Well they don't come any newer than me to the wi-fi world. I'm going to take the plunge and buy these two components. I guess my main question is what you all think about Netgear? Should I go with Netgear, Linksys or Belkin? Are there any others i should consider? I'd like to hear some of your experiences.

Here's a little background:
I plan on connecting my dual boot winXP pro, win98se with my win98se laptop. I want the multi-band pc card so I can connect at home, school, work and where ever I may find an access point regardless of their standard.

Thanks in advance to those that reply.
Jim

Netgear for the most part works well. I had a MR314 that worked good for the most part. The only problem is that from time to time I would have to restart it. It would loose the internet. I do not know how the MR814 is doing but one person in this fourm was having the same problem with the MR814 as I had with MR314.

I now have a D-Link DI-614+ Router with a D-Link DWL-650+ card for my Laptop. I have had no problems with them. It is part of the AirPlus system from D-Link. I am running at 22mps. Great range. Also a good price.

Thanks so much for your reply. It doesn't take much to get me to reconsider a purchase like this. Like most people, I'm looking to make this as easy as possible while keeping expenses down. I hope I don't find any posts that don't agree with you, 'cause then i'm not sure what i'll do. I'll post back here when I decide and get it all connected to let others know how it went...if anyone cares?!
L8R,
Jim

No Problem.. If you go with the D-Link just make sure you update the Router to the newest Firmware and get the newest drivers for the PC Card.

And when it comes to what is best, that changes with the person you talk to.

I forgot to bring up Linksys. From what I have used and read about Linksys seems to be a hit or miss. Some people never have problems with the gear. But some have lots of problems. We use Linksys at my work. It is ok but I have had some problems. I call Linksys just ok. Not great or bad.

I don't know that my Netgear connection losses are typical for all routers, but I know two people with Linksys setups who have the same problem. Its only a minor nuisance.

Isn't this about the liveliest forum you've ever seen?

yo. why would a wireless bridge not work with a wireless router? i read a cnet review of some belkin products that could not be used with wireless bridges. are they not just relays for signals traveling back and forth?

also, can linux be made to work with nearly any product if given enough time, or are there limitations built into hardware? it seems support is tough with linux, but it's so much better than windows. thoughts?

also, anybody hear about a new wireless version of the Audiotron? This would be my primary reason to use a bridge at the moment - to provide an ethernet port for an Audiotron. Thanks for opinions and comments.

I do not think there are any limitations built in to the hardware for Linux. It is the fact that there just are not drivers and support for alot of thing. But I think that will change with time.

As far as the major brands go, Linux seems to work with most things fine. It's worth just doing a google to see if the card you're interested in works okay. But things like access points and routers are obviously no problem as they don't interface with the computer directly.

I've found that Linux is a real pleasure to use, compared with windows, and suport is great if you use the Internet / google to find out the answers to problems!

Tom