Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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86 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good solution to wireless range extension, March 22, 2005
I use a wireless router in the house with great success. However, the range is pretty weak or my house is too big, and I am pretty sure it's not the latter. As a result, I researched a variety of solutions, none of which seemed too appealing to implement (bridges, wireless range extenders, new RF antenna, etc). It just all seemed too complicated, and I consider myself pretty tech savvy.
Fortunately, I was reading through some tech reviews and stumbled upon the Netgear Wireless wall-plugged router kit. It seemed like it was pretty simple to setup and easy to use. Well, I can report that it is exactly that.
There is no software to install at all. You simply plug in the ethernet cable from the cable modem in one room into the Netgear plug and then plug that into the wall. Check that all three green lights are lit and you are good to go.
The next step is to take the second half of the Netgear plug into the desired room in the house and plug it into an electric socket. When its three lights are lit, you have a connection and are good to go in there. My laptop computer picked up wireless signal immediately and I was surfing the web in no time flat. Basically, it was flawless.
So, WHY am I am only giving it four stars? Two reasons:
First, the wireless range of the Netgear plug is pretty weak. It definitely doesn't have the power of my main wireless modem. Then again, it doesn't have an antenna AND it still works, so it's no big deal; it's just not perfect.
Second, the Netgear plugs need to be plugged in somewhat near each other to function correctly and get the Homelink green light to turn green. When the Netgear plugs were plugged in on opposite ends of the house (what I was hoping for to maximize range), it did not achieve a homelink connection. However, when I moved the plugs to outlets that were closer together (but still outside my wireless routers range), it DID work. So, partial credit again here. While I cna't explain why it did not work, perhaps the electrical homelink signal degrades the farther the outlets are apart.
Anyway, everything is working pretty smoothly now and I am excited that I can get a signal in another area of the house that was not covered by internet previously.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Worked for 6 weeks then died, July 8, 2006
I bought this product from Amazon in July because it seemed the solution to my problems, a very low wireless signal in my garage. I was prepared for the worst, i.e. that my powerline from my router wouldn't be on the same circuit as the outlet in my garage. Fortunately, they were.
It took about 20 minutes to get everything working correctly. The instructions weren't the greatest but a little messing around and I suddenly had Excellent signal strength in my garage where I play multiplayer games online. The signal was constant and in the next six weeks remained strong, never weakening.
The problem came in week six when the extender unit in the garage suddenly died. Only the Powerline light was lit -- the power light and Wireless connectivity green LEDs were permanently dark. Considering how hot the two units can get when constantly left on, it's not that surprising there might be some burn out risk. I believe this to be a design flaw.
I went to the web and found a lot of people (I counted five) with accounts identical to mine. The units worked perfectly for 4-6 weeks then died. I suggest anybody buying these units after reading this post, keep the box for at least 3 months to make returning easier.
When I called Tech Support at Netgear, my call was answered pretty quickly after navigating through the voicemail options. The first tech was from India, very friendly, but ran me through a predictable sequence of tests (reset this with a pin, take it out of the outlet, put it back in, "I believe you have a faulty unit"). My call was then elevated to an inexplicably hostile tech support person, also in India, who ran me through exactly the same tests before also concluding I had a faulty unit. Altogether, this wasted 45 minutes of my time.
I was given 3 options:
1) Return the unit at my own expense and Netgear would send me a replacement unit
2) Pay $16.99 and Netgear would send me a new unit and I could box up my old unit and return it postage paid.
3) Pay $27.99 and get an express version of #2.
Now, I'm not usually very picky, but it annoyed me that I should have to do anything at my own expense when I'd paid $120 for the Netgear product and it failed within 6 weeks. I opted for the cheapest solution #1 then tried a different option, I bought a new wireless USB adapter from Linksys and turned off my old PCI card (which lamely was also Netgear) and am getting a constantly Very Good signal with it. It's not Excellent, but it's unlikely to burn out again in 6 weeks.
I can't recommend this product anymore (I unfortunately persuaded a commuter friend to buy it and am hoping it doesn't burn out) or indeed any Netgear product after my experience with their goods, customer service or return policy.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great product but not as easy to install as Netgear would have us believe, September 15, 2005
The range extender works perfectly. The router - -a Linksys - - -is located on the second floor of the house. My room is located at the 1st floor but at a far corner. However, with the range extender, my signal is EXCELLENT! Previously, I only got a LOW or VERY LOW SIGNAL.
Installing though is not too simple. After following the instructions, the range extender was detected by my computer but web pages would not load. It was very frustrating. I kept restarting my computer and double checking the settings. I even had to call Tech Support.
After a whole day of frustrations, I left my computer turned on and left it without restarting and reconfiguring. When I returned 10 minutes later, the web pages loaded perfectly. That's when I realized that it takes around 5-10 minutes for the computer to "reconfigure" things and assign an IP address.
SO THAT'S THE BIG CAVEAT - - - -When you install, don't expect web pages to load immediately. As soon as your computer detects the range extender, leave it for 5-10 minutes then check if the internet is working.
LASTLY, to avoid conflicts, use an SSID different from the router's SSID.
Otherwise, this is a great product that works!!!
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