Customer Reviews

NETGEAR WPN111NA Wireless Mimo Usb Adapter

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

I bought this product to replace an outdated Linksys WUSB54G adapter and to match up with my MIMO router. The product manages to do what its supposed to, sort of.

Pros:
Versatile - Can be used with or without a USB extension cable, so small it is easily portable.
When it was connected, throughput was extremely high.
Decent range, 75% signal strength over ~100ft. and through one wall.

Cons:
Device gets excessively hot.
Inconsistent performance.
Poor device support. When download speeds peaked, at over 22400 (2.8mb/s roughly) the device would cause the system to hang. A check at the Netgear forums revealed that I was not the only member with this issue, so I got the latest device drivers from the website. After installing them, I fired up a few files and for the first ten minutes or so all seemed well. Suddenly the device failed and lost connection to the router. A quick check elsewhere revealed it was only this device that failed, and now I experience near constant disconnects when throughput gets anywhere over 500kb/s. Same issue occurs with multiple systems.
Tech support was unhelpful in resolving my issue.

I would recommend the Linksys WUSB300N over this item, as I have had no problems since switching over, it installs in seconds, and I get a much stronger more consistent connection than what I have ever maintained with the WPN111.

I had already reviewed the Rangemax wireless router, so I didn't feel any need to rate the USB Adapter, until I checked the comments. I have excellent signal strength all over my 3000 sq foot two story house. Right now my signal strength is 61%. My old D-Link system (DL-524 I think)got about half that and would only work half the time.
My only guess is that the people commenting on the this wireless adapter are not using it with the Netgear RangeMax Wireless Router.My own experimentation revealed that the two devices work much better if used together.
Also, since wireless equipment is so hit or miss, people might be better off purchasing at a place like CompUSA, where items can be returned easily, rather than on Amazon.

Worked for three days and now it doesnt work at all despite the Netgear wizard detecting the wirless hub with a strong (77%) signal. There is no fix or upgrade for this product. Linksys is much better.

Don't get this card if you are buying it for its "range" capabilities. I paired this with it's rangemax router and it wouldnt even pick up the network. Both my centrino chipset AND ancient d-link 802.11b usb adapter pick up that same network.

The router is decent but I am VERY disappointed with the failure to live up the claims on the box. 3.5 year old hardware shouldnt be able to beat the paired "rangemax" combo.

The router is decent. Although the router gets "weak" signal according to the d-link utility, it is very quick with internet whereas other networks with the same signal strength are not as good. I can't really recommend a good range-specific combo for high data rates, I can just tell you to stay away from this.

PS I tried a linksys range extender and it couldn't pick the network up either. I would skip that solution too.

I purchased this product and ran home to try it out. not 5 minutes after plugging it in to my computer, my computer freezes. I restart and it says my device is malfunctioning. I manage to get it working for about 5 minutes before it craps out on me again. I try upgrading the drivers and it refuses to connect to my network. I'm a network engineer and I am well versed in what I am doing, but this card has given me nothing but trouble. I had to disable the software that came with it and use the windows wireless software to connect. This only keeps me alive for about 30 minutes before freezing. I talked to netgear support and they tell me that my processor isn't supported, which is total BS and just an attempt to get out of supporting me, they wouldn't even let me return the product. My advice: go with linksys or d-link or SMC, ANYONE but netgear.

...and as an IT professional, I've seen some bad ones. But this is the first one I've seen that does a better job of destroying an operating systems than most viruses.

Not only does this adapter overheat and shut down constantly (even with a room fan blowing cool air it), the worthless piece of **** has totally destroyed my XP Pro system, forcing me to reinstall Windows (oh, joy!). The drivers they have for this thing must have been coded by a mentally retarded baboon, and no matter what the instructions say, installing the program first does not magically make the drivers not destroy your OS.

It's a freaking USB adapter, and it managed to completely corrupt unrelated system services and registry keys, somehow uninstalled TCP/IP (and made sure windows no longer recognizes ANY network adapter on the machine) and made sure that even rebuilding the services and registry keys from my XP CD wouldn't fix the problems.

A USB device that destroys the computer's networking abilities... maybe they should sell it as a weapon instead of an adapter.

AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!

And, for what it's worth, their tech support is the worst I've ever encountered - as I had some Indian guy with a very thick accent who almost spoke English telling me that my operating system was booting up while I was looking at a blue screen of death. It was like talking to a brick wall.

This product has single handedly turned me off of Netgear for good. No wonder they haven't been able to get their drivers digitally signed by Microsoft. THEIR DRIVERS AREN'T EVEN WINDOWS COMPATIBLE!!!!

Spent 2 days trying to get WPN111 to work continuously, and encountered all the problems the other reviewers had. Achieved a signal strength with my new RangeMax router 50% of the strength of my 2 year old NetGear Access Point! NetGear seemed to have jumped the gun on the RangeMax items which is a pity when their previous products have been so good. Their support people didn't even know that there was a firmware upgrade for the RangeMax router however applying it didn't resolve my signal strength problem.

This prduct is nice when it works. Have to continually unplug it and plug it back in to get it to work though. The software for it seems pretty clunky. I guess I'm stuck with wires still. One of these days they'll get it right, I hope.

1. Ease of installation.

2. Detect network at < 20% level, where Linksys Adapter shows 40-55% (was testing both adapter). So far unable to receive or transmit any data using the WPN111. Gave it away as present.

3. Made a mistake purchasing one of this unit. Linksys is half the price.

4. Do not encourage anyone to buy this unit.

Totally disappointed with purchase. Was only attracted by writeup as claimed on the box cover. It didn't work to my expectation.

I bought the RangeMax router along with two WPN111 and two WG111 USB adaptors.

I am unimpressed with all of the USB adaptors. They seem to have significant issues with any sort of long-term connectivity, and were extremely difficult to even get working.

Furthermore, installing the latest drivers for this product seem to break it, and stop it from communicating with the AP entirely. It took complete removal of all the drivers and re-installation of the old ones from the CD to get these adaptors working at all.

The router is approximately 3 meters away from the adaptor with an uninterrupted line of sight. There's little or no EM interference, and yet the setup still only manages to get a signal strength of 65%.

Recommended only for those that require ease of use, such as occasionally connecting a laptop to the wireless network.

For anything else, get a better device.