Scorchingly Hot! PANASONIC Router Misprice

[cratervalley]

http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=1145&Product_Id=1368699&showcase=t

It does it all HomePNA, Wireless (with PC Card adaptor), Ethernet, Cable/Broadband, Firewall.

Listed as $39.99

Real retail is: $249.95

Here's ZDNet's review:

http://www.zdnet.com/supercenter/stories/overview/0,12069,480526,00.html

Please do not kill the deal and order 10.

[RyanJL]

I don't believe this is a misprice at all. I bought this very model at this same price a couple weeks ago from their site. And even their printed catalogue has the same price listed. But regardless, I'm rather impressed with this router. HomePNA and ethernet both, ideal for connecting directly to a hub to share internet with multiple PC's, and uses DHCP. And yeah, the price versus anything else is very nice!

[Blackie_Lawless]

I ordered one, lets see what happens

[Bo]

I would order if I needed one, but already have my network set up.. God price though.

[msh11]

Does anyone know off the top of their head how much it would be to add the wireless cards (router and pc or pcmcia) to this unit? This could be a great cheap way to do a wireless gateway or am I missing something?

EDIT>>nm, it lists the cards @ $89.99 ea, for either pc or for the router, and you need one for each pc you plan to connect wirelessly to

[cratervalley]

Ok maybe not a misprice, but a heck of a deal

http://search.shopping.yahoo.com/search/all?p=Panasonic+Concourse+Broadband+Networking+Gateway&Y=0&mid=&did=&pf=&pt=&X=2&r=&f=14489115&q=&rkeys=&clink=

Yahoo shopping lists the next expensive one at $89, and they go all the way up to $250.

It's nice to have the option to expand to wireless, even if it isn't 802 compatible.

[Warlord]

If I'm reading it right you have to purchase wireless cards on for both base unit and pc units. That's $ 190.00 more + 39.00 for unit.
MMMMM........Not sure if that's deal ! .......?
If you can get deals on wireless cards then that might be worth it.

[Kevster]

Hmmm.....

After looking at CDW, this is what I found about the Panasonic Concourse Broadband Networking Gateway:

Product Information
Adds high-speed internet access and file sharing via Ethernet, phone line, and wireless systems

Note: This product has been discontinued as of Thursday, March 14, 2002.

UNAVAILABLE ONLINE
Your Price $249.95
Usually Ships 4-6 Days
CDW Part No. 264166
Mfg. Part No. KX-HGW200

After reading that, I get this feeling like J&R can't wait to get rid of these at firesale prices. You have to buy the Whitecap wireless PCMCIA adapters seperately to get wireless to work and even then , it is not 802.11b compatible.

My personal opinion? Pass on this one...
:disa:

[BazzX]

Note that the "wireless" portion of this router is an OPTIONAL upgrade. It is also not 802.11b Wifi compliant. A big deal if you want to leverage your wireless pc card investment anywhere else or if you are buying a notebook with built-in WiFi.

BazzX

EDIT: woops ... someone else added the same reply ... oh well

[cratervalley]

Once they have a firesale on the discontinued router, possibly the cards will also be marked down to a deeply discounted price. I say if you aren't looking to expand to wireless right away and need an all-in-one it's a pretty good deal.

[attgig]

pretty good just for ethernet AND phoneline networking...
I'm considering this for the phoneline, but not sure about phoneline cards.... :-/

can any phoneline card work with this router?

[cratervalley]

Yes any 10Mbps and 1Mbps Home PNA-compliant phoneline cards will work.

Check here for a great review plus screen shots :

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/reviews/panasonic_kxhgw200.asp

[cratervalley]

Just as I suspected!

J&R is now blowing out the wireless cards at half-price:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/jandr/pan-kx-hgc200.html

$54.99

They are on backorder right now, but well worth it if they come in, as the regularly retail for over $100

[slikkster]

What did I miss where it says these are not 802.11a or b compatible/compliant?

According to Sharewave.com, the makers of Whitecap technology, they ARE compatible/compliant.

http://www.sharewave.com/Products/Standards/standards.html

Edit: after some further reading, it appears this interoperability is with "WhiteCap2" protocols vs. the original Whitecap. However, the question then is, is the Panasonic firmware/software upgradeable to WhiteCap 2? If so, then this might be a steal. But Panasonic would have to offer the upgrade.

[cratervalley]

From BD at Fatwallet:

"I called Panasonic and asked them some questions about these cards. They are discontinued, as Panasonic has new whitecap II technology coming out, which is _not_ backwards compatable with the whitecap products. Neither are they compatable with 802.11b (as has already been noted). The card does not require cardbus capability so it will work in older laptops (as do some but not all 802.11b cards; i.e. Linksys will but D-Link won't). The whitecap technology is supposed to provide more consistent data transfer; there are a few reviews on the web if you do a search which confirm this, saying that these did better than 802.11b when transferring streaming media and other large files. I'm not usually one to buy obsoleted or industry-incompatable technology, but the reviews of these do look good other than the serious compatability drawback."

[cratervalley]

J&R confirmed they will have stock again on this PC card within 7-10 days. I recommend you use AMEX Blue so you can pricematch within 60 days if anyone blows these out cheaper.

[purduephotog]

Just an opinion with dealing with Panasonic equipment.

I had a 500$ amp go bad 1 year to the day of purchase - july 4th - and of course the tech center wasn't open. Took it in 3 days later on monday... won't cover the warranty. Complained and they would cover parts... well 4 months later after numerous phone calls, they sent it back supposedly fixed.

1 week later I turned it on- it wasn't fixed. 2 months after that (janurary now) I got word they finally figured out that it was sent back unrepaired, even tho the invoice said it was (and I was charged :P)

So now it is march, I still don't have the amp back.

Be warned with equipment from Panasonic. Warranty system is the worst I've ever experienced, not to mention the quality of product is far below anything I've seen.

Yes, whitecap sounds nice, but if they've upgraded it do you really want old, unreliable technology? Not worth the cost, IMHO.

[cratervalley]

Bump -- the wireless card is back in stock

http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=&pcount=&Product_Id=1368698

Got the router yesterday and it works like a charm.