Review on 💻 NETGEAR WG511NA Wireless G PC Card: Reliable High-Speed Internet Access by Nathan Jankowski

Background: I currently have a Netgear MR814v2 (802.11b) router and have had mixed results with my various laptops. My HP Workstation Laptop (Wireless a/b/g) and my Dell Latitude X1 (Wireless b/g). Yes, the smallest (amazing!), both connect to it perfectly. However, my HP Pavilion (wireless b) can connect wirelessly when it's in the same room or next door and the connection is still patchy. I decided the built-in WiFi wasn't great, so I bought a WG511 and also a NETGEAR WGR614 (802.11g) router to upgrade. I decided to try the WG511 card on the MR814 first. Setup: Initial results weren't great, but that was because my router was set to block SSID broadcasts. I had the card manually search for the router, but I had problems with detection (I'm not sure if the problem was on the router or card side). When I configured the router to broadcast the SSID everything worked fine and great. Total setup time was 3 seconds to break the plastic and open the box, 3 minutes to install the software and driver, 5 minutes to troubleshoot router/card detection issues, and 5 seconds to post to establish a connection. Range: I have a router. I'm sitting in the basement and still getting a signal to the second floor bedroom on the opposite side of the house. It's about 200 feet from the router, spanning 2 floors and about 4 walls. Also, I'm very impressed with the range this card has been able to extend for me. I had lights in every room of my house, as well as in the basement, in the garage, and on the sidewalk across the street! Remember that I also enabled WEP so that only certain wireless devices (MINE) can access the router. Speed: I've been able to support file transfers (PC to PC on my network) at speeds approaching 11 Mbps anywhere on the network. house, so I was pretty impressed. My cable broadband only downloads up to 6 Mbps (2 Mbps average most of the time) so this card is more than adequate for wireless web browsing. Conclusion: This card is compatible with the NETGEAR MR814 802.11b router. If it was easy and the connection (and speed) was fast, then I can't wait to set up and try out the NETGEAR WGR614 router with this kid! Note. For the average user, this card is a great purchase and works flawlessly with the NETGEAR MR814 router. Keep in mind that broadband ISPs only have 1.5-3.0 Mbps for DSL and 3.0-6.0 Mbps for cable broadband (these are top speeds, not average speeds), so moving to 802.11 b about g is no use. big difference. The two big advantages of g over b are 1) faster speeds IN YOUR NETWORK (transferring files from one computer to another or streaming music or videos from a computer to a TV/receiver) and 2) increased security (added SPI Firewall in addition to the NAT firewall available on most routers). Hope this review helps you.