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5 Responses to “Netgear WG111 Wireless 54Mbps USB 2.0 Adapter Reviews”

1. 

   Andrew Thomas
   

   03. Aug, 2010

   Review by Andrew Thomas for Netgear WG111 Wireless 54Mbps USB 2.0 Adapter
   Rating:
   If you are running this on a Windows XP machine and you find it loses the connection every 15 mins or so, you need to go to:
   
   Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services and disable “Wireless Zero Configuration” on startup.

   This fix was suggested by Netgear themselves on the discussion forum on their site. It solved the problem for me.

   You also need to get the latest version 3.3 driver from the Netgear site.

   With these two modifications, my adaptor never loses its connection. Seems to be the answer.
2. 

   Mr. Stephen Woolley
   

   03. Aug, 2010

   Review by Mr. Stephen Woolley for Netgear WG111 Wireless 54Mbps USB 2.0 Adapter
   Rating:
   I bought this together with Netgear’s 54 Mbps wireless router (WGR614v4) to wirelessly share our broadband internet connection with the kids’ computer.
   Once I had set up the router it only took a few minutes to install the adapter. Simply load the software, plug in the adapter and follow a few simple instruction. It located the network straight away plus another network which must be in the vicinty.
   The kids’ computer is upstairs about 20m away with a thick wall in between. The signal strength is fairly good and my sons have been surfing merrily for 10 days without losing the connection once.(touch wood!)
   Setting up security with WEP (Wired Eqivalent Privacy) was also easy. I simply had to enable WEP on the router, type in a passphrase and 4 encryption keys were generated. The adapter’s program allows you to generated the same keys by typing in the same passphrase.
   It comes with a 5ft USB cable enabling you to place the adapter in the best and safest position.
   The tranfer rate is a litle slow because the computer only has USB 1.1 capability whereas the adapter has USB 2 capability. Having said that it is still much quicker than dial up and the kids haven’t complained.
   We haven’t been able to share files and the printer yet but I think that’s a case of figuring out how to confiqure Windows and the router. I’ll submit a review of the router once I’ve worked out file sharing and ironed out a small problem with the laptop dropping connections.
   As far as the USB adapter is concerned it’s thumbs up!!!
3. 

   Mr. A. Bristow
   

   03. Aug, 2010

   Review by Mr. A. Bristow for Netgear WG111 Wireless 54Mbps USB 2.0 Adapter
   Rating:
   I downloaded and installed the Vista drivers for this wireless adapter and i was online in no time at all.

   However, my connection promply disconnected as soon as I connected ANY type of usb Mass Storage device on another of my usb ports. iPod, USB Flash Drive, External Hard drive…… this usb adapter lost the wireless signal and refused to reconnect. I had to disconnect the other USB devices and reload the netgear software to get back online.

   I dont know what this thing does to the usb bus but it certainly doesnt play well with others.

   Anyway. I resolved the problem by connecting my Belkin powered USB hub and pluging the netgear adapter into it. Now i can use all my other devices at the same time as this wireless stick. I can only assume this thing uses a lot more power or just cant cope with other devices working on the same usb bus.
4. 

   Emma Baillie
   

   03. Aug, 2010

   Review by Emma Baillie for Netgear WG111 Wireless 54Mbps USB 2.0 Adapter
   Rating:
   I bought this after having lots of problems with the more expensive Netgear WPN111 adaptor – my connection kept freezing, meaning I had to reboot the system to get online again. This one, on the other hand, has been completely hassle free right from setting it up. I get a much stronger and more reliable signal even though I’m quite a distance from the router.

   I’ve noticed a couple of other reviews have mentioned the fact that the WG111 software, for reasons best known to itself, disables fast user switching and the XP welcome screen, giving you a domain-style login box instead. I did a bit of googling and there is a very straightforward explanation and fix for this. Basically, NetGear software tells the system to use RTLGina2.dll as its logon DLL, rather than the default MSGINA.DLL that XP uses. This disables Fast User switching and the Welcome Screen. To get these back, there’s a tiny program you can download that some excellent techie guy has made, which detects the changes and puts them back to how they were. I’ve just downloaded this and it’s worked a treat. I don’t think I can put a link in an amazon review but if you google “Netgear WG111 fast user switching”, there’s a link to the program in the 4th result that comes up.
5. 

   S. Le Grice
   

   03. Aug, 2010

   Review by S. Le Grice for Netgear WG111 Wireless 54Mbps USB 2.0 Adapter
   Rating:
   Setup was simplicity itself – a big warning sticker told me not to plug the dongle in until I had installed the software – which took about five minutes. I had to tick a few option boxes during installation but for the most part it was an automated process. When the time came I was asked to plug the dongle in after which the software detected and then loaded the relevant drivers to make it operate as it should. During installation I was given the choice of using the supplied wireless network software or Windows XP’s version, since Netgear recommended using the bundled software I took that route and encountered no problems. Once installed the software performs a search for available networks. Another thirty seconds of installation and the job was done. The dongles small blue light flicked when data was being sent or received and I was up and running on the internet in a wireless capacity. No additional changes were required when signing on; it really was simplicity itself.

   So is it any good?

   It’s more than good, it’s great! I was dreading the setup process and had visions of countless hours wasted trying to get a connection, but with the SmartWizard software every step is explained in an easy to understand manner so that any technophobe should not feel out of their depth. The unit itself is compact and stylish looking while the software takes up just 2MB of hard disk space. An icon sits in the system tray and flashed green when the connection is operating. Clicking the icon brings up the SmartWizard box where you can check your current speed, connection strength as well as sorting out security settings to insure nobody else can share the connection. With my Wireless access point and router a good thirty feet away from the computer (and a few thick walls in-between) I was concerned about signal strength, but at the time of writing the signal is running at 64% strength, with It never having dropped below 60% thus far.