Netgear GA311 Works On Vista

Netgear has always been one of my most favorite computer network hardware companies. To me, they are a quiet and steady company that produces good quality products at a fair price. They're not full of fluff or hype. They don't over extend themselves too far like other companies do when trying to be all things to everyone, reaching into every market corner they can get into.

They have, over the years manufactured and produced reliable hardware and they continue to do so. In a prior post I mentioned that they had a retail network card the GA311, a gigabit card, that had printed on its retail box "Vista capable". I purchased this card from the retail store because it was the only one that even had VISTA written on it. The card didn't come with desktop software drivers but did have on it a link to their web site from which you can download the drivers for Vista but this was not true. The page on their site stated that Vista comes with the drivers needed already on the Vista media. It probably does but my Vista wasn't doing the right thing and the card did not work. I found in their support knowledge base forum that others were also having an issue with this card and lack of drivers.

Netgear did the right thing for their customers. After a about a week, they posted their drivers for download from their web site and they worked perfectly. Way to go Netgear!

So for anyone who may have come across this post either by researching whether the Netgear GA311 works on Vista or not before buying, I want to tell you to go ahead and BUY BUY BUY! The GA311 works on Vista. There aren't enough network cards compatible with Microsoft Vista yet and many old cards may not even get a new driver thus forcing users to get another card if they want to upgrade to the lates operating system. The Netgear GA311 definitely works on Vista - I'm using it right now!

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GA311 Doesn't work on Vista or newer Windows 10 & 11

OK, 35 dollars isn't exactly a lot of money but it's sorely missed when just thrown away or lost. Take for example the purchase of a brand new shiny network card from a reputable retailer and a reputable manufacturer. Both the retailer adding this in their inventory and stock with it stating on the box Vista capable and the manufacturer printing it there when it DOES NOT WORK.

The Netgear GA311 does not work with Microsoft Vista and Netgear has a special web page setup so people can go and check on products offered to see if they are Vista capable and also download drivers. The GA311 is listed and next to it not a convenient download link but a statement saying the drivers are included in Vista. Yeah Right! All copies except mine I guess. Maybe Netgear had a special magic Vista copy that had their drivers on the DVD...not mine.

Dell was very disappointing regarding this same Vista upgrade. The Dell system is a fairly new Optiplex GX280. A nice system with very good speed. Vista installed but without a network card the desktop is a big nothing. A useless black box with fancy LED lights on it. the integrated NIC of course doesn't work and after hours of trying every driver available from the manufacture because of course Dell had absolutely nothing on their web site for this desktop in regards to network card drivers - how lame. This is one of the reasons I prefer HP desktops over Dell's. Everyone in tech support knows that HP is great at providing support for their products especially in the form of drivers.

Supporting Technology with Technology

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