Customer Reviews

NETGEAR WN311B RangeMax Wireless-N PCI Adapter

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

So everyone having issues installing this in WINDOWS 7 (64 bit) I figured out how to do it. First you install the software from the disk (includes drivers) then shutdown, install the adapter in PCI slot, reboot and once your logged in you'll probably notice that Windows could not install drivers for this device- not to mention under Computer Management (Right-click Computer select manage>device, other device) it shows the device isn't installed properly- the fix is to select the device under other device (this is your network adapter), select update driver then manually search for your driver, now to find it you need to go through program files (x86), Netgear folder open, and you will see a drivers folder (don't open but select and okay)- here is the actual path for 64 bit default= C:\Program Files (x86)\NETGEAR\WN311B\Driver now windows 7 will connect these drivers to your adapter.

PRESTO

Your adapter will now launch set up wizzard and you'll be good to go.

Signal strength is slightly better than other adapters I've used but you do have to point the face of the RangeMax at your router location, just manuever it til you see the signal improve. Much better than USB adapters.

Drivers are a pain to install, otherwise this would've probably gotten better marks.

This is probably one of the worst things I have every gotten.I was trying to improve signal strength and it appear and the antenna would be helpful. The signal strength of this thing is pitiful. I had better signal with a cheap usb adapter than with this. Plus setup is difficult. When you get it set up there is no way to save your selection as to whether to have their software or windows manage the connection. Every time you do anything with your connection there is a pop up which asks you if you want Netgear or Windows to manage your connection. This thing is going back. By the way, I bought it through a brick and mortar store but I want to warn anyone on Amazon who was thinking of buying this. The name Rangemax is a joke.

There is nothing to like about this wifi adapter. Installation was a headache due to issues with Windows 7, despite the assurance on the box that it works with Windows 7. I finally got it to work (it wasn't easy), but then experienced frequent drops in connection. My signal went from excellent to finding absolutely no wireless networks, and cycled continuously. "Garbage" is a bit too kind of a description of this product. Garbage is something you throw out and don't think about. I think about this piece of junk and get angry and feel compelled to destroy it.

This stupid thing cost ~$60 at Best Buy. I went to Fry's electronics and bought a cheapo $20 card that actually works well. The "net" in Netgear apparently stands for "net profit [from selling garbage at ridiculously high prices]."

I bought this WN311B for my parents' desktop, which runs XP. It totally, totally doesn't work! It drops the connection as soon as there is traffic passing through it, then it sits idle for a minute or so, then it reconnects only to drop the connection again. Maddening!

I changed the PCI slot, I changed the drivers (grabbed the latest from netgear's website), I tried to manage the card with netgear's own utility, I disabled the utility and tried using Microsoft's management tool in WinXP. Nothing works.

The last thing I'll try is to install an older driver (maybe rev. 4.x or 5.x), some reported it finally worked (on Win7, though).

Stay away from this piece of garbage! Netgear should be ashamed to sell such junk (and at such a high price too)!

I bought this product after weird behavior on my new Vista Ultimate PC was set up. I transferred my old Zyxel G PCI adapter to the new PC. From day one, the Zyxel was intermittent dropping the connection - I wasted a lot of time trying to fix the link.

I ended up buying this Netgear and it was a dream come true. Instead of installing the PC, I downloaded the latest drivers from Netgear, installed them, then plugged in the adapter. Now my connection is solid with a consistent 24x7 -60dB signal! I dont know if its the diffrence of G versus N, but this product is amazing!

The PC is in a garage with lots of machinery and very challenging for the WiFi to penetrate but the antenna on this product does a great job.

The cable is ~1 meter long. Perfect for a floor tower under the desk and placing the antenna on the wall or on top of the desk where there is better reception.

The card with the latest drivers works flawlessly with Vista (it IS certified compatible) so dont be scared by the other reviews. I was concerned about this after reading the older reviews. It seems that Netgear worked out all the bugs.

This device is huge.

The maxrange is just a joke

it does install properly on windows 7 x64 Sp1

no problem installing it. windows picks it up and installs it easily.

the max range is garbage.

i too got better connection from a cheap usb dongle than this huge, huge! device.

