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Review on Enhance Your Network Connectivity with the Microsoft Broadband Networking Wireless Base Station Router MN-500 by Grant Galloway

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Easy to set up! Incredible wireless reliability!

I had two desktops that needed to be connected directly to the base station with Ethernet cables, and a laptop with a wireless adapter. On my first desktop I put the CD in and installed the Microsoft Broadband software - the wizard was very easy to use and helped me set up the base station, set the necessary security settings (128-bit WEP) and even save the settings. to a floppy disk. I was online and just so connected from this desktop! On my second desktop I installed the broadband software and just configured the network adapter on that machine - the floppy made it easy to transfer the settings and I was able to connect here fairly easily. On a laptop, after installing the software, the wizard failed to configure my LAN-Express IEEE 802.11 PCI adapter; I had to open the floppy host's XML configuration file, copy the WEP key and paste it into the connection properties to access my wireless network. I assume this manual configuration is not required for most wireless adapters. With the base station at the top, reliability downstairs (about 30 feet through the walls) was questionable. Communication breaks off from time to time. Signal strength is only "Very Good" and not "Excellent" as in all rooms within 20 feet up. I plan to experiment with moving the base station up to determine the correct location.

Pros
  • Nice to use
Cons
  • Empty