Customer Reviews

Microsoft Broadband Networking Wireless Base Station Router MN-500

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I love gadgets and technology, but I am NOT a computer expert and wireless networking terms such as MAC numbers and Port Forwarding and DMZ are pretty foreign to me. I just wanted a wireless way to share my broadband internet connection between our home office desktop, my PDA (iPAQ 5455) and our kitchen/family room based laptop. The Microsoft MN 500 Wireless Base Station is the ticket to easy wireless networking. All you really need to read is the 4 page quick start guide and the device will be up and running. I read the very informative 100 page manual as well and learned a thing or two, but I really didn't need that informtion. The base station connected flawlessly -though I did reset my cable modem after connecting. That is not in the instructions but my ISP told me it would be a good idea. The base station has worked perfectly since and the signal is very strong throughout my house, upstairs and down- and in fact even in my driveway outside (so I was certain to leave the built-in encryption feature on to prevent drive-by theft of my signal.) My base station is tucked into a cubby hole in my computer desk next to the cable modem and has no problem sending its signal throughout the house. Those who have had problems with the signal probably just need to move the device. There is a lengthy discussion about placement of the base station in the manual (away from metal computer cases, for example). The MN-500 also comes with a hardware firewall. There is much debate as to whether software or hardware firewalls are best. I'm testing. The first two weeks I had my base station I disabled the hardware firewall and continued to use my Norton software based protection. Now, I've disabled that and am using the MN 500 alone. The ease of installation and the firewall and encryption features make this a great product for people who want to share the internet at home but don't want to learn the inner workings of wireless.

I've always sworn by Microsoft hardware ever since I had an MS optical mouse that died and they replaced it no questions asked, didn't even ask for the old one, just mailed me the latest and greatest version by express mail after I just read a code off the bottom of the mouse.

I have two computers running XP, a desktop and a laptop. Thought I would give Microsoft's wireless hardware a try after being downright confused by all the many different companies in the wireless hardware game. After being unable to get things up and running the first night I called technical support the next day. Had to wait about 30 minutes to get someone on the phone (in fairness I called at a peak time of the day) but the technical support person was extremely nice and VERY helpful. He spent about and hour with me walked me right through setting up the base station and then walked me through setting up the wireless card in my laptop and testing everything to make sure it was working OK which it was. I definitely would not have been able to do it on my own. He told me setting up the DSL PPPoE connection is sometimes a little tricky. After thinking it was a lost cause the night before he was able to walk me right through the entire process. He even help me set up my printers for sharing on network and testing it out and also gave me some tips on some things to look for if I ever did have a connection problem for some reason. I cannot say enough about how pleasant and knowledgable the support person was.

All in all, I'm very happy with the Microsoft Broadband Networking products and I am getting a good signal all over my 2 story home. Toll free support and warranty for two years gives me great confidence in this purchase(by then I'm sure it will outdated anyway as technology marches on).

Even though I could find no reviews I bought a MN 500 base station and a MN 520 laptop card anyway, reasoning that Microsoft would make wireless netwoking equiptment simple to install on XP. I initially had trouble with the installation, but with the aid of some really great techs,( included is 2 years free support on an 800 number!) discovered that I only needed to reset the cable modem (Best Data CMX110). After doing this the installation worked like a charm including the laptop card. I am now sharing the internet, files and a printer between a Dell Demension 4400 (XP Home) and a Dell Inspiron 8200(XP Pro.) The signal and speed is strong everwhere I use it in my 2500 Sq. Ft. 2 story home. A great value with all of the included features not normally found on other products.

I had two desktops that were to be connected to the base station directly through Ethernet cables and a laptop that had a wireless adapter. On my first desktop, I popped in the CD and installed the Microsoft Broadband software - the wizard was very easy to use and it helped me configure the base station, provide the necessary values for security (128-bit WEP) and even save the settings onto a floppy. I was online and connected from this desktop just like that!

