| Netgear MA401 802.11b Wireless PC Card |
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Model: MA 401
Brand: Netgear
Manufacturer: Netgear
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 153
Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 4, Windows NT 5, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server, Windows
Form factor: Plug-in module
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: IEEE 802.11b
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| Features: |
Wireless connectivity for notebook PCs
High-speed 11 Mbps data rate
Operating range up to 500 feet indoors and 1,650 feet outdoors
Supports Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, and 2000
5-year limited warranty |
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| 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. |
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| User Reviews (153 total): |
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 of Total 8 Pages
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cheap and reliable, April 22, 2003
By dreschrode
This pc card has given me almost three months of strong wireless signal from a downstairs 'Network Everywhere' wireless router (made by Linksys) hardwired to a pc and cable broadband at the back of the house to a laptop pc upstairs, in a flat at the front of the house. When internet speeds have been slow, it seems to have been because of slow internet speeds on all the computers in the house rather than because of a slow wireless connection, so I'm convinced that this is a good product that works at the fastest internet speeds available from cable broadband. For file swapping within a network, a faster card may be more desirable, although 11Mps is still faster than broadband internet speeds currently available, so for internet access this card is superb. But make sure you pasword protect your wireless setup to prevent uninvited guests slowing you down and logging downloads in your name from nasty sites.
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Great card... works great, looks great, April 5, 2003
By T. Lee (La Habra, CA USA)
Installation was easy. Works great. Had no problems connecting to Linksys router. Had problems connecting to Netgear router, but I think it was due to a problem with the WEP on the router itself, not the card. I have absolutely no complaints about this PC card. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to connect a laptop wirelessly to their network.
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Disappointing so far, April 1, 2003
By James Gaston (Saratoga, CA United States)
Since I am fairly computer savvy, my inability to keep a WiFi connection on my laptop has been making me feel like an idiot. But since I started looking at the Linksys and Netgear reviews I'm comforted knowing that I am not the only one having problems with these products. But I wonder what is the solution?I have a Dell Inspiron running Win2k. I was using a Linksys card to talk to a desktop containing another Linksys card, which worked fine for awhile. But the Linksys in the laptop recently stopped connecting so I purchased the Netgear card. From the start the Netgear loses the network conection frequently, and even when it has a connection it won't allow me to copy a large file. Weird. The Linksys used to be able to handle this; in fact, I loved the Linksys while it was working. Great range, decent performance. Perhaps WiFi is still a little too bleeding edge?
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Works just great, March 29, 2003
By cyber_surfer (Forest Hill, Maryland)
Used with Netgear MR814 router. Provided a stable conection on the same level in the house as the computer. Also stable on the lower level and on the deck. Maintained 11 Mbps throughout the house. Picked up a neighbors router with no difficulty. Don't forget to implement all the security suggestions On the router. Change network name from Wireless, Password from the word "password" and enable WEP at 128. If they warranty for 5 years it will probably work as long as I will need it.
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Fast & Easty Installation - Works Great!, March 28, 2003
By unknown
I don't have cable or DSL service at home, but I wanted the wireless card so that I could use wireless networks at cafes in Boston. Installation took about 1 minute on my Windows 98 SE laptop, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I noticed I was connected to a wireless network. The wireless network I receive is approximately 250 feet away (almost the length of a football field) and I receive excellent reception and fast connection (about 6MBPS... I'm not sure, but I think that's pretty good for the distance I'm located from the wireless network I'm tapping into). The NetGear MA401 was economical, easy to install and gets excellent reception even from great distances. Wow! I wish I had done this a long time ago!
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Decent range for the price, March 26, 2003
By jmagsho (Marlborough, MA United States)
I purchased this card after first trying out the Linksys WPC11. This is the card I should have bought in the first place. Not only does it trump the Linksys in range (the Linksys card couldn't even keep a signal at 5 feet away), the setup on XP was a breeze too. Another thing that had bearing on my decision to buy this card was the 5 year warranty. Netgear is obviously a company that stands behind its products, unlike most of its competitors who only offer a 6 or 12 month warranty.
