I bought this GPS receiver "flying blind" - I had little time and no experience. So I bought it through Amazon (from a Camera outfit in NYC), and it arrived really quickly. I didn't really know how it would work with my netbook computer and the GPS software that I had. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to set it up the first time, and then set up the com port (the default port wasn't the right one), but it wasn't too hard. Then I let it look for satelites - which took over 15 minutes. But when I fired up the GPS software, it worked the first time, and I have no issues with it whatsoever. I don't know if it drains the battery or not... one time it seemed to, and the next it didn't. I've only used it a few times, but I'm quite satisfied with it.