Re: Netgear MA701 card

Sorry this isn't threaded; I just get the digest form.

I wanted to vent my problems with the Netgear MA701 as well.

My first card for the Z was the MA701.  I bought it in February of 2003.
  It worked fine.

Around July 2003, I started seeing very odd behavior.  It would connect to
  my APs just fine, but then it'd drop to 0% signal strength and quality.
  It did this consistently.  Complicating things was the fact that I had
  just upgraded to the 3.10 ROM.

To make a long story short, I finally figured out that it was the card, not
  the ROM image.  I was talking with Netgear, and I had similar problems.
  ("Linux?!  We only support WinCE."  Ugh.  Yet another Microsoft Monopoly
  in the making.)  I first had to wait forever and a year (probably about
  30mins-1hr to get to Tier 1 to even talk to 'em.  They, of course, first
  had to go through the rigamarole of "Is it inserted properly?"  "Do you
  have your information put in correctly?"  "Do you have the latest drivers
  installed?"  "What?  You're using Linux?  We don't support that platform."
  "Well, I guess I can bounce you up to Tier 2 to RMA it."  I then waited
  *so long* for Tier 2 that I got booted off the line!!!  Not only that,
  but this _whole_procedure_ happened _two_or_three_times!!!

In total, I lost probably around 5-7 hours of my time trying to get the
  card RMA'ed.  Never got it RMA'ed.

Indeed, I got an email back around a week after I had my last "chat" with
  Netgear support.  It went through the _same_crud_ as I did with Tier 1!!
  I was so very annoyed with Netgear for their crappy card and for their
  lousy tech support that I sent an email back with both barrels:

--begin email--
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2003 14:48:12 -0500
Howdy.

After having waited for about 1 hour on each wait queue and NEVER reaching
  Tier 2 support, this happening 2 times, I'm quite frustrated with your
  support services.  Here, yet again, is the problem description, since
  your front-lines people have (again) failed me; the description you
  provided is far, far too short to be accurate, so your response,
  unfortunately, is useless.

  The Problem:
  I purchased the MA701 last Februrary or so, and it WORKED GREAT for the
    first 3-4 months.
  Recently (within the last couple of months), it's stopped working.  It
    will connect to my base station and the work base stations, and it
    will work fine for the first 2-5 minutes.  After that, the signal
    strength and signal quality will SUDDENLY DROP TO ZERO.  I get no
    signal, no data transfer, and the log files reveal that the card
    is no longer responding.

  Some important points to consider:
    * It's NOT A CONFIGURATION ISSUE; it works for the first few minutes.
      It worked fine before.  Nothing else can be responsible for the
      deterioration in performance.
    * It's NOT A DEVICE COMPATIBILITY ISSUE; it works for the first few
      minutes.  It worked fine before.  Nothing else can be responsible
      for the deterioration in performance.
    * THIS IS A NEW ISSUE.  It worked great before; I would regularly surf
      the web and otherwise use it for several hours before my batteries
      finally gave out.

* I have tried re-installing it; I have tried to remove and re-insert it.
    The only thing that brings back service is to wait for a while with
    the PDA off.  THIS IS NOT "FUNCTIONAL".

Finally, NOTE THAT OTHERS HAVE HAD THIS PROBLEM.  I should have read
  the AMAZON.COM REVIEWS more thoroughly before I bought your card;
  I wouldn't have ever bought it and would have saved myself quite a
  bit of grief (not to mention money).
  >From http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006B9HN/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/
  103-8273094-6867033?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846&vi=customer-reviews
  "Works great - when it works, July 17, 2003
     Reviewer: Jason Jarvis from North Carolina
     Originally the product was great in my dell Axim, only problem I had was
     that there was no support for it with a few of the common network testing apps.  No big deal, I could work around that, and I didn't need to do any wardriving anyway. My first card was great, great reception at both home and office. After about 3 months the card started acting strange, dropping onnections, then the device stopped recognizing it. Netgear replaced the card without any problems (I agree with the comment that Netgear tech support needs a few more English speaking reps). The second card worked great, no problems until now, about 2 and a half months later, and it is dropping the signal again. I can sit in one spot 15 feet from the AP and watch the signal vary between 0 and 100 percent. Very frustrating. I guess it's time to call support for another card."

   "Strange behavior, April 14, 2003
      Reviewer: purl35 from Atlanta, GA
      First, I tried the card on my iPaq3955 at Starbucks T-Mobile Hotspot. It
      worked, but the connection dropped about every 3 minutes. Considering the T-Mobile policy (minimum charge of 20 minutes when I was testing it), it is not appropriate.  Second, and the most disappointing, was testing with Netgear\x{2019}s FM-114P router/print server. The card catches the signal (I held the iPaq right next to the antenna), however, it was almost impossible to establish connection. The signal indicator was moving from 0% to 100%, but the link stayed at 0% all the time. The connection with laptop (with Netgear\x{2019}s PC card) was excellent all the time. It is strange because both products (the card and the router) are from the same manufacturer. "

   "Connection Drops, February 12, 2003
      Reviewer: An electronics fan from Colorado Springs, CO United States
      I tryed this adaptor with multiple PDAs and multiple APs. In all cases, I have experienced sporadic droping of connections. Only fix is to repeatly restart and poweroff my pda. RMAed, hopefully it was just a bad card. It very hard to communicate with Netgears tech support. Very little English speaking reps." 

   "It worked.. for a while..., December 1, 2002
      Reviewer: An electronics fan from Seattle, WA USA
      I had the card for 2 months, during which I got regular usage from the card, and enjoyed wireless browsing, streaming audio/video, and email until it stopped working. NetGear support is great, except they have no idea what is wrong and have yet to provide a solution to my problem. So here I am, *** down and one dead WiFi card. I haven't tried any others, but this one worked great..." 

  Get it now?

  Rest assured that, unless this is suitably resolved soon, I will not
    buy another Netgear card, and I will actively discourage others
   from purchasing your products as well.

  "soon" is defined as within the next week.  Past that, I will buy
    a new card from another company and never look back.

  Good day.

  Frustratedly,
  -Joseph

  >From [email protected] on Friday, 01 August, 2003:
  >-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
  >Problem Description: 
  >drops wireless connection every 2-3 minutes
  >-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
  >Joseph,
  >Make sure you are using the latest version of active sync when installing the device. You may also want to try (you might have already done so) removing and im mediately inserting the nic into the PDA.
  >The device itself is simple and does not need much configuration to get it going. If you've been dealing with this issue since you purchased it you may also want to verify your PDA is meets the requirements listed below otherwise it may simply be a compatability issue.
--end email--

Note that "Problem Description".  With info like that, it's no wonder the
  tech sending the email went through the standard hoops.  It said *nothing*
  of value.

I guess the lesson is to listen to Amazon.com reviews.

A week went by, and I had *nothing*, so I bought a Linksys WCF12 card, and
  it's been running great.  Zero problems.

Executive summary: Netgear's MA701 cards tend to be wonky, and your chance
  of RMA'ing it if it goes bad is highly iffy.  Better to go with another
  card from the beginning and save yourself the pain.  Oh, and listen to
  reviews.  :)

-Joseph
-- 
Joseph===============================================trelane@digitasaru.net
"Asked by CollabNet CTO Brian Behlendorf whether Microsoft will enforce its
 patents against open source projects, Mundie replied, 'Yes, absolutely.'
 An audience member pointed out that many open source projects aren't
 funded and so can't afford legal representation to rival Microsoft's. 'Oh
 well,' said Mundie. 'Get your money, and let's go to court.' 
Microsoft's patents only defensive? http://swpat.ffii.org/players/microsoft