Netgear WAG511 802.11a/b/g Dual Band Wireless PC Card

Editorial Review
Freedom of movement and flexibility of access - NETGEAR's Dual Band Wireless PC Card gives you both in spades! Remarkably versatile, it lets you access any 802.11a/b/g wireless network from your notebook PC. Put it in your notebook PC and no matter where you are, at home, at the office, at the airport or in other public access areas, you'll get high-speed access to corporate resources, e-mail, and the Internet. Use it to quickly network employees, saving the time and expense of Ethernet cabling, or use it to upgrade your existing network to the faster wireless standard. Easy to set up and use, it will automatically select the best connection available and adapt the settings to match. And with up to 152-bit WEP encryption, you can rest assured that your wireless network communications are private.Fully IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz), 802.11b and draft 802.11g (2.4 GHz) compliant, this high-speed wireless PC card sends digital images, videos, and MP3 files across your wireless network at speeds of up to 108 Mbps in turbo mode. Dynamic rate shifting according to environmental conditions gives you the fastest possible connections from your notebook PC.The NETGEAR WAG511 supports office roaming for notebook PC users for shared broadband Internet access and resources. It gives you untethered mobility at home, the office, the airport, and other public hotspots. NETGEAR's Wireless LAN Manager lets you create profiles that reflect specific WLAN settings for each place you travel.The NETGEAR WAG511 protects your information with the highest level of industry-standard WEP encryption: 128-bit for 802.11b devices, and up to 152-bit for 802.11a and 802.11g devices. MAC address authentication offers enhanced security by ensuring only authorized users are able to access the network. VPN pass-through support is included. A future software upgrade will provide you with AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access).
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Customer Reviews

Good card. It does what I need it to do.

2005-10-10
I needed a dual band pcmcia card for my laptop. I got this one. Absolutely no problems with it.

works with both windows and linux

2005-06-07
Good card. Works well OOB with both Windows XP and linux. Wireless networking works out of the box with Knoppix 3.6 linux distro. May need madwifi drivers for other linux distros.

Great product, easy to use.

2004-04-11
I've been told that I bought a better wireless card than I needed, but I really don't regret it. This is my first wireless card, so maybe this is true of all of them, but it was a cinch to install and works great. I'm thrilled. And, believe me, if I think it's easy to use, ANYONE can use this thing. Connection speed is as though I was hooked up direct to my cable modem!

Good product

2004-03-07
The Netgear WAG511 802.11a/b/g wireless card works great in any environment. I also have bought the WGT624v2 108 Mbps Wireless Firewall Router and I can connect with it up to speeds of 108 Mbps.

In summary, a good buy

If you are a mobile person, you need it 2003-08-21
This card is great if you have a 802.11b router at home and 802.11a or g at work or University.

It is true that it is more expensive than the others, but you get access to three standards instead of 1 or 2.

If you'll always be working in a 802.11g or 802.11a network, buy another card, buy if you need access wherever you go, this is for you.

Works without any problems 2007-01-12
I bought the Netgear WAG511 because there are existing drivers for Windows to use the Wireless Card in monitor mode. The card works for me perfectly under Windows (XP Home) and Linux (Ubuntu 6.10). I tested the monitor mode in Windows with the special driver (you can find it on the net) and it works perfectly too.

Two Thumbs up..

Netgear 108Mbps Dual-Band Wireless Card 2007-01-10
I came into purchasing this product with very limited knowledge of wireless internet cards, wireless routers, etc. I was away on business most of the time, and was using an older laptop to access the wireless hotspots at the various hotels I was staying at. Here is what I discovered about the card:

* For those of you who, like me at the time, are somewhat lacking technical savvy in the wireless/LAN network field - this product is not going to give you 108Mpbs, unless you happen to be using a Netgear wireless router that is designed to allow such speeds. Otherwise you will be limited to 54Mbps, which still isn't bad...compared to DSL. After nearly 4 months of travel, I experienced very little interference with the signal - unless the hotel router was acting screwy.

* Say you purchase the recommended wireless router for this product - which is exactly what I did - you won't likely find it much different than the usual 54Mbps in your internet routine; unless you are uploading a great deal of information to the internet. Downloads seem to be unaffected all together.

* Here's where it gets a little more interesting: After purchasing the router, I found myself rarely using the card anymore, due to the fact that I recently purchased a new laptop with all of the current advances in wireless technology already built in. I can use my internal wireless connection to link to the Netgear router, and get an excellent signal throughout my entire house. I have found no need to reconfigure my internet connection, as I rarely upload files to the internet. But, if I plug the wireless Netgear adapter in and install it, roughly 80% of the time it will completely crash the computer (resulting in the dreaded "blue screen of death"), which brings up a fatal error that forces me to reboot my computer and lose all previously saved information.

So, all in all, this product seems to work fairly well when being used with other routers. (I found that the most common router being used at the hotels I stayed at was a standard 54Mbps Linksys.) I don't recall having any issues. But, when used with the recommended router, well...maybe it isn't quite as effective as it's being advertised.

I contacted Netgear and addressed this issue with a customer service representative, and was told that there was most likely a "user error" on my part while installing the router and the card. I'm doubtful this is the case, as I followed all instructions while downloading the software for the card on my new laptop (just to give it a try) and while connecting the router to my main PC. I only get the blue screen when using both simultaneously...but not when I - a) use the Netgear card with another router model, or b) use my internal wireless capabilities to connect to the Netgear router.

For the amount of money spent, I honestly feel that I should have a product that works at least 99% of the time that it's being used. Maybe there is some underlying issue that Netgear just hasn't informed me about yet, and the error actually is on my part. But until the day that they are finally able to point this out to me, I stand by my statement that this is not the best wireless PC card on the market.

Atheros Chipset for Geeks means decent operation for everybody 2006-08-27
High end users and users who consider themselves geeks will find this card useful. The chipset allows for direct and immediate integration into Linux systems with no additional work on most platforms. The chipset is also able to be used in special modes by a number of Windows applications.

For any users at all, the card will do a decent job of operation with a good range and sensitivity.

This card does not include an external antenna jack, however. And in certain modes in Windows, it has a bad habit of SSID loopback. This causes occasional issues with the card claiming that it can see its home network even if the network is far out of range. This may cause confusion for some users as they try to connect to the network and are unable to. Investigation revealed this to be an issue specifically caused by Windows' interaction with the card, and not the card itself, as it works fine in other operating systems. Also, in the time that I have used it, I have only experienced this error once.

Overall, the card is well worth the cost, especially if you are looking for that chipset. The decent performance in my opinion outweighs the very infrequent trouble with SSID loopback. if you are looking for the chipset for a linux machine, this card is excellent.

Netgear WAG511 Dual Band Wireless PC Card 2006-07-10
Product came promptly, in nicely wrapped packaged box, but manual and installation CD's were missing. Fortunately all necessary drivers were available from manufacture web-site. Installation went smoothly. Configuration was easy, overall setup in less than 5 min, including driver download. Definitely out performs all other wireless cards in my possession: Intel, Linksys and Belkin. Almost twice their range and speed.

Good Product 2006-07-07
Easy to install within 20 minutes, and that's going carefully. I wasn't able to intercept the hotspot near my house, but when I get closer, this works like a charm.

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