NETGEAR WG311 Wireless-G PCI Adapter

by Netgear

Product Details

Product Manual [2.00mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 2 inches ; 3.5 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00009YW8B
• Item model number: WG311
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 28, 2004

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The NETGEAR WG311 Wireless-G PCI Adapter offers: 802.11g wireless networking capability. Backwards compatibility with 802.11b wireless networks. A built-in stub antenna for better reception.

The NETGEAR WG311 Wireless-G PCI Adapter makes it easy for you to provide wireless internet access to your desktop computer, letting you surf the web, check email, and chat online without the need for cables.

The built-in antenna provides excellent reception. View larger.

Easy Setup
The WG311 is a PCI adapter and requires a Pentium 3 class PC with an available PCI 2.2 slot for installation. It supports Windows Vista and is also compatible with Windows XP, 2000, 98SE, and Me. Setup is as simple as inserting the adapter into a PCI slot and installing the included software. A built-in stub antenna helps you receive as strong a signal as possible for the fastest possible speeds.

Fast and Secure
The NETGEAR WG311 supports the 802.11g protocol standard for speeds up to 54 Mbps and a longer range than previous-generation 802.11b adapters. With a good connection, you'll notice the difference right away as you'll be able to stream high-quality music without any hiccups and load videos much faster. Downloading files is up to five times faster than it was with 802.11b. Since 802.11g is also interoperable with 802.11b, you don't have to worry about whether or not you'll get a connection elsewhere if you move your computer around; the WG311 will automatically detect the network and allow you to connect to it at the highest speed possible.

The adapter supports 40/64-bit and 128-bit WEP encryption for security so you don't have to worry about anyone eavesdropping on your emails or stealing your passwords. The included software makes managing different WEP passwords a breeze as you can set up different profiles for each wireless network you connect to, saving yourself the trouble of having to type in encryption keys each time.

The NETGEAR WG311 Wireless-G PCI Adapter is backed by a 1-year warranty.

What's in the Box
WG311 Wireless-G PCI adapter, installation guide, resource CD, warranty/support information card

Product Description

Netgear Wireless Access WG311NA 54Mbps 802.11g PCI Adapter

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Change Install Method For XP SP2, November 27, 2004

By 

Dirk Patton "proudcelt" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: NETGEAR WG311 Wireless-G PCI Adapter (Personal Computers)

First of all, this card is a great product and better than any of the competitors, to include Linksys and D-Link. With the deployment of SP2 you will need to change the install procedure for the V2 card so that it works without causing your system to reboot constantly. DO NOT install the utility and drivers ahead of time as the instructions in the packaging tell you to. Rather, install the card, then boot up and let windows detect the hardware. Instead of installing the drivers automatically, use the "I Will Select" the hardware option then through the hardware wizard browse to the XP Drivers folder on the disc and let windows install ONLY the driver, not the utility. XP has a very good wireless management utility and you will give up nothing by not having the Netgear utility installed. The card will finish install and you'll be up and running.

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Windows XP SP2 issues are resolved..., September 9, 2004

By 

35-year Technology Consumer "8-tracks to 802.11" (Mid Atlantic, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: NETGEAR WG311 Wireless-G PCI Adapter (Personal Computers)

Update: mid November 2004:

This was originally a 1-star review. Netgear issued updates for this card allowed work fine Windows Home SP2, which I confirmed during the build of a new machine two months after the original review.

My rant in September 2004 was valid then based on the state of their support for XP SP2.
________________________________

Original early September review:
Once installed and working: 4 stars. The single star is for the overall experience in Windows XP Home Service Pack 2 environment. This eventually required a rollback from SP2 *and* an operating system reinstall. This might not be worth it for most people seeking just a little faster data throughput...

If your are considering purchasing this --or **any other wireless network adapter**-- check carefully for compatability with Windows XP Home SP2. After over 4 hours of my own troubleshooting, and another hour on hold to speak with Netgear tech support, I learned that the only issue was that this device was having major compatability issues with SP2 (which we deployed last month on 4 computers in our network with no negative effects..until now). At this point you pretty much have the choice of returning to your previous (or non-existent) networking environment or uninstalling SP2. WARNING: Do not choose the SP2 uninstall. I went from a midly annoying networking hardware issue to a full blown operating system meltdown. In the case of Netgear, the SP2 compatibility issue was not discussed on their web site (and certainly not in the included literature): I had to get this important information from the support rep. only after registering the product for the 90 day support period. If you are putting any wireless adapter into an XP SP2 system, it is time well spent to check with their tech support BEFORE install. The hold time may be time consuming, but it will be less so than Windows reinstallation (or a hard drive reformat!). Naturally, since my Netgear issue has morphed into a Windows issue, there's no more help coming from Netgear on this. I've had generally good experiences with Netgear products (a new router and laptop PCMCIA card installed flawlessly and were up and running in minutes), but this combined MS-Netgear SNAFU is a disaster of major proportions. Your experience may vary...but it would take very little for it to be better than mine! Good luck, and caveat emptor!
Update: Rollback from XP SP2 plus a reinstall of the operating system plus another 45 minutes on the phone with tech support and we did succeed in getting it running. Enjoying the higher throughput, but I'm not sure it was worth the effort.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Had to replace this thing..., October 13, 2005

By 

Tomleaf (San Francisco, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NETGEAR WG311 Wireless-G PCI Adapter (Personal Computers)

I'd like to start off by saying this is the only Netgear product I ever had a problem with.

I actually have the older WG311v2 edition of this product and it seemed to work for a while. The problem occured when I started getting constant dropping after a few minutes of being connected. I investigated and found that of every 10-15 pings I sent to the router (both a Netgear MR814 802.11b and the WGR614 I decided to upgrade to), it would lag once for up to 1 whole second which is bad when it comes to network connectivity between a system and the router. I tried disconnecting 2.4GHz phones, switching channels, moving the router, moving the computer, replacing the router, changing the PCI slot the card sat in, using Wireless Zero Config, using the latest Netgear util. Nothing worked. To top it off ping testing with other computers wireless on the network showed no dropping. The WG311v2 would drop/lag and I would have to manually make it work again with enable/disabling of the card and reboots of the machine.

I did some research into the card and read that a possible hotfix might have caused an issue. Nope, the Hotfix wasn't installed on my system. I later learned that the WG311v2 card just plain has major problems when it comes to reliable connectivity.

I picked up a D-Link DWL-G510L the next day for cheap and plugged it in and installed the latest drivers. No problems at all AND the drivers supported WPA-PSK, WPA, WPA2-PSK, and WPA2. The WG311v2 only supports WPA and WPA-PSK.

Netgear might have fixed the issues with the WG311v2 with the release of the current WG311v3 but they also might not have. I would take a closer look at the D-Link. It works, is usually cheaper, and it supports the latest wireless security protocols and works great with Wireless Zero Config.