Cisco-Linksys WPC54G Wireless-G Notebook Adapter
by Linksys
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List Price: Our Price: $9.95 You Save: $48.04 (83%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $7.50 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cisco-Linksys WPC54G Wireless-G Notebook Adapter
Customer Review: Disappointed
Summary: 1 Stars
I have always purchased Linksys in the past, routers, switches & hubs with absolutly no trouble. I read all the reviews here, some good, some bad. I took the advice of some who said not to use the setup CD and to download straight from the web. Another said to setup the router and not let your "know it all" 19 year old set up the laptop adapter first, among many others. Well, I set up the wireless router WRT54GS but could not get a clean install of the software drivers not even from the web. Finally I got it to install and work. It worked fine as a router with a Ethernet (wired) connection to my laptop. Then the fun started when I tried to install the Laptop Adapter WPC54G. I can't begin to explain the hours and pain that was spent. No matter what I did or how I did it, the adapter was active and appeared to be ok BUT it would not communicate withe Router. I tried every configuration I could. And, Yes, I called Linksys. Even at 3AM they are there to help you .... RIGHT! I called them 3 times, was on the phone for almost an hour each time and GOT NO WHERE. It might have been faster if the people spoke english as a first language!. Bottom line, Linksys said there must be something wrong with either the adapter or router, or both and left me hanging. THANKS. I bought both pieces back to the store and returned them. Would have liked to exchanged them for another Linksys set but, the experience was very very BAD. I purchased the D-Link DI-624 108Mbps G Wireless router and the D-Link DWL-G650 108G Laptop adapter. In 20 minutes I was up and Running. Lesson Learned? ... If you buy Linksys or anyone else, and it does work out of the box (if you followed instructions), consider it dead and don't waste anymore of your time trying and trying to make it work!Customer Review: Not the best choice, in my opinion
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased this wireless adapter to use in a Sony laptop. Chose Linksys because that is the brand of our Router and because we use a larger Linksys USB wireless adapters in the desktop computers on our Network.
This adapter picks up our wireless signal at only about one-half the strength at which the Linksys wireless adapter in our desktops receives the wireless signal. When the larger desktop adapter is connected to the laptop signal strength increases significantly. That tells me the problem is most likely related to this "slide-in" wireless Linksys adapter WPC54G.
A second problem is with the wireless adapter software. It causes a "dll not registered" error message to be shown every time we boot up the laptop. The various fixes mentioned on the Internet didn't fix it for us. After struggling with the problem for hours we simply gave up on it and now live with it. But it is still annoying.
Attempts to use the Windows Wireless Connection program with the adapter failed. We could see our router and could even connect to it, but could not receive data from it when we used that instead of the program on the install CD. Eventually we went back to the supplied CD's program with the "dll not registered" error and are finally on the Internet, albeit with a lesser signal strength.
It works, but it is not all that we'd hoped for given our previous good experiences with Linksys wireless products.
This item was purchased through Amazon. Shipping took longer than expected. There was a USPS deliver confirmation number we were told to check to see the progress of our package, but no information showed up on it on the USPS webpage other than a message that a label had been printed.
Customer Review: okay card, terrible software
Summary: 3 Stars
If you purchase this card, you're going to get the consumer-level, mid-grade card that you're paying for. This will probably be perfectly fine for you if there aren't any considerable obstacles (e.g. brick walls) between you and your base station, and if you don't need to configure the WEP encryption.Side-by-side, a Lucent wireless card gets a better signal and is able to maintain it through aforementioned obstacle (brick wall). This Linksys card has a weaker signal and flaps quite a bit. The Cisco 802.11b card is allegedly better than the Lucent card, and I haven't had the occassion to test one of those.
Having said that, this card does function fine when operating under conditions that are more wireless-friendly.
The software, on the other hand, is a nightmare if you need to configure the WEP encryption. I accidentally entered data into the WEP Passphrase field, for example, and I could not find a way to clear that data without editing my registry. Even if you only have one WEP key, you'll need to enter it in all 4 available key fields. You'll repeatedly get an error message about key length if you leave a key field blank. Copy-and-paste functionality appears to be unavailable (it is actually hiding under the right mouse button when you click on text entry fields), which is annoying when you have to enter the same 26-digit hex key 4 times. In short, it's non-intuitive and potentially disastrous for someone who isn't comfortable with regedit.
If you don't need advanced configuration features, and you're going to use this card in a reasonably small area with few obstacles, you will probably be perfectly happy with this card. Otherwise, I'd recommend spending another [$$$] and going with Lucent's or Cisco's 802.11b cards.
Customer Review: Installation problems and constant disconnection.
Summary: 2 Stars
I installed the BEFCMU10 with the WRT54G Router on my XP desktop, which went without a hitch. The problems started when I tried to use the WPC54G notebook adapter on my laptop, which was also running Windows XP. According to the installation instructions, I was told that everything should work without the installation disk if I was using XP. That was not the case. As soon as I placed the card into my computer (HP ze4101), it froze. Restarting the computer did nothing. My first call to customer support revealed that I needed to update the drivers.Once that was done, my laptop did not freeze, but now it would not communicate with the router. A call to customer support showed that my adapter was assigned "a bad IP address" and they gave me a number to manually enter. Apparently, this is a common problem...so maybe it would have been a good idea to put something in the installation instructions.
After correcting the IP address problem, the card would connect for about 2 minutes then drop the connection, despite being about 3 feet from the router. Another call to customer support, and about 30minutes later, I was told to return it.
Once you get the replacement card working, it is not so great either. My router is in one room, and when I am in an adjacent room, I can surf the net for about 10-20 minutes before I lose the connection. I have not been able to surf for longer than half an hour. I remove the card and stick it back in and it usually picks up the connection again. Annoying.
This is the only notebook card I have ever used, so I don't know if the others are better. But installation should not have been this problematic.
Customer Review: Great range. Easy Set up. Small problem with signal loss
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm using this card with the associated Linksys WRT54G wireless router and a Sony Vaio PCG-GR250 laptop running WinXP SP1. The range is good/low at 35Mbps at 120ft with 2 walls. The installation took 3 minutes using Windows Zero Wireless configuration. The instructions seem to be updated by Linksys judging from previous posts on this card though it still needs work. Pass phrase is not supported by XP and if you manually input the 26 hexidecimal WEP 128 key what is not stated is that the key can have letters from A-F, numbers 0-9 and some symbols. A new driver is available from Linksys than the one that was shipped with mine and install is painless.I did have a small problem with the signal cutting out every 3 minutes. This problem is because of IEE 802.1x authentication being enabled by XP and not the fault of the card. Every time I changed the SSID XP defaulted to enabling the 802.1x authentication. To change the authentication: Control Panel>Network Connections>rt click Wireless Network Connection select Properties. In the new window, tab to Wireless Network. Under the Preferred networks pane select your wireless network and hit the Properties radio button. In this new window, tab to Authentication. The "Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network" box should be unchecked.
IEE 802.1x authentication is for port controlled server authentication and is not needed in most home networks.
For security, under your network Properties window you should have WEP 128 enabled and the Network Authentication should be "Open". Also, change your SSID to something obscure and do not broadcast it.