MN-500 and MN 700 wireless base stations

[Guest]

I am thinking about migrating my home system to Vista. Will vista support my
Microsoft wireless base station (Mn-500)?

 

[Barb Bowman]

The MN-500 is ancient - and while there have not been any reports
I've seen good or bad, routers of that generation in general have
had some issues. You should try it and see if things work for you,
but be prepared to replace it - there won't be any firmware updates
for it.

I am thinking about migrating my home system to Vista. Will vista support my
Microsoft wireless base station (Mn-500)?

--

Barb Bowman
MS Windows-MVP
Expert Zone & Vista Community Columnist
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/

 

[Guest]

I have the 700 and it does OK on Vista. Ironically, MS no longer supports
these discontinued routers--doesn't even recognize the model. But routers
don't require drivers, so you should be fine--although I would consider
upgrading to a better router soon. It's the wireless/wired network cards
that have trouble with Vista. BTW, if your home system is older than 2 years
or does not have the required hardware, don't even think about Vista. Wait
until you buy a new computer. Vista computers network nicely with computers
running XP.

 

[Barb Bowman]

I guess I should expand my thoughts on this -
The MN-500 only supports WEP on wireless. This is a risk. For that
reason alone, I wouldn't want to use it. The MN-700 supports WPA
Personal (but not WPA Personal 2) and even the support that is there
takes a huge performance hit (and the router displays a message so
stating).

I have the 700 and it does OK on Vista. Ironically, MS no longer supports
these discontinued routers--doesn't even recognize the model. But routers
don't require drivers, so you should be fine--although I would consider
upgrading to a better router soon. It's the wireless/wired network cards
that have trouble with Vista. BTW, if your home system is older than 2 years
or does not have the required hardware, don't even think about Vista. Wait
until you buy a new computer. Vista computers network nicely with computers
running XP.

--

Barb Bowman
MS Windows-MVP
Expert Zone & Vista Community Columnist
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/