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I recently bought a Netgear WNDR3300 Dual Band 802.11n router and a WNDA3100 USB adapter. Prior to this, I had been chugging along quite happily with a Netgear .11g system. Never had any problems with it.

Two main issues with the .11n router/card:

1. That bl..dy stupid blue flashing light on the top. When the house lights are off the office looks like a sixties disco club. Even when the lights are on, it is so distracting. Googled this and found many others who loathe this little horror. Someone said there should be a small cover included in the box. I didn???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡ét find anything. Anybody know if there is any way to configure the thing so that the blue rays of death can be shut off ? I know it???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡és doing this deliberately just to annoy me. I???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡ém sure that when I leave the room it goes off.Have got a piece of cardboard box on top of it just now, and the sight of that irritates me even more !! Don???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡ét quite want to put the black masking tape on it yet [ I know that will annoy me even more???¡é?¡é???????|.].Of course, if I try and put the router somewhere where I can't see it, my sig level plummets downstairs where my main PC is, and for good measure the rays of death still find their way to my eyes from under the table.

2. The whole shebang works quite good, but every now and then that evil little double computer icon thingy at the bottom of the screen shows a red cross. My profile then seems to disappear and that annoying ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°Virtual Profile???¡é?¡é???????? jobby appears. I try to progress logically, by de-installing the software and re-installing it. Sometimes I have to re-boot the computer several times before it finally ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°locks on???¡é?¡é????????. I cannot find any repeatable pattern to solving this. Googled this problem and found quite a few other folks out there in the same boat. Anybody know of any repeatable procedures that could help ?

Muchas Gracias.

Bye the way, don???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡ét get me started on Netgear???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡és tech support center. An hour of:

???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°What about the Virtual Profile problem ? [ after having spent twenty minutes telling the bloke every single thing I had done to try and troubleshoot this ].

???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°Yes, very perplexing. Have you tried switching the router off and then back on..????¡é?¡é????????

???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°Grrrrrr???¡é?¡é???????|???¡é?¡é???????|???¡é?¡é???????|.???¡é?¡é????????

He left me with the quick and efficient way to solve my problem ???¡é?¡é???????|.

???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°Call Microsoft !!!???¡é?¡é????????

Dave

Bye the way, am running Windows Vista Home Edition 32 bit.

Have been battling this thing all evening. It's two in the morning and my brain hurts....

Re the blue light, I believe that you should be able togently depress the dome and the light should go off.

Tks

I tried that, but it shut off all comms with my wireless card !

As I'm typing this, my internet connection is fine from my wireless PC, but the network notification icon has a red cross on it. Usually when the cross is there, I'm completely shut off. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to this.

Of course Netgear Tech Support told me "We have THOROUGHLY tested this router and associated wireless card with all forms of Vista. We have not heard of this problem before". [ obviously a script he was reading from ].

I then read out about half a dozen complaints of the exact same problem [ the comms problem ] from various websites, including one of their own !!

"Ah, well, maybe they have some bad Microsoft software...."

"Ah, I thought, how foolish of me not to have thought of that. I just hate that bad shrink-wrapped, store bought fresh from Redmond software...."

Dave

I owe you a beer sir !!

Thought again about pushing that button, and thought maybe I was using too much force. Tried pressing gently with my finger, but still shut everything off. Thought that maybe my own unit had an extra-sensitive switch, so I took a pencil with an eraser on the end and gave it the tiniest tap - off went the lights !! Good stuff. I don't know if you have ever had feelings of extreme hate towards a piece of hardware, but I have. I'm sure it's up there plotting on how to turn itself back on.....

Here's some youtube stuff. The Range-Max I have doesn't have the small button mentioned on the old "g" units.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x706yCCTyO0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omqHFPuXipU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXO9TyOmgHU&feature=related

Now we just have to sort out that virtual profile rubbish...


Dave

Have gone through all the suggestions [ where applicable ]in the following links [ except one ] without success. The only one I haven???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡ét tried yet is the very last comment in the third link below. My Internet connection is up and running just now and won???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡ét try that suggested fix until such times as the problem arises again.


http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=32518

http://www.enworld.org/forum/software-computers-video-games-d-d-utilities/266140-wireless-internet-windows-vista-problem-maybe-you-genius-can-help.html

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistanetworking/thread/071dd623-c741-4cd2-ad7a-39472c6e3183

Sometimes when the network connection icon in the system tray shows the little red cross, I???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡ém knocked off the Internet and my wireless link is down. Othertimes the wireless link is up [ I???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡ém associated with the AP ], but no Internet.

Other times, the red cross is there, with a notification of ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°You???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡ére not connected to any networks ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡° yet the link and Internet connection are fine. Grrrrr???¡é?¡é???????|

Sure this is some sort of Netgear/Microsoft driver horror???¡é?¡é???????|

Dave

Well, after I lost my Internet connection once more, this gave me the opportunity to try the suggestion referred to previously.

I took the install to the point where it was going to ask me to install the USB card. The screen at the time didn't have a cancel option, just "Next".

Didn't click on "Next", just put the card in. Bingo ! Windows recognized it straight away and the good old Network and Sharing Center came right up. A few seconds later I was back on the Internet.

The Netgear screen just hung around until I re-booted.

So far it's been stable.

A beer for the bloke who suggested it.

The Internet has many 'orrible things but many good things too !!

Final score:

Random helpful blokes off the Internet: 2

Netgear Tech Support: a big fat ZERO

Dave