TRENDnet 54Mbps Wireless G PCI Adapter TEW-423PI
by TRENDnet
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List Price: Our Price: $18.86 You Save: $18.13 (49%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $5.85 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of TRENDnet 54Mbps Wireless G PCI Adapter TEW-423PI
Customer Review: Can't beat the price and ease of use
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a first time wireless network user with basic computer skills. The card was very simple to install and setup. Followed the step by step in the quick setup guide, and was up and surfing the net in less than 10 minutes. I would have given 5 stars, but the only thing I took off for was the signal strength. It seems a little weak at times. The wireless router is about 30 feet away, and I'm only getting about 60-70% signal quality, when my wifes laptop right next to me is picking up nearly 95% signal strength. Could be a variety of factors such as placement of the tower and such, but thought it would be a little better, seeing how close I was to the source. Still, for the price and quick setup, I would recommend this product.Customer Review: Cheap. Pain to install. Use the Realtek Driver
Summary: 3 Stars
It created a software error when I installed it - "Microsoft Kill Process Utility" created a fault. I uninstalled the supplied software and downloaded the software from the chip manufacturer - Realtek RTL8185L. Unzip the file to a temporary folder, install the card. Tell windows that you want to install from a specific location and browse to the folder. It will install the drivers, and then you can use the standard windows wireless manager to take care of connecting to your network. Driver can be found at Realtek's site. I also went into device manager and turned off the Let Windows Turn Off this Device to Save Power function.
Seems to work better now, but still drops off unexpectedly...
Customer Review: Cheap, simple & effective
Summary: 5 Stars
I moved my old desktop CPU into a corner of my condo - far away from my router. I was a bit worried, because my laptop couldn't get much of a signal from the same location. But for $25, it was worth a try. All in all, it took about 3 minutes to set this up and get a signal - a strong signal. While I'm somewhat tech savvy, most of the wireless stuff I've done has been frustrating and difficult. This was totally the opposite. I installed the software, popped off the side of my dell tower, dropped the card into the PCI slot, restarted the computer and it automatically picked up my signal. That was it. No problems with dropped signals - no problems of any kind. And for $25, you won't find anything remotely as good.Customer Review: Good - but no Vista support and so-so support
Summary: 3 Stars
As others already mentioned, the 423PI says Windows Vista will automatically detect and configure the card - but it doesn't. Mine did detect, but failed to install drivers "automatically" as TRENDnet's site says it will.
Then comes another already mentioned caveat: support. After 9 minutes talking to a representative, it was suggested that I install the card into another PCI slot and, if that wasn't successful, on another PC running Vista! Now imagine this to a less literate user, and you can figure the mess.
At the end, as I was running a trial version of Vista just for testing, I moved back to XP; the card was properly recognized and, with the drivers on the CD, configured in less than a minute.
Customer Review: Not worth the money
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased this PCI card because it was cheap. I admit that. Sadly, that is exactly what I got, a cheap, poor quality card. It consistently had trouble with the Wifi signal in my home when other computers did not. It dropped the connection all the time and then wouldn't pick it back up, so that I had to reboot the computer to get back online. The software that comes with it disables the standard Windows XP login, so instead you have to type in your username and cannot have two users logged in at the same time. Finally, after about 6 months it just stopped working altogether. Honestly, I'm glad to get rid of it. I bought a much more expensive Linksys wireless card to replace it and am much happier.