11-MBPS Wireless USB Adapterby Gigafast Inc.

Rating:
Summary: Effortless Wireless Networking
Review: I live in a three story house with a basement. I have been running a wireless network in my house for the last four years. My current setup consists of an Orinoco AP running in infrastructure mode and 4 laptops using a variety of Orinoco and SMC PCMCIA cards (All running 11Mbps). These are hubbed into an inhouse ethernet setup to access printers and server systems, as well as for access to Internet. My current setup cost me upwards of $350 to setup 4 years ago.

(...) I wanted to try them and see if I would want to use them for a project I was working on for a friend. I ordered two and proceed to test.

I first tested these in my current network, to see if I could access all my systems. I installed one in one of my laptops running XP pro, and the other in a server running XP pro. Installation was a breeze with the provided sw on the CD. Everything came up and running in about a few minutes. I ran the initial tests with my existing network SSID to incorporate these into my setup. I could access everythying and use all shared resources at full speed from everywhere in the house. My AP is located in an office room on the the second floor facing the back of the house. I got excellent reception from everywhere, including in the basement. Actually, these worked better than my original Orinoco cards, which in certain parts of the house would switch to lower speeds. I never had a downspeed synch with these adapters.

Then I proceeded to go outside to test reception in the street and yard. I walked down the street with my laptop surfing the net. I could go as far as approx. 200 feet away from my house when I started experiencing speed drops. When I got back closer to the house, the adapters synched back up at the highest speed (11Mbps).

Next, I wanted to test the peer-to-peer mode of operation, so I deinstalled the adapter from my server and installed it in a second laptop running Win2000. This installation was also effortless and I was operational in a few minutes. In this test, I configured a second SSID for the two adapters and created a second network in addition to my original one. All tests went flawless. I could use both networks and no problems at all.

I also installed and tested the network management sw that comes with the adapters. It was very easy to use and allowed me instant visibility of both networks in my house. I could even switch between the two of them with a simple click of the mouse and operate PP or AP mode. The adapters also worked under Windows XP wireless configuration utility. But I preferred the Gigafast sw because it allowed me to see my other networks and switch between them easily.

I do not use any encryption setup and did not test the WEP capabilities of the adapters.

I like the fact that these are very small devices and I like the fact that they use the USB ports to connect. However, on a laptop with only a single USB port, these take up a very valuable resource. If one uses a USB mouse or keyboard, it might present a conflict for ports. I much prefer using them on a desktop system.

The adapters come with a male-female USB-A extension cable that allows installation away from the PC or laptop. It is 3.5 feet long, and makes it possible to position the adapters away from the PC or other sources of interference, or simply allow for better clearance and positioning for the signal strength - very convenient. This is important because if one plugs adapter into the USB port on a laptop directly, they protrude from behind the laptop (in my case the USB port is located in the back of the laptop) and are prone to bending or breakage if one is not carefull.

Overall, my experience with these units have been very positive and I would recommend them highly to anyone considering setting up a home wireless network.