Go dlink.

i will be returning this back to best buy.

dont buy it!

The installation CD sent with this product did not work. It was either the wrong CD or it was defective. The Welcome page said it was for the right product (WN311B) but on trying to install it, an error message said that it could not download files for a WN511B and rejected the installation. Five calls to Netgear technical support produced 3 disconnected calls, one promise to call me back that never materialized, and one supervisor who handed me over to someone who couldn't solve the problem, and therefore 2 wasted hours on the telephone. I requested a new CD, but was told that was not possible and I would have to send everything back to the seller (Amazon). I have done that and am now looking for a non-Netgear replacement. I rated this a 1 star only because I couldn't rate it 0 stars.

This device doesn't work on Windows 7 64-bit. The install is terrible, it will crash your machine and even when it does work, you're limited to 54kbps. Terrible.

I purchased this network adapter specifically in order to receive a wireless -N signal from a new, nearby, Netgear wireless-N router.

I selected this product because I believed that since it was the same brand as the router then it would be easily compatible with it. This has not turned out to be the case.

Pros: it has a great antenna, at least it looks like it ought to be a good one.

Cons: hard to install. It is not receiving the wireless-N signal from a nearby Netgear wireless-N router.

I downloaded the driver from the Netgear website along with explicit instructions for installation. I followed the instructions, but the driver did not install the way the instructions predicted it would. After uninstalling the previous driver, then installing the Netgear driver, the directions said that after installing the Netgear card and restarting the computer then the instructions would continue to finish installing the card. This did not happen.

After installing the card the "Found New Hardware" wizard ran, and it informed me that the driver had been successfully installed. I attempted to locate the wireless-N network, and the card would not locate it. It did locate the wireless-G network from the router (it is a dual band router) so I know that the network card was partially functional. I tinkered with the settings on the router, but was unable to figure out how to make the card accept wireless-N signals. So I connected the computer to the Internet on the wireless-G band and restarted the computer.

At that point, the Netgear driver opened a window that required me to input further settings. This aspect of the installation was not covered in the directions. At one point of working through the directions on that window I was given the choice of having the Netgear driver handle the Internet connection (recommended) or letting Windows Vista handle the Internet connection. I selected to have the Netgear driver handle the connection, and I believe that that was a mistake because now there is a confusing extra icon in the system tray having to do with the Internet connection, and if the Internet connection were to fail it is impossible to reconnect to the Internet using Vista.

In the process of installing the card, because of my confusion over the discrepancy between the directions and how the driver actually performed, I am ended up uninstalling the driver software, uninstalling the card, reinstalling the driver software, and then reinstalling the card. Now, I believe that I will have to do all that again in order to have the opportunity to get Windows Vista to handle the Internet connection. I will also have to call Netgear for technical support to see if they can help me connect to the wireless-N signal that the network card is supposed to detect.

I spent at least an hour and a half fooling around with this installation, and in order to complete the installation I expect to probably spend at least that much more time. I am not a newbie to installing network cards and adjusting routers, so this is not the complaint of somebody who doesn't know what they're doing.

This adapter work great once it is installed.

After following the instructions to the letter, and wasted 90 minutes of my life, I had to call Netgear customer service who were not able to get my adapter to work. They finally told me to return it.

Before doing so, I decided to give it another try.

I first restore my Vista OS to a restore point 3-4 month old.

Then made sure the driver, or part of it, was deleted (used "Add remove software" from Control panel). I then reinstall the adapter driver but this time I waited roughly 15 minutes before turning off the computer to manually install the adapter in a PCI slot. Next, I turned on my computer and waited another 10-15 minutes before seing a window opening up asking me different configuration questions to finish the installation of my adapter, and then HOURRAY! My adapter finally started working. I think my initial problems were due to badly written instructions from Netgear. It tells you to run the driver instal file and then wait for a window telling you to turn off your computer and manually install your adapter. The issue is that when you get this window, the driver is not fully install yet. You can see a small pop-up message (that cannot be close) under the previously mentioned window that says something about the driver being install. YOU HAVE TO WAIT FOR THIS MESSAGE TO DISAPPEAR BEFORE TURNING OFF YOUR COMPUTER. ET VOILA! Just be patient and the rest will go find.