Netgear WG511U Double 108Mbps Wireless A+G PC Card

 (6 customer reviews)

I ran the driver installer, plugged in the card, typed in my WLAN's security settings, and was on the network.

It worked on both an XP-Home and a Win2000 laptop, and included the option of using WPA (PSK) security. :)

My SMC8204WBR (802.11g) A/P-router is down in the basement behind the furnace, and I'm upstairs in the opposite side of the house. It's getting decent signal strength. This card's reporting 48Mbps link rate, which is fine since I don't have a Netgear "100Mbps+ high speed" A/P.

I decided to buy this card from Netgear when I have already worked with an identical device from Atheros (engineering sample) for a long period of time. As a networking professional, I have nothing other than praises for this card. Amateurs may need to pay attention though.

Pros:

1. Long range - This card has excellent range. Of course, a card can only be good when its receiving ability is as good as its transmitting ability. There is no use to be a good listener but a mediocre speaker in a WLAN network. This card is good at doing both.
2. a + g capable - It gives you the goods of both worlds! When it is paired with a WGU624 router, it is "supposed" to give you twice the throughput of 108Mbps when both bands are used at the same time. More details below.
3. It works in "monitor mode" - This is the biggest reason why I bought a bunch of these cards. With the right driver from Atheros, you can use this card to sniff packets with WLAN sniffers like...Read more

Great addition to the A/G router, Download speed reached 2Mb/Sec, recommend, not as stable as Linksys but sure as hell faster.