The downside is for the price Dlink offers more for the money by including router/print server in the unit. But I didn't need a router, I needed reliable and fast wireless access.

Netgear support is awful, don't expect them to help you if you run into troubles.

My configuration:

Cisco Router for DSL, Linksys 4 port Router/Hub, ME102 AP, ME401 card. The Linksys router acts like DHCP server, so I set the AP to run DHCP. I also use VPN with no issues under this configuration.

As the number of people using wireless LAN is expected to rapidly increase, the security aspects of wireless networking become increasingly important. The Netgear ME102 is behind other competing products such as the Linksys WAP11 in this respect.

It is important to change the SSID (same as ESSID) from the factory default to something different to prevent access by neighboring snoops for all access points (no matter what brand you run). This value has to be the same on your network access card for it to work. Second, it's probably wise to use the WEP encryption to safeguard your data from potential snoops.

There are three deficiencies in this product that the WEP11 from Linksys does a bit better. 1) Linksys implemented 128-bit WEP. This is not available as of yet in Netgear's ME102. 2) The SNMP access is not password protected. This means that if a hacker or inquiring teenager gets into your system, he/she could potentially re-configure the system or allow wireless access to people you don't want on your system. 3) The ME102 does not limit access to known MAC addresses. The MAC address is a unique number like 00-30-AB-xx-xx-xx that is assigned to each network access card (MA401) or USB access (MA101) and other devices.

If you already own a Netgear ME102 and you are a bit of an experimenter, there is a solution for you. It turns out that the Linksys WEP11 and the Netgear ME102 are built using the same chipset. So it is possible to download the upgraded software from the Linksys site and get these advanced features. It's working for me. I'm running 128bit WEP, Authorized MAC, and a password protected access point. However, I'm not giving you any guarantee nor would the resulting configuration be covered by Netgear's 24x7 service.

I use an MA401 card in my laptop which runs XP.
I use an MA401 card with an MA301 adapter in an older PC which runs Win95 and has no USB port.
I use an MA101 USB network access device on a newer PC which runs WinME.

My coverage area with my access point is sufficient to cover my 1/4 acre lot with better than 60% Link Quality and 60% Signal Strength in most places, including in the basement, backyard and dining room on my laptop. My house is a three-story split wood frame house. The access point is mounted high in the middle of my home.

When combined with a good broadband service (I use Sprint Broadband), I am able to listen to continuous streams of music from launch.com while working and/or surfing and sharing the access with a four computers.

Except for a few of the things to perfect my installation, the ME102 is a great accesspoint and should work well for anyone wanting to install a network in their house. It certainly beats installing CAT5 wire into pre-existing walls.

NETGEAR: Get your act together and upgrade your security on this product. Also, site planning software can be useful to troubleshoot interference problems.

Konrad Roeder (...)

I didn't find the USB-based configuration to be ideal. To be sure, it worked well. But I don't like installing drivers and software on my PC that will be used only once or occasionally, and the rest of the time just adds more junk to the Windows registry and is yet another thing added to program groups. (I have issues with clutter.)

In any case, as others here have mentioned, documentation is sparse indeed. And frankly, if you don't know your TCP/IP network pretty well, and/or don't know the basics of wireless Ethernet concepts, you might well find yourself in over your head. The default configuration is far from one-size-fits-all, and the average home computer user will have trouble changing it -- especially with the somewhat non-intuitive interface to the config software.

All that said, once this baby is set-up and running, it's great. I get terrific range and excellent performance, even with a basement mounted access point.

My only caution: Beware of your 2.4 GHz cordless phones. This would be true of any 802.11b set-up, but some of these cordless phones will chew-up your data stream and spit it out in chunks on the carpet. Here, I have my choice between using the wireless Ethernet, or using a Panasonic 2.4 GHz phone... Any attempts to use both, and the phone wins. (The Panasonic is going in the trash very soon; a Uniden 2.4 GHz model cooperates fine.)

Once set up, the WAP performed impressively: its range through my house, across my backyard, through trees, and into an adjacent park was about 200 feet! Connections have been very stable (no unexplained drops) and very fast, with very little slowdown as compared to transfer speeds across my LAN. I have had no problems connecting to the Internet through my DSL modem and Linksys router, with everything working harmoniously.

To sum up: I would recommend this product to anyone wanting to create a wireless network, with the suggestion that he or she have at least basic knowledge in how to create such networks--there is no setup wizard to guide you through the process. If Netgear improved the documentation and software interface, and added Macintosh support, this product would earn 5 stars from me.

Initial setup: easy. Follow the setup poster that comes with it, no problem. It comes with a little Windows utility to let you configure it via USB. The utility is a bit picky in how you get the settings to stick. The trick: click 'Set' one more time with nothing selected to write the values after you've changed them all.

The next thing is to find a PC card that works. I have two: the Cisco 340, and a Lucent (Orinoco) WaveLAN Silver card. (I use the Cisco card on our 802.11 network at work.) The utilities that come with the Cisco card have a nifty feature that allows you to switch, in theory, between "work" mode and "home" mode. I say in theory, because I never actually got it to work (more on this later).

I then stuck in the WaveLAN card. Voila, I'm up! Using the default Windows (2k) driver & everything. Really fast too. I walk the perimeter of my property with my laptop, exposing my geekiness to all my new neighbors, with a ping to one of my other machines going constantly, and I only drop a packet or two as I walk. In other words, great coverage, much better than I actually expect.

A note about placement: my office is on the second floor of my house at the extreme south end, right over the driveway, so it's pretty close to one end of my lot (which is about 70x120 or thereabouts). Even at the extreme other end of my lot, the WaveLAN signal strength meter reads 3/5, which is still okay. It's 5/5 throughout the entire inside of my house.

Before I go too much further, I grab the latest drivers and firmware from orinocowireless.com. This gives me a link status meter and a configuration utility. (Note: do the driver first, then the firmware, at least for this card.)

The company I work for uses Nortel's EAC so I can get into the company LAN; I try it and it works properly.

Okay, now to put some actual security in place. The little client utility thingy that came with the new card driver lets me configure a WEP key, so I go do that. After experimenting, I find that I can set the keys to what I want, but I must use 'Open System' as the authentication method; 'Both' and 'Shared Key' don't work.

At this point, I'm pretty happy, since everything is more or less working the way I want. However, I go back to the Cisco card for one last fight to see if it's worth trying to get it going.

After major playing around, I make progress: in the 'Aironet Client Utility', the SSID must match the ESSID of the Netgear (which comes from the factory set as 'Wireless' for the Netgear and 'tsunami' for the Cisco). Set it to 'Wireless' on your laptop and as if by magic, it associates with the access point. However, it still does not connect, and at this point, I don't spend the time to pursue it any further. I suspect with a little more work, I could get this going...

I was able to do just about everything I was hoping with this device, and I'm glad since I shelled out the [price]. It's cheap, has great coverage, and works well both for just basic surfing around as well as access into my company's network. I've heard some bad things about the range on the comparable Linksys access point, so I was pleased that the Netgear covered my entire house (and property) with a good strong signal.