| 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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Quickly recognized on network and consistant conneciton., November 22, 2002
By unknown
I am using this on a p233 running Windows 98 second edition. Windows 98 recognized the card immediately and after a bit of searching on the resource disk that came with it, the drivers installed correctly the first time I tried.It seems to work well with the MR314 wireless router, and current rebates from Netgear take [money] off the price now through February of 03! Quality and reliabiltity at a great price...
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Worked fine...for a while, November 17, 2002
By leslie53 (Raleigh, NC)
I agree - don't buy this if you are running XP!!! I bought this card in August and after hacking through the installation on my HP running XP I got it up and running. It claims to work on XP, but it isn't easy to get it to do so. I had to reinstall it again after my computer crashed (unrelated) and that install went pretty well too. However, I tried to access my university's on-campus network with an ethernet cable which I believe may have downloaded some new driver and I can't get it to work again. After 2 hours on the phone with NetGear I was promised a call within 4 hours from an "expert". Well, as you can probably guess it never came. Four weeks later I am breaking down and buying Microsoft's new venture into wireless adapters. I can see why people tell me I should buy a Mac. p.s. if you know anyone who wants this thing...
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Easy to install and reliable performance, November 17, 2002
By mdb177 (Boston, MA United States)
I purchased this card with teh Linksys 4port wireless router. I'm running latest version of Win XP and I have broadband internet. This card installed easily, connects easily and performs like a charm in every room of the house. This card perfoms better than I expected. I also purchased the D-Link 650+ 22Mpbs - this card paoles next to the Netgear card. I recommend this to anmyone looking for simple set up and reliable performance.
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Don't try it with Linksys router, November 16, 2002
By unknown
Be careful if you want to use it with Linksys router. Someone seemed to make it work. But I had no luck making it work on all my 3 PCs (Win 98, 2000 and XP) even after I spent more than 3 hours on the phones with customer support technicians. So I had to return it. The only plus side of my whole experience is that the customer support response is very quick. All of my calls were answered in 1-2 minutes while it took me more than 1 hour to reach Linksys support people.
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Works like a charm, November 13, 2002
By Andrew McNair (Fort Wayne, IN USA)
Plugged it into my Win XP Pro laptop, inserted the CD, and two minutes later, I'm connected. Nothing to it, no problems.
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Awesome if you DO NOT USE XP, November 9, 2002
By bbqwarlock (St. Joseph, MI USA)
This item is plug and play, strong signal, no problem IF YOU DO NOT USE WINDOWS XP. Could not connect to internet with this item until I dumped XP and went back to ME. From then on it was plug and play.
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Works great, November 5, 2002
By Craig White (Morristown, NJ USA)
I bought this card with the MR314 AP and a Linksys WCF11 Compactflash for my IPAQ PDA. The 401 was a breeze to install, I connected to the router with no problems, for about 5 minutes. It seemed that intermittently, every 10 minutes or so, the connection would just die and I would have to reset the Access point to reconnect. I went to bed and took the laptop and the card to work to connect to the Access point there and spent the whole day connected. It turns out if you buy a Netgear MR314, it's best to upgrade to the 2.59 firmware if you want to use it with Verizon DSL. Problem solved. Compared to the linksys WCF11 and now the MA701 Netgear CF card that I swapped that for this card seems to hold a conneciton better and consistently picks up a better signal. I did have a range issue for a while in my small apartment, until I mounted the access point on a table about a foot off the ground and it all seems good now. I'd recommend this card over they Linksys that I borrowed from a friend which seemed to have less range at my office. Overall for the [$$] I payed I think it was a good deal.
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Still dubious about both the product and XP., November 5, 2002
By Michael A. Nowak (Methuen, MA United States)
You'll notice a pattern to these reviews: they tend to be either 5 stars ("I have no IT background, and even I got it to work in 2 minutes!") or 1 star ("I have years of experience, and not even sacrificing a goat helped!"). I fall into the latter. Which is true? Both, probably. Yes, I fully believe that there are those out there who got this working with XP in under 2 minutes. But trust me when I say that, using the very latest drivers (downloaded from the Netgear site, Nov. 2002), and spending several hours on the phone with Netgear support, on more than one occasion, I have not gotten this thing to work properly. (I have tried exchanging the card in case it was hardware related.) Windows 98 had the problem of being very unhappy about having more than 4 TCP/IP devices (this card, internal ethernet card, internal modem X 3 [1 for the modem, 1 each for the modem with the MSN and AOL #'s pre-loaded, the latter two I had forgotten about], and yes, that is a known "issue" with Windows 98). So, that prompted me to get Windows 98 replaced with XP. Windows XP refused to read the driver off the CD, refused to read the driver from file, and basically had to be force fed the driver, which then didn't work. Deleting the driver to try over from scratch, XP now refuses to believe the card even exists, let alone needs a driver. After talking to many people with various wireless cards and various machines, I keep hearing the same story over and over again. Depending upon *what specific machine* you have running XP, and what card you use, things either tend to work immediately, or not at all, with it being a crap shoot as to which it is going to be. So, yes, with XP this card *might* work immediately. But it also might not, and Netgear technical support won't be very helpful in making it work for you. So, you'll either end up in the 5 star or 1 star category, and unless you have a friend with an *identical* set-up, good luck guessing which it will be. Best advice seems to be: go ahead and try it. If it works immediately, enjoy it. If not, return it and try again with another brand, and hope for better luck. Feb. 2003 Update: True to the above, I downloaded Driver Version 2.6 (Dec. 2003), and it *still* doesn't work, although another person I know (who's card hasn't worked for the past year) did just update the firmware and driver on his MA401, and it worked for him on XP. I gave my MA401 card to a friend with XP, and it worked immediately on his machine. Lest you think somehow it is me or my machine, I just tried a Linksys WMP11 (version 3, I hear
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Works perfectly ...!, November 4, 2002
By junkocrap (South East Asia)
I am using both the netgear MA401 card and the cisco aironet 350 series card as i'm running a few laptops at the same time. while the cisco card gives better utilities and looks a lot better, it is more than twice the price of the netgear. If you are gonna get a netgear or any other router for home or small office use, i would strongly recommend this card. Installation was fuss free and took just around 5mins to link with my netgear router.
