- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 11 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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3 out of 4 people found this review helpful
0.5 stars
"I wish I NEVER bought this adaptor"
Pros: None that come to mind.
Cons: Corrupted my entire Wifi setup, does not have extra reach with RangeMax adaptor, does not work as advertised.
Summary: This adaptor was the biggest headache I've ever experienced with any computing product.
I was at my beach house in south-america and my old router would not go past a final wall where I needed wifi. So I purchased the RangeMax router thinking that would do the trick, and it didn't. So then I shelled out $250 between the adaptor, shipping, and import duties thinking it would do the trick and my problems were ONLY getting started.
I installed the adaptor EXACTLY as the instructions said, and it did not work. In fact, it corrupted my entire WIFI setup to the point where my OLD adaptor didn't work either. So I had to make a long-distance call and ended speaking with someone in Bangalore who was completely unhelpful. After an hour of attempting different things, none of which worked, I was told that I would need to speak with a Senior Case officer to solve my problem. So I left them my number and they never called.
After meddling with the Windows Registry file, I got it to FINALLY work...expect it worked NO BETTER than my old router. At this point I was fuming becase I had shelled out $250 for this $80 adaptor plus the RangeMax router and it could not get past a final, regular wall any better than my old router setup.
I cannnot begin to describe how bad this experience was.
Netgear, if you are experimenting with new technologies that are not standardised, do not bait your customers into being your guinea pigs.
- 2 replies to this review
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Aside from the fact that I had bought this product, installed it in 3 minutes and connected it to a wireless network without any trouble whatsoever, a judgement of 1 is a little harsh.
The product did not live up to it's promise of providing extra range, didn't play perfectly well with Windows XP SP2 (but what product did until they released their 32,000 MB of updates after lauch?) and tech support was in India (after working in IT for years, it's hard not to find a company that hasn't outsourced-eg. MS, most networking companies. After all that, the combination worked and it may actually work much better than this user had thought in closer areas.
It wasn't a bad enough set of products to warrant a return and should have probably been given a 3 or 4 based on the experience, but unless the item refused to work after the first day, the anger that inspired such a biased and visceral (with no attempt to remove emotion) review was unwarranted and likely a disservice to CNET. -
Aside from the fact that I had bought this product, installed it in 3 minutes and connected it to a wireless network without any trouble whatsoever, a judgement of 1 is a little harsh.
The product did not live up to it's promise of providing extra range, didn't play perfectly well with Windows XP SP2 (but what product did until they released their 32,000 MB of updates after lauch?) and tech support was in India (after working in IT for years, it's hard not to find a company that hasn't outsourced-eg. MS, most networking companies. After all that, the combination worked and it may actually work much better than this user had thought in closer areas.
It wasn't a bad enough set of products to warrant a return and should have probably been given a 3 or 4 based on the experience, but unless the item refused to work after the first day, the anger that inspired such a biased and visceral (with no attempt to remove emotion) review was unwarranted and likely a disservice to CNET.
Where to buy
Netgear WPN511 RangeMax Wireless PC Card:
$53.50 - $418.28
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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$59.73 | Yes |
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$53.50 | Yes |
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$418.28 | Yes |
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$62.55 | Yes |
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$65.99 | Yes |
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