| Netgear WGB511 802.11g Wireless Networking Kit |
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Model: WGB511NA
Brand: Netgear
Manufacturer: Netgear
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 63
Platforms: Windows
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Kit includes both wireless router and wireless PC card for laptops
Wireless router provides basic wireless networking and up to four wired connections
Touchless WiFi Security makes securing your wireless network easy
Delivers wireless reach to your desktop anywhere in your home
Wireless laptop card provides mobile access to wireless router, office network or public hotspots |
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| Description: |
| Netgear WGB511 802.11g Wireless Kit - This wireless kit gives you everything you need to get your notebook computer up and running on an 802.11g wireless network. It includes an 802.11g router that has 4 Ethernet ports for regular wired connections, as well as a built-in firewall for online protection. The included 802.11g PC card gives your notebook the ability to access the network for wireless file transfers, printer usage or Internet access. 128-bit WEP Encryption MAC address authentication |
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| User Reviews (63 total): |
Page 1 2 3 of Total 3 Pages
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Not worth the hassle... [edit], August 17, 2005
By John Wilcox (N. VA)
Well, I am making an edit to my original review. I may have been a little hasty in giving this router a 1-star rating, though I am unable to change the rating.
I'll start by explaining my experience with this router. I bought the router to replace an older Netgear 802.11b wireless router that had worked very well for me. When I got this router, I ran through the setup procedures, but was unable to connect to the internet. I went back through the setup procedures a few times, did some troubleshooting, and was still unable to connect to the internet (using my LAN cable plugged directly into the router). OK, so I got a little frustrated, and not feeling like playing with the router any longer, I returned it and wrote a negative review.
I then purchased a D-link router, since I still wanted a newer 802.11g router. Well, go figure, I had the same experience with the D-link router. By this point, I was confused as to why all these new routers I had bought would not connect me to the internet, yet I could plug my old router back in and immediately get online. It had me scratching my head for a bit, until finally I tried something that I suspect would have worked with the Netgear router also. I plugged my old router in and wrote down it's MAC address (for those who are unfamiliar with this, it can be located using the web-based configuration utility). I then plugged in my new router and gave it the same MAC address as the old router, and what do you know, it worked. I now had internet access! Believe me, I was very relieved to have that problem solved.
I don't know all the technical details as to why giving the new router the same MAC address as the old router worked (I have some theories, but I don't want to turn this review into a technical discussion). So, if others out there are having trouble connecting to the internet after making a router swap, I would recommend giving this a try before you return the router or throw it out the window or something else rash like that.
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Great router for the money., August 9, 2005
By -ZERO- (Crofton, MD USA)
I've been using the router for a few weeks now with no issues. The setup is very simple. I was up and running very quickly. Configuring the settings could be a little simpler but all in all, it's a good product.
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Fantastic product for personal use, July 27, 2005
By Desi Guy (Chicago, IL USA)
I have been using this product for almost like 2 months and have not faced any problem till now. It works perfect for my 2 room apartment and I am a heavy user and see lot of online movies/music. If you are looking for a wireless router for your personal use then dont think again and GO FOR IT!!.
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Great package!, July 20, 2005
By sea food lovin otter (San Francisco, Ca USA)
I was emailing and surfing the web in less than 30 min after opening up the box. Super easy setup! Better range then my B-router, which is the main reason I'm upgrading to this g-router. Speed wise, I'm not seeing a difference. My dsl line only runs at T1 rate. Both my b and g router have bandwidth much higher then that. It makes sence that I'm not seeing a difference. I high recommend this package for anyone trying to setup a home network in the house. Can't beat the price, performance, and easy setup!
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I"m alway resetting!, July 4, 2005
By Susan (Pennsylvania)
I've had my wireless router for a year. I bought this because my college-age kids had wireless connections in the dorm and I thought they might want to use there laptops anywhere in the house when they come home on vaction. That was a good plan and they are able to use it in any room. My problem is that every time the electricity and the cable internet go out, my router has to be reset. You have to do it in exactly the right order or you have to start the process all over again. I finally wrote the order down on an index card so that I wouldn't keep having to get the orginal box up from the basement. I have honed my techique and can reset the router in less then 10 minutes. It is still annoying and I'm dreading the summer thunderstorm season.
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The Best Wireless router for the money, June 14, 2005
By Misterfixit (Mayer, AZ.)