On my second desktop, I installed the broadband software and configured just the network adapter on this machine - the floppy made it very simple to carry over the settings and I was connected quite easily over here.
On the laptop, after installing the software, the wizard was unable to configure my LAN-Express IEEE 802.11 PCI adapter; I had to open the host config XML file on the floppy, copy the WEP key and paste that into the connection properties to get into my wireless network. I'd expect that this sort of manual configuration would be unnecessary for most wireless adapters.
With the base station upstairs, the reliability downstairs (about 30 feet away through walls) has been iffy. The connection does seem to go away from time to time. Signal strength is only "Very good" and not "Excellent" as it is in all the rooms within 20 feet upstairs.

Planning on experimenting with moving the base station around upstairs to get the location right.

I recently upgraded my internet connection from a regular 56K modem to Verizon's DSL service, and wanted to share my new connection with my secondary computer in a bedroom. I looked at several different options including running wires through the attic, but the resounding choice was to go wireless.

I have had over 6+ years dealing with computer hardware and software, but networking I have never had real formal experience dealing with, so I was a bit ansy when it came to purchasing and setting up my first wireless network. The wireless hardware market is relatively consolidated between Linksys, Netgear, DLink, and to a smaller extent, Microsoft. I chose to go with MN-500 over the others because of my excellent previous experience with other Microsoft hardware.

I purchased it, got home, opened the box - was surprised that the router could stand up or lay flat on it's side - a great feature. Came with all necessary cables and great instructions. Hooking up cables and driver installation was a breeze on Win98. Then it came to setting up my wireless information: my SSID, base station password, channel, WEP key, and some other information. Having not worked with wireless before, it was very intuitive. Got everything correct, then went through the painful process of setting up my wireless USB adapters. Had to reboot the MN-500 once in order to get the USB adapters to recognize the network, but after doing so it worked perfectly.

The MN-500 configuration page shows what computers are hooked up to your network, and the management page has all the usual options: WEP, NAT Firewall, Mac and Client Filtering, LAN and WAN setup, and logging. Very easy to use.

In terms of performance - the MN-500 has been reviewed by many major sites and has been called the slowest in terms of performance of any wireless router. I don't transfer files often between computers so that is not much of an issue. The speed it does transfer files at is more than adequate. In terms of download speed over the internet, the speed is the same on the wireless computers as it is on the wired computer.

The base station itself - features 4 ports for wired access, and status indicator lights showing if the router is having problems, what port is using the network, and so forth. The MN-500 automatically assigns DHCP IP Addresses, so there's no need to manually do it unless you enjoy the challenge. Also, the MN-500 is XBox Live! and XBConnect compatible, so getting your XBox online is as simple as plugging it into the router.

My only gripes about the router: you cannot turn off auto broadcast. That might be a security concern to some, especially if you live in an apartment. (My router is next to a window so I'm kind of concerned) My other gripe: this might be wishful thinking, but you should not be able to lock yourself out of the router through mac filtering, which unfortunately, is possible with this router. (Easily avoided by doing a hard reset on the router)

Overall however, this router is great for the newbie wireless user or even the advanced. It's a great piece of hardware that's easy and simple to use and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Having been a previous owner of a Linksys ethernet DSL/Cable router, I had high standards. The linksys was flawless to setup.. very easy.. and worked with my PPoE account information at SBCYahoo.

But rather then go with the Linksys wireless, I had some gift cards and decided that change is fun when it comes to computer stuff.

I was correct. This MS product is sweet. It worked easily. I've had great reception. The base unit is downstairs and the USB adapter is upstairs. Excellent to Very Good signal strength.
Laptop PCcard works just as well.

I think the floppy based configuration information and the broadband networking CD for setting up additonal computers really makes this very easy for the average user.

I'd have to say that this wireless product is much easier then the competition. So far, this is a 5-star product.

I know there are many Microsoft bashers out there, but bottom line is their hardware products always work without a hitch. I have used Microsoft Keyboard and Mice with no problems ever.

I bought a Netgear WGT624 router which was a nightmare. Reboot issues remain ignored by Netgear, and their support is lacking. I read the reviews of the MN-500 router by Microsoft so I decided to give it a go. At the price you cannot go wrong.

