Microsoft Home Networking Wireless Notebook Kit
by Microsoft
|
List Price: Our Price: $54.99 You Save: $54.96 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days Buy Used: from $29.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Microsoft Home Networking Wireless Notebook Kit
Customer Review: Microsoft Has Done It Again
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, MS does it again, they have taken a product and made it better by making it easier to use. They did it with DOS, they did it with a Windows OS, they did it with productivity tools, AND now they did it with WiFi products. All of the MS Wifi products are made by Intersil PRISM-based 802.11b product line. What MS has done with this product is made the setup wizard simple to use for those who are technically challenged and a full feature manual configuration application for those who know what to do with it. Ofcourse it comes with MS's quality customer support if needed.
I have setup many wireless networks using many different brands such as Compaq, Linksys, SMC and Netgear, and found the MN500 easy to configure a secure wireless network within minutes. It was even simple to add to an existing LAN. I found the documentation to be better than most others. Signal strength was very good between floors right from the start with no tweaking. Other brands took much longer to configure and tweak. Firmware upgrade was a snap and recommended. A great product for the price, I highly recommend it.
Customer Review: Base Station is flawed
Summary: 3 Stars
The notebook card in this kit works well, easily as nice as competitors products. The wireless router itself is another story. This unit while attractive and easy to install compared to competing Linksys products has some major flaws at the current time. Namely dozens of people in just the first week this has been onsale (look at their newsgroup) including myself have experienced a strange problem where every 6 hours or so the 802.11b signal stops cold and can only be restored by removing and restoring power to the base station. While the flaw isn't fatal, maybe annoying it is totally unacceptable to release units in this shape. Until a fix is in, and right now it appears Microsoft is trying to see if it is a hardware flaw or firmware fix that is needed I would hold off.UPDATE: About 2 months after I wrote this review, MS introduced a firmware update that fixed all my problems. At this point this is a good solid buy, but you might still want to go with a competitor because you have to wonder about buying from a company that would introduce such a product with so many flaws initially.
Customer Review: Very limitted
Summary: 3 Stars
I just received and set up this unit. First let me say setup was very easy and painless.The product works, I now have a notebook that operates wirelessly.
That is about the extent of my praise. One major drawback for me is the limitted distance. This isn't a complaint about this product so much as it is a complaint about wireless routers/base stations in general.
What makes it such a problem with this product is that as far as I can tell there is no way to increase the range. Products like the "Cantenna" won't attach to the basestation or PC card whereas most units such as Linksys do.
Also, the wired PC connected to the router now has apparent DNS issues. When visiting a web site I frequently get the old IE Cannot find server message. Refreshing 1-10 times fixes the problem, but it is now a persistent problem. I have disabled my software firewall so that isn't the problem.
If I was to do it again (and I may return the unit) I would go with Linksys simply because they are a dominant player, their products have good 3rd party support and they seem to work well.
Customer Review: Works Great!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I run 2 computers with this setup, one desktop running Windows 98se and a laptop running XP Home. Needless to say I had both running and on the network in less than an hour, including a call to Microsoft support. I have the desktop linked with an ethernet connection and the laptop wireless.First of all I ran through the setup of the Wireless Basestation and encountered a problem which led to a call to support. Got thru quickly (2 years 24/7 support included) and had my issue solved in minutes. Turned out that I had to just unplug power from the modem and basestation and re-apply the power to finish configuring the basestation. Voila! Everything worked great. I couldn't be happier with this setup and the wireless range works throughout a 1200 sq.ft. apartment with excellent signal strength throughout.
One thing to keep in mind is that their is a firmware upgrade to the basestation software that solves all the issues stated in earlier reviews regarding the wireless connection.
I am very happy with this product!!
Customer Review: Easy to setup!!! Excellent & Reliable product!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
After doing much research, I've decided to go with Microsoft Wireless notebook kit mainly because I am running XP both on my laptop and my PC and I didn't want to experience too much compatibility issues. I had experienced problem when setting up my base station with the PC (couldn't detect internet connection), a quick phone call to Miscrosoft's 24 HOURS support at 12 midnight fixed the problem. Turns out that all I had to do was to unplug power cord of my modem and the base station for 5 mins and VIOLA!! everything runs perfectly!!Setting up the adapter on my laptop only took me 5 mins. No configuration needed, hardware detects base station right away!!
I would recommend this product to everyone who's thinking about setting up wireless and wired lan!! Great product with reasonable price and best of all you get 2 years worth of 24 HOURS customer support from good old Gates! Can't complain with all this.
P.S. Yes!! You do need to download the patch from the support website.