User Reviews (41 - 51 of 95)

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Potential Warning

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: May 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was told by a salesman at Circuit City last night that Microsoft announced last week that they are getting out of the router/wireless networking business. I tried to confirm this info by searching the internet today, but couldn't locate anything (doesn't mean it's not true though). Perhaps consider LinkSys or D-Link instead?

Because the included firewall is not configurable (with the exception of using Port Forwarding), I've had difficulties with the things I've needed to do. Microsoft Online Support works well for questions, and they were able to walk me thru what I had to do to get the webcam that we host working, but they couldn't get the Windows XP Pro Remote Desktop feature to come through their firewall. They said it might be because my router is faulty, so they are replacing it. I am not optimistic that this will fix my Remote Desktop issue. It's most likely a problem related to the unconfigurable firewall.

If I could just start over, I'd probably go with the LinkSys router and wireless adapter.

The best Router ever .... Trust ME

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I NEVER have any problems with this router, no drop connection at all. I've used Netgear and Linksys before I switched to MN-700. They both made me crazy and if you call their tech, good luck! They sent you to India and don't forget to come back here and let us know.

Up and running in no time!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

After 2 days and many hours on the phone with Gateway & MSN tech support (help in setting up a Gateway brand router with MSN Broadband), I finally gave up and purchased the MN-700. I was so pleased. Set up was a breeze. Both wired and wireless computers working flawlessly. Haven't lost connectivity yet.

Seems as "You Luv it or you hate it"

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I replaced a wired homenetwork of 4 PC's running Win98se on 2PC's, Win XP and Win2K on dual boot machine(connected to cable modem), and finally a WinXP Pro box with MN-720 adapter. I only run wireless on the one XP Pro box but setup was easy and all machines works fine.
One reason that I believe DSL connection problems with this base station and the occasional cable modem problem is the quality of the broadband connection. First off DSL is flakey in my book and dependent on a lot of factors hinging around phone lines. Cable is superior conduit for data depending upon reliability of cable provider. That said, I have had zero lost connections for the two months of operation and connection at 54mbps 95% of the time. It is true that the software interface with the base station takes a pretty long time refreshing network components, but this is only a minor inconvenience. I was astounded at how easy the dual boot machine configured. I was initially worried that after install in the XP partition that booting into the Win2K partition was going to be a nightmare, but no problem! I suggest for those who give bad reviews to check the status and reliability of their broadband connection before blaming the hardware. I left a wired network primarily due to the Linksys router having tremendous difficulty with port forwarding setup to facilitate netcam sessions in MSN Messenger. I now regularly netcam with family all across the country without a hitch! I love it!

Excellent router choice for network newbie!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I recently bought my first laptop PC and thought it would be very handy to have a home network to connect to my desktop -- to share the high-speed Internet connection, print, make data backups, etc. I chose the Microsoft MN-700 base station, and I'm very glad I did!

I don't know much about networks, but the Microsoft software set-up makes it a snap. The software walks you through each step of the set-up process, and nothing is very difficult to do. Eg, you have to give a name (anything you want) to the base station, to the network itself, etc. You do need to pay careful attention to the instructions on the screen, because if you jump the gun and do something out-of-order, it may ruin the set-up process.

I did have one bump during the installation procedure. For some reason, when the software was trying to verify the settings that I had input and write them to the base station, it kept failing -- I think it was trying to access the Internet to do something, but I'm not sure. I did have restart the set-up process a few times, and finally, inexplicably, one of my attempts worked! I don't know what I did differently, if anything, during the set-up attempt that "took" but with a little persistence, it worked okay.

I didn't understand about WEP keys, but I chose 128-bit encryption to protect my network. The set-up doesn't make it plain that you need to write down the 26-character encryption key that it generates, because you'll need to input that same string of 26 characters into your laptop when it tries to authenticate for the first time. BTW, I have Windows XP Home Edition on my home computer and laptop.

Once I figured out that I had to transpose the 26-character WEP encryption key to my laptop, but laptop was able to connect to the Internet just fine!

I had a problem with file sharing and printing. I run Symantec's Norton Internet Security (NIS) 2004, and the personal firewall is turned on. In NIS, I had to run the Home Networking wizard so NIS would configure the firewall for my home network. Once that happened, I could print and share files on my network.

If you're running NIS (or another software firewall), you have to turn-off Windows XP firewall -- the setup procedures will give you this chance, so be sure to disable Windows XP firewall.

Also, you have to make sure to turn on file sharing on both the laptop and the desktop. Right click on a folder, choose Properties, then click the Sharing tab to enable folder sharing.

If you're a newbie like me, you CAN setup your own network without too much difficulty. Plan on making at least one phone call to a techie friend or to tech support to get over some hurdle you encounter.

Since I've installed everything, my network runs very smoothly and reliably. For less than $50, this router is an unbelievable deal.

Note: Microsoft is going out of the wireless router business, so don't plan on future hardware upgrades and probably minimal support for firmware updates. But if you get your network up and running, you won't likely be affected by this Microsoft business decision.

Failed after 2 1/2 months

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: July 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The router could not be set up with out help from tech service in India. After a month or so of good service it required occasiona restarting to work and then finally quit working all together. I tried to get the unit replaced but was told it is discontinued, however the store I bought it from will refund the purchase price.

I love it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: July 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have read everyone's descriptions of this product and although I am not a computer genius, I still feel that this is the best product on the market. I have been using this for about 4 months now and have had no problems what so ever. The signal strength is great and I had no problems hooking it up to my computer, laptop, and xbox. I highly recommend this product.

Router not a finished product yet

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: March 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This router has several serious bugs, the main one being it keeps loosing the internet connection through a cable modem. About every 5-10 minutes you have to reset both modems to regain the connection. A widespread and consistant problem, amoung others. See: microsoft.public.broadbandnet.hardware newgroup before you buy! No word from MS on a fix, don't seem to care.

Easy set up, but mysterious drops

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: May 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I decided to move up to g from b, from linksys to MS. No setup problems, ran great straight out of the box. But, and this is the reason for three stars, the router just drops connections at random. I read an earlier review that mentioned the same thing. I've looked for fixes on the MS site, but no mention of the issue when I last looked (I'm in Iraq for another four months, so maybe by the time I get back, there will be a firm ware fix). If you don't mind resetting your router anywhere from once a day to several times a day, no issues. If,like me, you find it annoying, stay away.

Drops connection all the time.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 9
Date: July 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I bought it because it was cheap and from microsoft. The next day they discontinued it. Now, I have all kinds of problems with the thing not being able to renew the ip address. I have a strong signal but nothing. The software to set up the hardware is useless. You have to be a power user to set the thing up and still will spend days debugging. The router works super great once the "rarely working" connection is established.

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