Cameras
Camcorders
Cell Phones
Components
Desktops
HDTV
Home Theater
GPS
Laptops
Monitors
MP3 Players
Networking &
Printers
Storage
RSS
Kit consists of:
Netgear WGT624 router
Netgear WG311T PCI adapter
Netgear WG111 USB adapter
The Netgear kit hits the sweet spot in performance and price, making it our Best Buy. We liked the kit's sleek silver casing and excellent browser-based setup utility, as well as the included cheat sheet of connection settings used by many major ISPs. Detailed context-sensitive help and thorough explanations run alongside the browser setup utility. And the Netgear is no slouch: Running in the Super G mode in our tests, it achieved a very respectable average throughput of 195 mbps--not the fastest on the chart, but easily enough for general use. The router also offers one of the most complete sets of routing and security tools that we saw, such as e-mail intrusion alerts, WDS support, and an SPI firewall. It's also moderately priced: At $205, the kit is only $35 more expensive than the cheapest we tested. The only minor wrinkle is that the WG111 USB 2.0 adapter does not support WPA encryption or the Super G enhanced mode; Netgear does offer a PC Card (the WG511T) that supports both.
Upshot: The Netgear is near the top in virtually every category: performance, features, setup, support, and even looks. It's a great package for putting your systems onto a wireless network.
Becky Waring