This was the easiest hook-up ever. I have Windows XP with service pack2 and 2 wired PC's and Dell 5100 Laptop. I have tried wireless before with Linksys. Over $300 for the kit but could not get a working signal. I had to return and buy a wired router. In less than 30 min. All systems were up and running. Took laptop around house and outside to work sheds and had no problem with signal and connecting to internet. Signal will get weaker the farther you move away from router. 75 feet out still has good signal. I would recommend this Netgear to anyone. I read all other reviews and hope I do not have to call for help later. I do not like to talk to India either.
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Does not work on all computers, poor tech support, May 28, 2005
By csr242 (St Louis)
I bought this product a year ago. Initially I used it for about a month on my office laptop and it functioned ok. I did not use it for few months and then tried to use on my home computer. I could not load it's software and it had some problems with Windows XP. I called the tech support, they asked if I have registered the product. I replied in negative and they suggested to register first which I did and called them back. Then they said that they will only provide tech support for 6 months from the date of purchase and that I have to pay $40 again for tech support. I said I will purchase new one from another company rather then paying again.
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Easy Setup But Limited Reliability, April 11, 2005
By H. Shapiro (Los Angeles, CA)
I received the Netgear router last month and configured it quickly with WEP and locked down by MAC address (its best secure mode). When I was simply browsing the Internet it worked fine, but when I VPN'd to my office to synchronize mail it was unworkable.
Theoretically this unit should just pass packets from PC card to router and make no difference where they are going, but since I know the Linksys has no issues I am returing it for that one.
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Great Wireless Network, April 4, 2005
By GB from Washington DC
This system works perfectly. It took only a few minutes to set up. Speed is blazing and reliability is 100%.
Just be careful when you set it up, to avoid a conflict, that you disable your software firewall such as zone labs. The instructions don't tell you to do this, but because the router is also a hardware firewall, you don't need an additional firewall set up on the computer.
Buy this it's perfect and you'll be very pleased.
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Excellent product, and easy to setup, April 3, 2005
By Bateco (New York / New Jersey)
I had this product set up in about two minutes. Easy to use, and both desktops and both my laptops worked on the network.
Of course, I've only had it set up for about two hours, so I can't comment on its long-term reliability.
Great product so far!
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dynajim, March 25, 2005
By dynajim (US)
I Too Bought Netgear Wireless Products. There's a Conflict Between the XP Software & the Included CD. But You'll Be Lucky to Hear That from Netgear!! When You Encounter the Problem of Connecting(You'll See That You Have a Strong Signal) and Call Tech Support, 1st You'll Be Routed to INDIA (of Course!)! Then , If You Can Understand Them, They Ask if You've Registered Your Product? HELLO!! If I Could Get on Line With it I'd Gladly Register! When You Tell , Try to Tell Them That You Can't Get on, They Tell You to Call Back When You Do!! DON'T BUY THERE PRODUCTS!! I Ended Up Buying a Linsys Card & Router.
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Very bad customer service, March 2, 2005
By M. Banerjee
If you are not a computer whiz, think twice before buying from Netgear. Customer Service in my experience is very bad -- both the system and the people at the end of the phone.
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my netgear loyalty is waning.., February 6, 2005
By tivonator
I've always used netgear, and I've never had any manjor problems with it (just some vendor interoperability issues), so I got his as an upgrade to my netgear 802.11b router [...]
Plugged it in, and the setup wizard failed, could not get it to connect. Called netgear support for assistance, and after an hour of trying random stuff, they tell me my cable modem is not caompatible with their router (what??!!). They tell me to put a hub in between the two and it'll work. Luckily I have a hub lying around, so I try it and it works. Very unnecessary though.
I'm online now and the included laptop NIC works fine without problems, but my roommate cannot connect to the router. He has a different vendor card (airlink I think), and it can connect to other couters, but not mine. So he has to go out and buy a netgear card, which works. I also try my Linksys game ethernet bridge which I get setup correctly, but it constantly needs to be reset after transferring < 1 gig of traffic. Some of these issues might be the devices and not the router, but I doubt it. Why do we have such vendor interoperability issues with this router?
As an aside, I got this to get my tivo to run at 802.11g speeds, but I recently discover that I could have accomplished this better instead with two linksys WGR54g routers and new firmware from sveasoft that allows them to operate in bridge mode.
In conclusion:
Rough setup and vendor interoperability issues similar to the ones I've had with previous netgear devices make me think that I'm going to go linksys from now on.