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About this card, it's from the same manufactory as Linksys, November 3, 2002
By unknown
Well, this card and Linksys's 802.11b wireless PC card are the same. They all got poor reception and the card is even worst than Linksys. For University's wireless zone, it couldn't establish the connection and it even connects, it keeps disconnecting and reconnecting all the time... Same as Linksys, but Linksys got a little bit stablility and not quite stable... I would recommend to buy Oninoco's Silver/Gold card(Agree, a Division from Lucent) or Siemen SpeedStream Wireless Card. Because of Linksys and Netgear Wireless, they waste my time to return. I tried many times and brought them to University Computing Center to let technician help me out for setup. They said both cards are not good and they are all from the same manufactory.
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Pretty good wireless card., October 29, 2002
By ashmel (Mountain View, CA United States)
I use my card mainly in the office and it works pretty well there. It was very easy to setup. I use it with 128-bit encryption. I haven't setup a network @ home so I dont know how it would work there. If how it works in the office is any indication, then I am sure that it would do a great job. I dont have any problems with link quality/strength. Only time I have had a problem is when I was moving between floors. It lost connection for a while. Apart from that one incident, its worked like a charm.
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Much easier than expected to install...works very well, October 25, 2002
By terryflynn (New York, NY United States)
I just installed the MA401 card on my laptop running XP Home addition (and using the MR314 wireless router as my access point to my roadrunner cable modem service). I was a bit worried about the other posts I had read about problems with XP, but I had no trouble at all. I slapped the card in (which XP instantly recognized as a netgear card, which was a good sign), ran the CD and rebooted. At first the connection was unavailable, but then I went to the control panel and manually chose the wireless network connection and I have been live ever since (I am writing this wirelessly now...). I do have to say that some of the posts about signal range are right...it works fine a few rooms away, but the numbers netgear states are the range are a little optimistic...then again for about [money]for the card and router (after rebates) what can you expect.
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Does not work with XP, October 23, 2002
By unknown
Tried several hours to get it to work with windows XP. Customer support was no help. Even though the box stated that it is xp compatible...it's not.
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Works a Treat, October 23, 2002
By unknown
Just like the title says, stick the card in, load the software and it works just fine.
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Can't go wrong., October 23, 2002
By Frank Perkins (CT, USA)
I bought this card to go along with the Netgear ME 102 802.11b Wireless Access Point. Setup was a breeze with installing the driver for Windows 2000 that came on the enclosed cd. Range is excellent for me and I have no dead spots in my house. I'm very pleased with the product.
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Great Product, October 19, 2002
By unknown
I got this with a Netgear Access Point and they work wonderful together. I would recomend this for anybody and it's great for gifts.
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Worked for a while (3 weeks), October 18, 2002
By unknown
I was impressed for about three weeks until this card stopped working. Worked fine, now about every 10-15 minutes the little systray icon goes red and the message is that it can't communicate with the driver... strange. If I pop the PCMCIA card out and put it back in it will work for another 10-15 minutes. What a pain. Tech support at Netgear is useless. The driver update for XP didn't solve the problem. Could be a hardware problem or a defective card. I doubt I'll buy another one. You get what you pay for...
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It works great! Had problems at first. Wrong driver loaded., October 14, 2002
By mercurygrand (Oceanside, CA United States)
It works Great! Installed on my Sony Vaio laptop running ME.
Had a problem getting it to work at first.
Support tried hard to help me but could not figure out what was wrong. I decided to take out the driver then reinstall the ME driver. Work flawless after that. It works in the home, and great in the back yard. The front yard not great. (The problem was the 2000 driver loaded first, then the ME driver second.)
If the ME driver would have loaded up first? Seconds to get working.
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Work fine but not-so-far range, October 12, 2002
By unknown
I use it for my college wireless network. It works just fine without any trouble on my WinXP laptop. However, I can't use it somewhere Orinoco card could work. The advertised range is not reliable since the spot that I can't get it to work is definitely not far over the advertised indoor range.
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Card does not work, October 8, 2002
By unknown
I had a lot of trouble with my Netgear wireless card. The drivers did not install on two laptops and the configuration utility says it cannot communicate with the driver, even though the driver seems to be properly installed and working.So back goes the product to [store](if I can figure that out). The technical support was responsive but were not able to help out with the problem (hence the two stars)
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