Customer Reviews

MS-811X IEEE 802.11n (draft) - Wi-Fi Adapter

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am all about getting the good deal, and I have always had wireless n adapters that I have found for like 10 bucks or so. Most of them work great, and I have had no problems with them other than the fact that the router that I use is on the other side of the house and sometimes it doesn't have that great of a connection. I saw a review/preview of this adapter, and with the antenna and the range it was advertising, it seemed like it could fix the few but real problems that I had connecting wirelessly. So I decided to go against my deal prone mind for once and I paid full price for this thing (although hindsight says 35 bucks for this thing is a steal).

First off, I didn't have to install any software or drivers to get this thing to work it just worked after I plugged it in, however I did install the software and it doesn't have a problem running at all.

Second, the amount of wireless networks on my available list on the computer doubled at least.

Lastly, the connection to the router at the house is so much more solid, and faster than it was with any other adapter. Download speeds are amazing.

This is a great adapter if you don't want to have to worry about being connected, or losing signal, I would have paid alot more than 35 dollars for this thing knowing what I know now.

It is horrible and a waste of money. I have the same amount of wifi signal w/ and without it.

I got this WiFi adapter for my Mvix Ultio media server, but also use it on my old Power Mac G5 tower since I no longer can easily get a CAT-5 cable to the TV room. The adapter works great, was plug-and-play on the Mxix, and just required a driver download to get it working on the Mac.

I may get another of these so I can have both the Mvix and Mac on the network at the same time.

The good news:
1. It is a very good product which as is noted in another review detects and connects to surrounding networks.
2. I felt it was a fair price and it worked well.
3. My request for an RMA was processed quickly by Mvix(USA), Inc. and I paid to have it shipped back.

The bad news:
1. It just quit working altogether 6 months after I got it.
2. The unit was returned to Mvix(USA), Inc. and received by them on Feb. 14, 2011. Their website says that it takes 14 days to process an RMA so I was prepared for that. But I still wondered why in the world it would take so long to evaluate something so simple. After all, you just have to plug it in and see that it's dead. On March 1, I recieved email confirmation that "they were able to recreate the issues with your device and will be sending you a replacement shortly." And it wasn't until March 9 that I received another email telling me that it had shipped. It finally arrived back to me on March 11, just short of 4 weeks from the time they received it.

I bought this to try to access a wireless router from a guest house that's only about forty feet away but didn't show up with my Macbook Pro (2006) Airport card. It comes in a small package with a mini-DVD (completely useless to most Mac customers who have laptops that are all slot-loading) and pretty simple instructions. So of course, you have to be able to connect to the internet in the first place to download the Mvix software (actually Realtek WLAN) which hasn't been updated since 9/2009 and is the ancient user-unfriendly kind complete with 'profiles' you set up for each router.

Once installed, the software pops up automatically whenever you connect the unit, and it did allow me to 'see' a lot of routers in the area, but the connection was spotty at best and seemed to flake out a LOT. The signal strength would read about 75-80% and it would just DROP. Sometimes I could reconnect it manually using the 'connect' button in the software (so annoying!) but often it would be unplug-replug-reconnect-drop and repeat.

Overall a very dissapointing experience with what I had thought after some early reviews would be an excellent product. However I think that with some firmware/software updates this could still work -- that is a pretty big antenna.