I like the fact you have options from no encryption all the way up to 256 bit, and your choice of WEP or WPA.

One word of warning here, if you have any firewall software on (XP's, Norton, or freeware such as ZoneAlarm), you MUST disable them before installation. I, in fact, had some serious issues as I tried networking an additional PC and was unaware a firewall was enabled on the machine. As soon as I uninstalled it, I got it working in less than 5 minutes. The MN-700 has a built in firewall, so you don't really need anything else, but you can always add more.

The USB adaptor is a lot easier to handle than the PCI card. Just install the software, plug the device in and your off. Only question so far is signal strength appears to vary, but it might be interferance from my 2.4 GHz wireless phone.

Main concern is signal strength, but only time will tell. Overall, a very good tool for novice-intermediate network guru's. Don't be intimidated by trying to set this up. Microsoft's 24/7 technical assistance is also available and I highly recommend it if problems occur. They helped me out on some compatibility issues that occured (again, ended up being a conflict between the router and a hidden firewall program.)

If your helping somebody out, fully understand all the software on their machine prior to installation. Will save you hours.

Fairly painless setup in combination with the MN-710 wireless USB adaptor. Uses a reasonably easy to follow wizard, but I found myself scurrying back and forth between PC's to ensure that all settings were the same.

After connecting the Ethernet DSL router supplied by AOL, found out that AOL does not support Microsoft products, specifically their routers. Contacted MS tech support who walked me through the process of setting up a PPoE connection to AOL which is now accessed via Internet Explorer on either PC. Process is more awkward than using the sign-on screen (and I don't have access to my AOL Favorites), but works flawlessly.

Bottom line -- works well and the discounted price is right. With two remaining years of tech support, the product will probably last until the end of its design curve anyway.

I am now going to return it because it is just an awful router. Not only is the signal reception poor, but my connection on the wired port gets dropped all the time! Yes I have all the driver updates etc. Come on, WIRED port experiences this problem!

I read on CNET from people experiencing the same problems. What will happen is you will encounter periods (lasting from 3-10 minutes) where you just get no Internet connection. It is sooo annoying.

Let me tell you, if you play any type of online games.. dont even consider this router. Like me you will probably be doing well in your game.. then BAM! Out of no where you get disconnected and you die, have to reconnect, or whatever. If you dont care about having a continuous connection, I still wouldnt recommend this. Just go for another product from Linksys or something; you probably could get something for around the same price.

I will say that setting it up wasnt too difficult, although I dont like the fact that I have to install a bunch of MSFT software to make it work. Simple software interface, but unfortunately the thing doesnt work well so this time the nice GUI doesnt help!

I must say that the software that comes with this router does an excellent job of configuring TCP/IP parameters. All I had to do was to insert the CD, install the software and follow the instructions. AND THEY ACTUALLY WORKED! To hook up my laptop, I had to copy the encryption key to my network adapter settings and it worked immediately. Full credit to Microsoft for a great and affordable product!

I don't know much about networks, but the Microsoft software set-up makes it a snap. The software walks you through each step of the set-up process, and nothing is very difficult to do. Eg, you have to give a name (anything you want) to the base station, to the network itself, etc. You do need to pay careful attention to the instructions on the screen, because if you jump the gun and do something out-of-order, it may ruin the set-up process.

I did have one bump during the installation procedure. For some reason, when the software was trying to verify the settings that I had input and write them to the base station, it kept failing -- I think it was trying to access the Internet to do something, but I'm not sure. I did have restart the set-up process a few times, and finally, inexplicably, one of my attempts worked! I don't know what I did differently, if anything, during the set-up attempt that "took" but with a little persistence, it worked okay.

I didn't understand about WEP keys, but I chose 128-bit encryption to protect my network. The set-up doesn't make it plain that you need to write down the 26-character encryption key that it generates, because you'll need to input that same string of 26 characters into your laptop when it tries to authenticate for the first time. BTW, I have Windows XP Home Edition on my home computer and laptop.

Once I figured out that I had to transpose the 26-character WEP encryption key to my laptop, but laptop was able to connect to the Internet just fine!

I had a problem with file sharing and printing. I run Symantec's Norton Internet Security (NIS) 2004, and the personal firewall is turned on. In NIS, I had to run the Home Networking wizard so NIS would configure the firewall for my home network. Once that happened, I could print and share files on my network.

If you're running NIS (or another software firewall), you have to turn-off Windows XP firewall -- the setup procedures will give you this chance, so be sure to disable Windows XP firewall.

Also, you have to make sure to turn on file sharing on both the laptop and the desktop. Right click on a folder, choose Properties, then click the Sharing tab to enable folder sharing.

If you're a newbie like me, you CAN setup your own network without too much difficulty. Plan on making at least one phone call to a techie friend or to tech support to get over some hurdle you encounter.

Since I've installed everything, my network runs very smoothly and reliably. For less than $50, this router is an unbelievable deal.

Note: Microsoft is going out of the wireless router business, so don't plan on future hardware upgrades and probably minimal support for firmware updates. But if you get your network up and running, you won't likely be affected by this Microsoft business decision.

Because the included firewall is not configurable (with the exception of using Port Forwarding), I've had difficulties with the things I've needed to do. Microsoft Online Support works well for questions, and they were able to walk me thru what I had to do to get the webcam that we host working, but they couldn't get the Windows XP Pro Remote Desktop feature to come through their firewall. They said it might be because my router is faulty, so they are replacing it. I am not optimistic that this will fix my Remote Desktop issue. It's most likely a problem related to the unconfigurable firewall.

If I could just start over, I'd probably go with the LinkSys router and wireless adapter.

So I took it back and bought a NetGear Router. WOW NetGear know how to make stuff. It took 5 minutes to get it going and another 5 to setup my security and preferences. No software needed. I then plugged my Vonage VoIP box into the setup and it all worked perfectly.

Microsoft stick to making software leave hardware to the people who know how to do it.