys WAP11 at home, the signal is never full bars, and even sitting right next to the router, the signal varies from 2 to 4 bars for no apparent reason. However, when I connect to the Linksys WRT54G at school, the signal meter works just fine. Definately odd.

3) Once I am not in the same room as the router, this card will drop the connection and reconnect every few minutes. It is not a great problem because it usually reconnects in a second or two, but it means the "Connected to..." message keeps coming up. To get rid of these messages I let the Netgear utility program manage my wireless connections, but it still drops the connection for a second or two. Kinda annoying.

4) If I bring the laptop out of hibernation mode, the card does not connect properly the first time. I have to pull it out and push it back in to get a proper connection.

These 'quirks' occur only with my Linksys WAP11, so it appears that this card just does not get allong with my WAP11, which is rather annoying. It works fine with the newer WRT54G.

So basically, you get what you pay for. Don't expect excellent signal range, and it does start dropping the connection as the signal strenght gets low, which is annoying. It does its job though.

Excellent.......2005-04-24

I've had this card for almost 4 months. I use it on T-Mobile's WiFi service at Starbucks etc. It is excellent! I got it for $10.00. You can't beat that price. You'll never use the 11 mbps anyway; 802.11g etc. are overkill inless you work in an office.

Poor if you have a poor signal.......2005-04-21

My signal is not consistent and this card drops every 5-10 minutes. My old card was much more consistent - I upgraded to this one for speed but it has caused all kinds of problems for me (including the driver problem mentioned by others here).

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