Netgear WAG311 Dual Band Wireless PCI Adapter

by Netgear

Product Details

• Item Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000C120S
• Item model number: WAG311
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #168,209 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 9, 2003

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Netgear's WAG311 Dual Band Wireless PCI Adapter boosts the speed and effectiveness of your Pentium III Class PC (with an available PCI 2.2 compliant slot) by making it compatible with any IEEE 802.11 product. It is fully compatible with 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g WLAN standards, providing your network with faster speeds of up to 54 Mbps in both frequency bands and up to 108 Mbps in 802.11a turbo mode. This means easy and continuous access to your home wireless router or office network. It also means you're supplying your network with the highest level of industry standard security, with Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) enhancements. Simple to install and use, this resourceful adapter also makes it easy to relocate your desktop PC without rewiring.

Netgear's Dual Band Wireless PCI Adapter operates at speeds up to 108 Mbps in turbo mode, provides wireless access to a network from a desktop PC via an 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g or dual band router or access point, and allows network users to wirelessly share resources and a broadband Internet connection, giving them continuous access to corporate resources, e-mail, and the Internet. The WAG311 makes it a snap to video conference or distribute and receive large files, including high-quality digital images and music.

Universally compatible, this multi-talented card works with 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g networks. It greatly simplifies relocating your desktop PC and networking, while saving the time and expense of installing Ethernet cabling. The hassle-free installation means you're up and running with your wireless network in no time and dynamic rate shifting according to environmental conditions achieves the fastest possible connections. Lastly, the WAG311's flexibility of antenna placement lets you obtain optimum range.

Product Description

Netgear (WAG311) 802.11A/G 11/54MBPS PCI ADPTR

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tri-Band PCI with external antenna connector, May 17, 2004

By 

Arias Hung "Arias" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Netgear WAG311 Dual Band Wireless PCI Adapter (Personal Computers)

It's difficult, if not impossible, these days to find a pci based wireless card that handles all three bandwidths a/b/g with adequate power and an external antenna connector so you can extend the range of your card significantly. The FCC has a mess of regulations regarding the 5 gig band and the addition of transmit and receive sensitivity, whether by adding your own external attenna or raw power output of the card, is strictly regulated. On the surface it might look like this card falls lock step to the FCC code as it comes with a netgear shield over it and a seemingly fixed wire that runs out to the end of a 2.5 inch fixed dipole.

But on closer inspection you only need to pop off the shield with some needlenose pliers (taking into account the voidance of the warranty of course) to discover the hidden mcx connector that you can detach the stock antenna and add your own mcx pigtail of your choice. There's even a nice little solder block to allow you to solder your own pigtail onto and opening for the connector on the card. The b/g radio can crank to 98mW and 11a up to 50mW of power. There are only a handful of PCI tri mode cards, and this is one of the only that have the power requirements and external antenna requirement I wanted without having to soder my own straight onto the pcb.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Problematic Product, June 4, 2005

By 

G. Beacham - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Netgear WAG311 Dual Band Wireless PCI Adapter (Personal Computers)

I would not recommend this pci based product. It is very problematic to get working at all. It seems to have difficulty with IRQ or other conflicts that other similar cards can resolve without difficulty. On no less than 3 Windows 2k machines with latest sp's I ended up pulling all cards out except the video card to even get the computer to boot with the netgear card installed. I purchased this to support airopeek traffic sniffer from Wildpackets for my job. After several hours of difficult troubleshooting I shipped the netgear product back and instead purchased one of the highly recommended Cisco dual band cards.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Connect-me wirelessly!, November 13, 2003

By 

~Greg (Trinidad, W.I.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Netgear WAG311 Dual Band Wireless PCI Adapter (Personal Computers)

I highly recommend using this product with a NetGear Access Point or NetGear firewall combo-device like the FWAG114. The only caveat is the signal was sometimes surprisingly low in a small area, but as it constantly polls different frequencies, it improves over time.