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Install easy, but problems with XP (hibernate & resume), March 25, 2003
By unknown
I bought this along with the MR814 access pt/4-port router. Both installed very easily -- one of the most plug-and-play experiences I've ever had. The MA401 also works well with the Linksys access pt at work.All isn't rosie though. I agree with another reviewer that this card doesn't seem to be 100% compatible with XP. When I hibernate XP with a wireless session active and then resume XP, the card can't seem to find the gateway to negotiate a new IP address even though it has a strong connection to the access pt. Tech Support was essentially useless after 4 tries. The first wanted me to update MA401's driver, which didn't work according to the instructions. The second wanted me to upgrade MR814's firmware. The third says that MA401 isn't supposed to work with XP hibernate. The forth (in level II) simply suggested that I exchange the card. Gee, thanks.
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Expect a stress free and easy setup with this card, March 24, 2003
By tanis_ml (Tampa, FL)
My wife wanted to be able to use her laptop from work, with our broadband connection at home. We chose to use a Linksys BEFW11S4 router because it was being recommended by ever computer expert we knew. The Linksys Wireless PC Card had been getting mixed reviews though, it generally seemed like an okay card, but setup seemed to be an issue with several people. So, following the advice from one of the reviews, I chose to go with the Netgear MA401 802.11b Wireless Card.The setup on a laptop running Windows 2000 was so easy I thought I must have missed a step. But everything is working perfectly and we're yet to encounter any problems. There are detailed instructions provided on how to install the card, with each screenshot you can expect to see during the process. When we installed the driver from the CD it also automatically downloaded the other software that was needed. Once that was done the laptop had a broadband connection. The range and quality of the signal that the card receives seems to be good. But seeing as this is our first wireless card setup, I have nothing else to compare it to. I would definitely recommend this card to any family and friends, just because it was so easy to install, and it does its job.
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Works good, but other products are better., March 19, 2003
By G. Pollard (Madison, AL United States)
This product does work well. When I got mine, the install software did not work on my computer. But, a newer version is out now that works fine. I have used other brands of this kind of card and they got much better reception than this card. I'm a big fan of Netgear products, but this is something I wish I had bought from another company.
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Not XP fully compatible, March 4, 2003
By unknown
I first bought the product few weeks ago and has exchanged the card twice already.
This product is not really compliant with Windows XP even though it said so.After installing, it'll run a week or so, and then start having problems and finally doesn't work at all.
Calling the customer service won't help at all.
They only follow procedures as what's written in the installation guide...no more than that. When I told one of the tech. service that this is the second time I have the problem (with the same type of card), he blamed the computer and operating system.
I didn't think that the computer and OS is the problem...and after reading several reviews, I really believe that this card is just not completely compatible with XP.
One more thing, after suggesting the same procedure several times the tech. support asked me to exchange the card...but exchanging several times in a short period of time, I don't think a good idea for me and for the store.
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Great Card, Easy to Use, February 26, 2003
By rmoorez (Las Vegas, NV USA)
First, I am not a computer guru, but can follow instructions fairly well, but was hesitant in trying to set up a wireless network. I purchased D-Link wireless system and could never to get it to work with my cable modem, even after many calls to D-Link. I returned it and got the Linksys wireless port and card. The wireless card worked fair in my laptop, but was poor or did not work in my daughters sub-laptop. I purchased the Netgear card for her computer. The card almost installed itself, worked great with the Linksys access wireless port. When we are sitting side-by-side, the Linksys signal is low to good and the Netgear signal is very good to excellent. I highly recommend this card over the D-Link(I never got to work) and the Linksys(which I am using), both for ease of use and signal. I like the Netgear so much I am now shopping for one for my other desktop.
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Good for Linux, February 23, 2003
By brother kugel (Austin, TX United States)
The orinoco_cs driver supports this card. One advice that worked for me: When you see error messages like "writing Tx descriptor to BAP" on the log, go to the orinoco driver home page http://ozlabs.org/people/dgibson and download the latest version.
For Windows, I had no trouble at all connecting this card to a DLink 614 router - it worked much better than DLink's own dwl650.
