Netgear ME101

I'm having issues with this bridge and I just wanted to make sure that I've made thorough stab at getting it to work and not missed anthing before I pitch a fit to the vendor to get it replaced.

This is my first bridge, but I'm certainly not new to networking or wireless access.

For starters the thing shipped w/ a standard ethernet cable, and not a crossover as indicated in the packing list. I do MAC filtering on my wireless network and have renamed the SSID to the name of a Canadian provence, lets say Quebec. After adding the bridge's MAC address to my network's access list, I used a Thinkpad running XP to do the config. I renamed the bridge, changed the password, changed the SSID from ANY to Quebec, changed the static IP from 192.168.0.200 to 192.168.0.22, verified that the bridge could see my wireless network (in the config utility the fourth tab over has a space with the name of the network and the wireless network's MAC address and channel ID).

The bridge would not connect to the network. In the status tab it would keep scanning across several channels and never report a stable connection. The wireless light on the bridge would not stop blinking. According to the scant documentation, that meant it was looking for a network. I was a mere 25' away from the access point with direct line of sight. If I would unplug the ethernet cable and cycle power on the bridge it would be a steady light. If I would then ping the static address I gave the bridge, I would get back low latency ICMP replies. But as soon as I connected the crossover cable from the bridge to the ethernet port on the laptop, the wireless light on the bridge would start blinking again.

I got this thing to connect to my Xbox and so I tried it over there, thinking the multiple NICs on the Thinkpad might be confusing the bridge (I don't know why it would, but in troubleshooting its best to reduce the number of possible faults). As instructed I had the Xbox powered down when I plugged in the crossover cable. I then powered up the bridge, saw that I had a steady wireless light then powered up the Xbox, at which point the wireless light would start blinking again and the Xbox would report no available network.

As I wrote this up, I'm conviced more than ever that this thing is bad, I'm going to pitch my fit now...

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TurboV
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