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Not bad at all, January 26, 2005
By snguyen77 (Texas)
i have had this netgear router and the laptop card for over a year now. over all it's been doing good so far. i had to reset it about 4 times in the past year but besides that it's a good solid product.
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Excellent Product, December 30, 2004
By Rachel E. Gray-Castro (San Antonio, TX)
I was hesitant to purchase this product after reading several reviews; however, after being burned by D-Link and Linksys in the past, I decided that Netgear deserved as much of a chance. I must say that I will be purchasing wireless products from Netgear exclusively for the forseeable future. I had absolutely no problems whatsoever setting this up. I followed the ludicrously simple directions and had my home wirelessly ready in under twenty minutes start-to-finish. Getting WEP security activated took another three minutes. I have experienced absolutely no signal lossage in the several days I have used this product. Highly recommended to anyone who would like an easy wireless experience. As a nice bonus, it also looks great.
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Terrible, December 3, 2004
By steve_oakland (Oakland, CA)
The wireless router was dead on arrival and the wireless card broke 2 months later. Don't buy this product!
I replaced it with and Apple Aiport Extreme base station (it works on PC's too!)
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easy setup, works fast & well, but one problem, November 28, 2004
By nick g (brooklyn, ny)
just bought this router/pc card combo yesterday during a black friday special for super cheap after rebate. i've been meaning to get one for a long time, but my thinkpad has built in a/b and i didn't want to spend a lot of moolah to replace the built in with a card sticking out of the side of my laptop. most uncool.
but for that price i couldn't not buy one.
brought it home, unplugged my old netgear mr814 and plugged this one in exactly the same way. connected, went through the easy configuration, and voila, working perfectly.
or so i thought.
my vonage internet phone service box is a motorola vt100. i originally had it hooked up after the router, as a connected device. this configuration did not work at all with the new netgear router in this package. the motorola vt100 voice terminal could not receive an ip address via dhcp to this router, and did not appear as a connected device. other various problems persisted with the whole setup, resulting in many full hardware resets, unplugging cable modems, devices, etc, and a few hours (at least 3) spent messing around with the whole setup.
problem solved when i hooked up the vt100 vonage internet phone in front of the router and had it pass through to the router. but this isn't the configuration i wanted. works though, and i'm gonna live with it unless some upgrade comes out to fix it.
thats why the 4 stars instead of 5. everthing else is perfect. no problems with the pcmcia card at all (the new downloadable beta version of the windows xp driver works perfectly, i didn't even bother with the one on the cdrom.)
good luck! - n
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Bad Experience, November 15, 2004
By mardi gras (USA)
I bought this at a time when I had a little extra money, but I knew I wouldn't be using it for about 2.5 months. Well needless to say, when I tried to install it at the 2.5 month mark, I had trouble. I used to be a total fan of Netgear products, but I will never EVER use them again. I called their help desk and they tried to help me. I went out of town and when I came back the same problem arose. When I tried to get help from Netgear again, a person on the other side of the world told me that I would have to pay $35 odd dollars for premium service because my 90 day free help had expired. I had the case # and advised them that this issue started before it expired and they said it didn't matter. I would have to pay for their help. Well I didn't pay. Got a D-link router and have had no trouble with it at all. There service is stellar, even after 90 days. Boo hiss to Netgear customer service.
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Code 10 Error, November 15, 2004
By Talkative
CODE 10 ERROR folks, ***** READ THIS ******
They finally fixed it. Details about the fix are on their product support page. I did all that and used their new (beta) 2.9 drivers finally fixed the code 10 problem on my Thinkpad and gave me WPA.
Updated Review:
Their tech support is super dumb. If you have a real technical issue, don't call them, they won't know how to help. The hardware itself is quite good, the signal strength is very good.
Basically, if you manage to get it to work, you'll be happy. Getting there is mostly your luck! (Though to be fair, after almost 6 months later, their drivers seem to be better now)
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Poor quality, dead after 4 months, October 19, 2004
By bizebit
From the time I plugged it into my cable modem, the router would crash hourly until I was able to upgrade the firmware. After that, the router would crash and lockup my modem once a day. This is the worst quality piece of networking gear I have ever purchased. Netgear offers a short 90 day warranty because they know their product won't last longer than that. My router died after 4 months of use. (...) it is not worth wasting your time or money on. I should have paid attention to the other reviewers. I am so disappointed and frustrated with Netgear. It's probably only a matter of time before those with positive reviews have to revise it to zero stars when their router prematurely dies.
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