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RAYMOND P.

RAYMOND P.

Joined on 09/26/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review
TP-LINK TL-WR702N Wireless N150 Travel Router, Nano Size, Multifunction, 150Mbps
TP-LINK TL-WR702N Wireless N150 Travel Router, Nano Size, Multifunction, 150Mbps

Pros: The Swiss-Army-Knife of WiFi gadgets.

Cons: Label is tough to read, even in good light. I needed a magnifying glass.

Overall Review: I used mine as a home WiFi router for a few weeks when my main WiFi router died. Coverage was excellent and connections (Windows laptop, three tablets, two cellphones) never dropped. In Client mode, I connected a media streamer through the Ethernet jack to link it with the WiFi router that my NAS connects to. Playback of videos on my TV, including standard-def DVD rips, was flawless; MUCH better than using the WiFi dongle on the media streamer. Presently using it to connect (in Client mode) a VoIP ATA to my home network. No problems so far.

Most Critical Review

Worked well... at first.

Symantec Norton Internet Security 2010 5 user 1 CD
Symantec Norton Internet Security 2010 5 user 1 CD

Pros: No infections that I'm aware of.

Cons: After 275 days my system had slowed to the point where I couldn't watch streaming content on the Web (Hulu, YouTube, etc.) without severe and prolonged freezing of the playback. Problem disappeared when I removed NIS 2010 and tried a competitor's product (Panda, in this case).

Overall Review: Typically 2 seconds of video followed by 18-30 seconds of "buffering"... basically unusable. I have 3 Windows-based systems; all with 1Gb of memory. Two run XP-SP3 and Avast, and I never had a problem with them. The third machine runs Vista Home Premium, and this is the machine I installed NIS on. Not sure if Vista's to blame or NIS, but I suspect 1 Gb may not be enough for NIS running under Vista.

Cheaper Than Upgrading

Acer Aspire AXC-603G-UW13 Desktop PC Celeron J1900 2.0GHz, 4GB Memory, 500GB HDD, DVDRW, Windows 8.1 64Bit (DT.SUVAA.003)
Acer Aspire AXC-603G-UW13 Desktop PC Celeron J1900 2.0GHz, 4GB Memory, 500GB HDD, DVDRW, Windows 8.1 64Bit (DT.SUVAA.003)

Pros: Couldn't upgrade my old (ca. 2002) tower for anywhere near what this refurb'd Acer cost. Win8 by itself is $100. Decent quality. I don't expect it will last as long as my old tower, but overall I've had good luck with Acer/Gateway products.

Cons: Like others have mentioned, the system seems a little sluggish. They say it's a 7200 RPM drive but it doesn't feel like one. Not a deal-breaker though.

Overall Review: Condition of the one I received is like-new despite the packaging used by the refurbisher being substandard. One of the key caps was loose when I opened the carton but was easy enough to reattach.

Works surprisingly well

TRENDnet TPL-308E2K Powerline AV200 Nano Adapter Kit, Up to 200Mbps
TRENDnet TPL-308E2K Powerline AV200 Nano Adapter Kit, Up to 200Mbps

Pros: Simplicity... plug & play.

Cons: None I can think of.

Overall Review: I use them to connect a SlingBox in my living room to my network on the 2nd floor. Was going to install Cat-5E cable but the sale price of these were too appealing, so I decided to try them. They stream SD video just fine, no pauses or stuttering. Haven't tried any Hi-Def sources. The TrendNet utility claims 127 Mbps between the two adapters. My house has typical 16-gauge copper wiring.

Better Feature-Set than the others

Panasonic KX-TG6445T 1.9 GHz Digital DECT 6.0 5X Handsets Cordless Phone Integrated Answering Machine
Panasonic KX-TG6445T 1.9 GHz Digital DECT 6.0 5X Handsets Cordless Phone Integrated Answering Machine

Pros: Range, features, clarity, uses AAA batteries

Cons: Can ONLY use NiMh batteries. Call-Block not as flexible as I'd like, but still very good.

Overall Review: I've had two other Panasonic cordless phones over the years before these. The oldest was from the 1990's and the last one I bought was a 900 Mhz model. Had good experience and life from both, and I was still using the 900 Mhz phone. Recently, I've had a problem with some solicitor (apparently exempt from the Federal Do-Not-Call law) calling the house phone 3 to 5 times a DAY, 6 days a week. I've never heard of them, never supported them, and don't know how they got my number. I asked them numerous times (politely) to stop calling and "lose" my number, but they simply ignored my request and called again. When my wife began complaining, I knew I had to do something. When I saw that these DECT Panasonic's had a call-block feature, I jumped on it. You can block by number, area-code, prefix, "Out Of Area", "Unavailable" or "Private" calls. All the caller hears is a Busy signal followed by a disconnect. Feature requires Caller-ID from the TelCo, but I had that anyway.

10/22/2010

Good, but not quite what I had hoped for

NETGEAR WN111-100NAR RangeMax Wireless Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g, IEEE 802.11n Draft USB 2.0 Up to 300Mbps Wireless Data Rates
NETGEAR WN111-100NAR RangeMax Wireless Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g, IEEE 802.11n Draft USB 2.0 Up to 300Mbps Wireless Data Rates

Pros: Arrived in 2 days, like-new condition, stable connection, very good range

Cons: No faster than 54 Mbps link speed when used with a Netgear MIMO-G router. Another reviewer (Zerotech) had specifically mentioned using this adapter with a WPN824, which I also have. I -hoped- that meant it would communicate at 108 Mbps, but that wasn't the case.

Overall Review: At first, I decided to let Windows (Vista HP sp1) install the driver for the adapter. Vista downloaded and installed what it needed and it worked fine. Unfortunately you can't see or change any parameters of the adapter using this method, so I ended-up deleting what Vista installed. After I installed the Netgear config software (v 2.0), performance at first was =dreadful= when paired with my Netgear WPN824 v3. When I checked advanced settings, I noted that "Wireless N (300 Mbps)" was checked. Since the WPN824 can't do 'N', I unchecked that option, and thank goodness that solved the problem. it's been rock-solid since.