Microsoft MN-700 Wireless 802.11g Base Station Router
by Microsoft
|
List Price: Our Price: $11.93 You Save: $46.06 (79%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Microsoft MN-700 Wireless 802.11g Base Station Router
Customer Review: Excellent Wireless Router
Summary: 5 Stars
A terrific product, very dependable and easy to set up. Great two year product support. Highly recommended!!!Customer Review: Good and stable
Summary: 5 Stars
Used for more than a year, never have a problem.
Easy to setup and so far so good
Customer Review: Excellent router choice for network newbie!
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently bought my first laptop PC and thought it would be very handy to have a home network to connect to my desktop -- to share the high-speed Internet connection, print, make data backups, etc. I chose the Microsoft MN-700 base station, and I'm very glad I did!I don't know much about networks, but the Microsoft software set-up makes it a snap. The software walks you through each step of the set-up process, and nothing is very difficult to do. Eg, you have to give a name (anything you want) to the base station, to the network itself, etc. You do need to pay careful attention to the instructions on the screen, because if you jump the gun and do something out-of-order, it may ruin the set-up process.
I did have one bump during the installation procedure. For some reason, when the software was trying to verify the settings that I had input and write them to the base station, it kept failing -- I think it was trying to access the Internet to do something, but I'm not sure. I did have restart the set-up process a few times, and finally, inexplicably, one of my attempts worked! I don't know what I did differently, if anything, during the set-up attempt that "took" but with a little persistence, it worked okay.
I didn't understand about WEP keys, but I chose 128-bit encryption to protect my network. The set-up doesn't make it plain that you need to write down the 26-character encryption key that it generates, because you'll need to input that same string of 26 characters into your laptop when it tries to authenticate for the first time. BTW, I have Windows XP Home Edition on my home computer and laptop.
Once I figured out that I had to transpose the 26-character WEP encryption key to my laptop, but laptop was able to connect to the Internet just fine!
I had a problem with file sharing and printing. I run Symantec's Norton Internet Security (NIS) 2004, and the personal firewall is turned on. In NIS, I had to run the Home Networking wizard so NIS would configure the firewall for my home network. Once that happened, I could print and share files on my network.
If you're running NIS (or another software firewall), you have to turn-off Windows XP firewall -- the setup procedures will give you this chance, so be sure to disable Windows XP firewall.
Also, you have to make sure to turn on file sharing on both the laptop and the desktop. Right click on a folder, choose Properties, then click the Sharing tab to enable folder sharing.
If you're a newbie like me, you CAN setup your own network without too much difficulty. Plan on making at least one phone call to a techie friend or to tech support to get over some hurdle you encounter.
Since I've installed everything, my network runs very smoothly and reliably. For less than $50, this router is an unbelievable deal.
Note: Microsoft is going out of the wireless router business, so don't plan on future hardware upgrades and probably minimal support for firmware updates. But if you get your network up and running, you won't likely be affected by this Microsoft business decision.
Customer Review: It is wow!
Summary: 4 Stars
I got it installed within an hour including applying a huge patch for the base station. I was uncomfortable abt the fact that microsoft might want to issue patches now and then as usual and we have to keep patching it up.Pros:
1 Easy to install
2 Works as wired and wireless
3 With wifi pda it would be real fun(not tried)
4 No wire clutter
5 Has WPA which is next thing in wifi
6 Wifi certified
7 Feeling of sitting with a laptop in any room is awesome
8 Good speed though might diminish with distance
Cons:
1 The network adapters for computers costs as much as base station
2 The xp and windows 2000 interface for the network card is different and might be confusing at the beginning though the base is same.
3 If wep or wpa is not configured by the user any one can use the network and access the shared files folders
4 Microsot might keep sending patches and one has to install it diligently
5 Concern about creating more radio waves in your environment without knowing the effects on ones health - phones work on similar frequency but they are for short conversations and not running 24 hrs
6 Not much flexibility in setting up of the firewall
I havn't tried any more esotoric options in the networking workd like vpn etc. I did download files while cooking and watching the download. I havn't tried any distances more than the 1000 ft apt area. Prospects of checking email in the restroom is awesome - onestep closer to microsoft's plans to bring computers to public toilets.
Bottomline is I am keeping my wifi. 4 stars instead of 5 because of fear of many more patches coming down the way though some will be nice upgrade and some for bug fixes.
Disclaimer:
I am not related to the company in anyway except as a customer. Every user may not have same experience as me. All persons reading this review read it and deceide for themselves their choices.
Customer Review: Great tool for 1st time wireless users
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently purchased the MN-700 and MN-710 (wireless USB 2.0 adaptor). Installation is quick and easy. Directions are clear and concise. They even provide a floppy for you to format and retain your network settings. This allows you to quickly and easily get other machines up and running. The Broadband Network Management Utility is great to troubleshoot any problems.I like the fact you have options from no encryption all the way up to 256 bit, and your choice of WEP or WPA.
One word of warning here, if you have any firewall software on (XP's, Norton, or freeware such as ZoneAlarm), you MUST disable them before installation. I, in fact, had some serious issues as I tried networking an additional PC and was unaware a firewall was enabled on the machine. As soon as I uninstalled it, I got it working in less than 5 minutes. The MN-700 has a built in firewall, so you don't really need anything else, but you can always add more.
The USB adaptor is a lot easier to handle than the PCI card. Just install the software, plug the device in and your off. Only question so far is signal strength appears to vary, but it might be interferance from my 2.4 GHz wireless phone.
Main concern is signal strength, but only time will tell. Overall, a very good tool for novice-intermediate network guru's. Don't be intimidated by trying to set this up. Microsoft's 24/7 technical assistance is also available and I highly recommend it if problems occur. They helped me out on some compatibility issues that occured (again, ended up being a conflict between the router and a hidden firewall program.)
If your helping somebody out, fully understand all the software on their machine prior to installation. Will save you hours.