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works great with linksys wireless router (802.11b), February 14, 2003
By Achi, Lottan (Or Yehuda Israel)
Installed on IBM T21 running win2k pro.
The installation took less than 5 minutes.
Installed the software from the cd. Plugged the card, the installation continues and that's it.After seeing that it works, i configured WEP and changed the SSID on the card + router. I've also baught the WUSB11 from linksys for another computer at home. I've connected it to the laptop to compare to the netgear card. the range and singal quality of the usb adapter is much much better than the pcmcia card ! and now that linksys has the WUSB12 compact USB adapter, you might consider that one instead of the pcmcia card.
All in All a good card that works just right of of the box.
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Good Wireless Card, February 11, 2003
By unknown
I installed this on my kids Toshiba Satellite laptop, and even though it (the laptop) runs XP, I had no trouble connecting to my router (Netgear MR-814). The signal strength is not as good as the MA-101 (also easy to install), which is in the next bedroom, on an I-Paq running 98SE, but it has not disconnected or caused any problems that other reviewers have had. I think the signal strength to the router might be better if I re-located it (the router) away from the entertainment center downstairs, but other than that, it installed the first time, and has performed without any problems.
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Pretty Good, February 11, 2003
By unknown
A well designed card. It seems to have better signal strength than linksys' wireless card when used two rooms away from the WPC11 linksys base station. But, still not as good as orinco's wireless cards, since it doesn't have a plug for an extrenal antenna and since the drivers on the CD package didn't work (had to download from netgear's website)
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Recommended for windows 95., February 8, 2003
By Stephen Schwarz (Ramsey, NJ USA)
Used it on a laptop and with an MA301 adaptor on a desktop, both running windows 95. Connected to network with less effort than expected. Ease of connection warrants a 5 star rating for windows 95. Strength of network connection is good to fair. I have a netgear pci adaptor for a windows 98 desktop located a few feet away that maintains an excellent connection, after I adjusted the antennae. I rated the MA401 a 4 because of the less than excellent connection quality. I recommend it if you are running windows 95 for lack of workable alternative.
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Doesn't work with NT4 as advertized. Poor customer support., February 7, 2003
By Dan (Richmond, CA United States)
I decided on this card ss it was one of the few cards which claimed to work with NT4 and it had so many positive reviews.The driver installed easily but the card was unable to make a connection with my access point. I know it can xmit and recv since changing the AP's channel instantly changed the MA401's channel automatically. After 3 hours on tech support they finally figured out that there was a more recent driver available. My driver version should have been the first fact they asked for. I attempted to install the upgrade, but the installer crashed repeatedly. Tech support was easy to reach, but the personnel spoke English very poorly and simply followed steps on an expert system without any thought. I do not recommend this product if you are using NT4.
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Very, very easy to use, February 7, 2003
By dlustig66 (Fort Collins, CO United States)
I had read the reviews of how well this worked with the Linksys router and chose it. I had it installed in less than 2 minutes, while I ate lunch! The paperwork said I might need the Windows CD, which is at the main office, but I didn't. I haven't tried it outside yet, but it works great in the house. All applications should be this easy to use.
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No Xray Vision, February 2, 2003
By unknown
I purchased the Netgear card last month and had trouble initially getting it to work with my Linksys Wireless Access Point. But it turned out that I was having more difficulty with getting the access point to work. I tried using the install CD, but finally resorted to just plugging it in and letting it rip. That worked. I have found some "dead spots" in my house - it is a colonial but I have not had trouble connecting when one floor away. The connection degrades when 2 floors away. Additionally, when on the same floor but three walls away, I lose the connection.
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Toshiba & Windows XP - ideal choice !, February 2, 2003
By R. Ravisankar (NJ)
I use Windows XP on a toshiba laptop and Linksys adaptor was an absolute disaster. My laptop locked up and all i could do was
keep reinstalling drivers(found on the web) with very little change. The linksys adaptor was not certified to be windows XP compliant like that of netgear. 1 thing negative about this adaptor was insufficient information on trouble shooting in the manual. But the free tech support was fantastic, good enough to overlook that.
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