Microsoft MN-700 Wireless 802.11g Base Station Router

by Microsoft

Product Details

Data Sheet [888kb PDF]

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Product Manual [959kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000BZO58
• Item model number: R84-00001
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,671 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 6, 2003

Product Description

Upparralleled eas networking. The Microsoft Broadband Networking Wireless Base Station makes it easy to set up computers in your home or small office. Unique software installation wizard walks you easily through setup. Intelligent software automatically detects your Internet service and modem settings for easy base station configuration. Superior graphical Broadband Network Utility makes it easy to manage your network. Exclusive Microsoft automatic update keeps your software current. Best in class UPnP (universal plug and play) device enables you to easily play games and send voice and video over the Internet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worked great first time, every time, January 26, 2004

By 

HJR (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft MN-700 Wireless 802.11g Base Station Router (Personal Computers)

I am using this router and running 2 laptops and a desktop with it. Set-up was fairly easy (I did some manual configurations)and, since I am not using Microsoft wireless adapters, I had to manually configure the computers. I am running an 4 yr old IBM Thinkpad with a Netgear MA111 adapter and also a Dell 3800 laptop (about 2 or 3 yrs old) with the same adapter (802.11b). No problems at all once I configured the WEP security keys,etc. The desktop is an H-P running Windows 98SE, also no problems. When my daughter was here with her new Dell with a 802.11G card, she seemed to have even faster connections.

The farthest I have taken the laptops is out on my deck which is 2 or 3 walls and maybe 50 feet from the router. I have the router conncected to my Comcast cable modem and am surfing the net usually at 1.2-1.7 meg per sec. I would recommend this as a simple, effective way to set up wi-fi at home.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy and reliable, January 7, 2004

By 

stuartm "stuartm" (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Microsoft MN-700 Wireless 802.11g Base Station Router (Personal Computers)

First, a disclaimer - I am an ex-Microsoft employee (but not in this area). I bought this at retail after I had left, so my experience is as a normal customer.

I bought this to replace a Linksys wireless router that I had set up on an existing network as a wireless access point for my wife's laptop (which wasn't located in a spot convenient to our Ethernet connections).

The Linksys was very unreliable as an access point and I am not a networking expert. So I decided to try the MS solution (where I knew the focus was on ease of installation). Since I was upgrading anyway, I bumped up to G.

Installation went completely by the book (including an auto update after I installed the base software). Within 30 minutes, I had the hardware set up, the software installed, the new notebook adaptor in my wife's laptop and the connections made.

It has worked flawlessly for 6 weeks since then. I also have a Dell laptop with the Centrino B wireless adaptor built in and it connects easily and reliably as well.

I also like the vertical setup over the Linksys. It looks better and is more space efficient. And the status lights are visible from more angles.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at how easily this setup and how well it has worked. Recommended.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice wifi router/firewall, December 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Microsoft MN-700 Wireless 802.11g Base Station Router (Personal Computers)

I bought this router to replace an SMC router after my roomate left with it. I have Windows XP and a cable modem. Got it up and running in 5 minutes, but fine tuning the security features took an extra hour or so.

Pros:
- The Price, so cheap with all the good features, couldn't pass it up
- Nice install wizard, handled my cable modem really well
- Great security features: NAT, WEP, MAC filter, Port Filter, etc.
- Configuration tool has a nice user interface
- I like that it automatically patches it self.

Cons:
- The documentation that is included is not very good. Amazing how many pages they spend on stupid stuff (this is what you power cord looks like... Instead of This is how you can increase security in your wireless network set by step.)

Tips:
- Be careful turning on the MAC filtering, make sure you put your desktop MAC address in first, or you might get locked out :) found out the hard way.
- Make sure you block the ICMP Ping so hackers/crackers can't find you easily on the network
- Make sure that you select "share files and printers" in the wizards, because it is super difficult to find these settings to change your mind later. It probably isn't a good idea to "share my whole computer" though. Should someone actually break into your network...
- It is a pain in the butt to copy down that long WEP key, on all of your wireless laptops, but once you have done it, you can rest assured that you are pretty darn secure.

All in all, I have no regrets with losing the SMC wireless router.