Operating the device

If the adapter is plugged inside a spare USB port and there are no drivers present, the LED will stay lit purple:



After inserting the installation CD into the drive, we are prompted to execute the autorun.exe application:



The disk autorun shows up and we can choose to install the software, but also view the electronic installation guide, the user manual, access the web support or register the purchased product:



What I really liked about the software is that it has a Software Update utility which prompts us to check if there are any updates on the Internet for the driver or install the one present on the disk:



In case an update is found, the search results are shown and we can proceed to the new driver download:



After the driver and utility kit have been downloaded from the Internet, the software tells us where they have been saved, for a later use:



After the software installation is complete, we are prompted to insert the adapter in a spare USB port:



When running the utility for the first time, which has been installed along with the drivers, we can see that it has multiple tabs; in the Settings one, we can see the name of the connected adapter, a large NETGEAR logo, a place where we can select, save or delete profiles with different network configurations, the detected network name (SSID), a button to reveal some advanced settings, select the network type and modify the settings regarding security; on the bottom, we are informed that the adapter is in scan mode. When scan mode is activated, the LED on the device will cycle between orange and blue colors:






After the scan is complete, in the Networks tab, we can see the name of the detected networks, the channel, its security, the signal strength, the MAC address and the network type:



In the Statistics tab, the Transmit/Receive performance graph can be seen, along with the statistics in the right part:



In the About tab, we can see information regarding the driver version, the driver date, the adapter MAC address and the allocated IP address; here we can also see the version of the running utility and its build date:



After the network is selected from the ones detected in the “Networks” tab, when we come back to the Settings screen, we can type in the security key, if required:



In the same section, we can push the “Advanced Settings” button, for more tweaking:



When the connection to the network is done successfully, we can observe the status on the bottom of the window has changed, and we can see the name of the wireless network, the MAC of the router/access point to which the connection has been made, the allocated IP address, on which channel the adapter has connected, the speed and the signal level: