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August 7, 2003
Netgear MA111 Mini Wi-Fi Adapter
While I still recommend going with 802.11g (for a variety of reasons), if you have no choice but to use 802.11b (Wi-Fi), then this product might be of interest.
The Netgear MA111 Wireless USB Adapter is a real peach of a product. It's small -- about the size of one of those keychain USB flash drives -- and it's almost idiot-proof (although some idiots are fairly inventive when it comes to screwing things up). Just plug it in a USB port and away you go. If you're running Windows XP, you have a choice to use either Windows' Wi-Fi management or you can use Netgear's included utility (Netgear's is better, IMHO).
You can either use it as a stub adapter (by itself) or you can use it with the included 3-foot cable. The cable gives you additional placement flexibility in case your Wi-Fi coverage isn't very good. For about $50 (street), it's a reasonably priced alternative to other adapters that are, almost without exception, larger.
I've been using one of these for a few weeks and it gets really good reception. I thought I would be sacrificing reception sensitivity because of the unit's small size, but I was wrong. The Netgear MA111 gets a big thumbs up.