I am a very proficient network type guro, and manage a modest size network at Stanford. I have always been hesitant using wireless because of the hit and miss connection issues. My laptop has a wireless network card so I decided to take the plunge at home. Dealing with the Netgear router made me want to give up, but using the Microsoft router, I must say I am very impressed.

At first glance and feel, its rather cheasy (showing my age). Setting the unit up was a breeze. You can set the router up without using the software, but I like the software so I used it. After a few clicks, it was up and running. Wireless too. No problems at all! It was really refreshing to use a wireless router without haveing to deal with hassle. Plugged it in, ran the software, surfed the web, end of story.

The software will notify you of an update, and I recommend you do. It adds an extra security feature - dissabling of SSID broadcast. So what do you get for about 40 bucks?

1. Wireless router
2. 4 port switch
3. Firewall
4. MAC address filtering
5. 64 or 128bit WEP
6. Disable of SSID broadcast
7. Very good wireless range - 20% greater than the WGT624 in B-mode.

and all of the other usual features like DHCP.

Sure its only 802.11b, but its tried and tested. If you are looking for a router, get this router!

I'd have given this 10 stars if it were 802.11g, but it doesn't really matter, since 802.11b is fast enough for broadband (and even T1 and T3!), and I don't transfer huge files between my PCs.

I'd tried Netgear, D-Link and Linksys and was sorely disappointed by the limited ranges on those AP/router units. Netgear was the worst. Finally I decided to give this a try. I was a little skeptical at first since I wasn't excited about a Microsoft product. "Plain and buggy," I thought. But, five minutes after installation, I finally got steady wi-fi signal all over my house, whereas before with the other AP/routers the signal would drop completely after less than 20 feet. It has worked well ever since. Very happy with it.

There's a twenty-dol rebate until June 30. But you'll have to dig for the rebate form on Microsoft's online store site.

I'm not a networking guy. I'm not capable of drawing you a network diagram of my "home LAN" and don't really care to be honest. A DMZ to me is a military term. I wanted 2 things only: I wanted a wireless LAN at home and I wanted some reasonable security in front of my PC. I'm not too concerned about hackers sitting outside my house with wireless NICs trying to establish a connection...my PC would be the last thing I would reach for if I encountered that situation.

Now, I have no real point of comparison (Linksys, Netgear, etc.), but I believe Microsoft hardware products are typically a higher quality than other brands (I'm a little biased since I used to work there). The ONLY problem I ran into setting up was my SBC DSL software had a firewall application that conflicted with the router. Once the software was disabled, I connected without a problem. I also bought the Microsoft wireless NIC for my laptop and so I can surf from anywhere in my house (1 level ~1,650 sqft.). The occasion that I had to call tech support at MS was a breeze. They are AWESOME! They had me up and running in no time (I called SBC half-a-dozen times and after 4 hours they were still clueless). A co-worker of mine just recently bought a Netgear setup and he had the same software/hardware conflict, so it's something to be aware of.

All in all:
This router performs beautifully and is all I could ask for.
The menu is easy and intuitive.
Tech Support is GREAT!
Price is competitive.
What else is there? I highly recommend.

This was my second attempt to attach a wireless router to our hardwired network at home. I am not a tech geek, but have worked on my own pc's since the days of IBM XT/dos. The last router I tried (linksys) was a headache to install. It took a weekend to get the settings right, etc.

This one is simple. Really, really simple. Which was a good thing since there was no phone number for tech support to be found anywhere in the documentation or on-line (my one complaint).

I put in the cd, followed the instructions from the booklet for adding on to an existing network - and it worked. I cannot emphasize how fast and easy the process was. The router's range spans our large 2 story home, with very few dead spots.

The installation booklet is very well written and actually explains what the acronyms mean. Don't know what the heck DHCP is? The booklet explains what it means, what it does, and why it might effect you. Then it explains how to change the settings, step by step. I paid $$$ last time for a separate book which didn't explain it nearly as well.

This is a terrific product.