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Linksys WPC54G Wireless-G Notebook Adapter

Linksys WPC54G Wireless-G Notebook Adapter

List Price: $79.99
Your Price: $49.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Intermittent disconnection
Review: I will echo some of the positive things people have written about this product. I bought both the Wireless-G adapter and the Wireless-G router (v 1.1) from Linksys. I have used Linksys in the past and been quite happy with their stuff. In this situation I was pleased as i could be with the setup. I read the instructions mostly so that I would know what order to proceed in and i would say I was surfing wirelessly with no noticable loss of speed in about 10 minutes.

I can walk around my small NYC apartment with an "excellent" signal. Of course I'd expect that because there is no more than one wall between the AP and the laptop in any given poin in the apt.

That is where the good news ends. The bad news has two flavors,

1) the card gets extremely hot. I'm talking about too hot to touch and I'd guess it is up around 130-140 degrees F sometimes. It will heat up the entire left side of my laptop.

2) it disconnects sometimes. I wish i could find SOME pattern but it just seems to disconnect completely at random. it will disconnect when I am right on top of the router. Sometimes it will just come back on its own and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't I'll reboot, sometimes that works, sometimes not. I have checked some of the more obvious things one can find online regarding this issue and have found no real help. The driver and firmware are both up to date.

Aside from those two things i was a little bit troubled that the default configuration, even if you're all Linksys, is VERY vulnerable to attack. In fact, the default configuration has security that reminds me of what Microsoft thought security was when they were turning out Win 3.11. Suffice to say you'll be spending some time configuring your network if you don't want to be sharing it with everyone in the building.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: simple wireless networking
Review: as a newbie to wireless networking, i purchased this wireless notebook adapter to go along with a wireless g router (linksys also). works fine. no complaints. i have tried to use another wireless card (d-link) and it was not as easy as the linksys setup and software add-on. keeps it short and simple. i would definitely recommend this. also after messing around some more with the features, i stumbled upon the nice security features that this device offers.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good wireless card -- OK software
Review: The card works great and I haven't had a problem with it. The only problem is with the software. The software functions, but the interface and instructions are horrible if you're trying to connect to a well secured network. If you just use the default and un-secure network configurations on your access point, you never interact with the software. However, if you customize the security it's a little trickier.

Having said all that, DO NOT buy a Microsoft wireless adapter as their software and hardware is even worse.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beautiful
Review: I'm running Windows 2k on my laptop and the installation and setup of this adapter was flawless. No problems during installation and it works beautifully with my wireless network. It also picks up 3 other networks that other families in other homes are running. Each are more than 300 feet away and I get 80% or better on each of them.

I read below about an adapter that gets very hot. Mine doesn't get hot at all. It might be your laptop. If the card slot is close to your processor, the slot and card might be picking up the heat from that.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Attention windows XP users!!!!
Review: If your in mixed decisions about purchasing this product please be sure to read this. I had purchased this card originally to work in my old IBM Think pad running Windows 98 card worked great and had no problems. Bought a new laptop which is running windows XP home here is where the fun ends. and here is my summary. 1. There are a lot of known issues with this card and Windows XP. Microsoft has various "Hot Fixes" which are absolutly necesary! 2. If you are using a combination of Linksys Router and PCI card Make sure that all drivers and firmares are the absolute newest versions. 3. When installing the PCI card ****DO NOT****Install the software on the CD XP has software already installed called WIRELESS ZERO CONFIGURATION. When you put the pci card in it will ask you for the driver (your best bet would be to make sure you have the latest driver already downloaded! or on CD ready for install. 4. There are also issues with random connection drops. For more info on this card Please Go to GOOGLE and do a search on (TEK TIPS WPC54G) There is a large knowlege base of how to go about resolving any or all of these issues! I have also come to find out that there are various different problems with this card and other operating systems (Ie: ME,& 98 and 2k) However I am running both 98 & 2K computers and have no problems with either (I am using the latest drivers) I hope this helps! If you need more help feel free to e-mail me at nsfast @ optonline.net

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Poor documentation/support
Review: I purchased the WAP54G wireless access point along with the
WPC54G notebook adapter card. I found that the access point
was very easy to configure. There is a handy reset button
on the access point that returns you to the factory settings
should you make an error in configuration that you can't
recover from.

The WPC54G notebook adapter card is another matter.
The installation documentation did not match the installation
software. After I completed the installation, I was no longer

able to establish a VPN connection to my corporate office.
I kept receiving "Warning 201: Necessary VPN sub-substem is
not available". I called the 24/7 number and was told that I
needed to forward ports on my router, etc....... which did
nothing to resolve my problem.

I decided to uninstall all of Linksys software and wireless
card. My VPN problem was now a problem on my hardwired nic.
I actually had to perform a RESTORE from a RESTORE POINT just
prior to my installation of Linksys card and software.
Finally I was back to where I started from. I could once again
reach my corporate office via VPN. FYI, Laptop is running
Windows ME and VPN is CISCO Version 4.0.3 (A).

After MANY hours of research, I solved all of of VPN problems.
I downloaded the latest drivers from Linksys.
I unzipped the file into a C:\linksys directory on my laptop.
I inserted my wireless card and installed the drivers from
C:\linksys. I then installed the software from CD except for
the Odyssey client. Now everything is working, the wireless
or the hard wired nic can be used to establish a VPN connection
to the corporate office.

I am very happy with the results I am getting from the product
but I sure wish Linksys would put their documentation house in
order.

In short, the product works great but may not work the first
time. Be sure to check out all of the applications after
your install as you may need to do a RESTORE, not just and
uninstall. Also be aware that WPA (a step above WEP) may not
work unless you are using Windows XP.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good card
Review: Gave as gift with the router/switch for wife, wireless-G, good stuff, easy to install, and setup, she is very happy, and that makes me happy.....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent wireless notebook adapter
Review: The Linksys WPC54G notebook adapter is a treat. Mated to the Linksys WRT54G wireless router, G-speeds of 54MB/sec are possible. I found signal strength to be excellent throughout my house which spans 2 floors and 2,000 square feet.

The adapter itself is quite small and unobtrusive. It requires a PCMCIA port on your laptop, and very little else. Using the zero network configuration feature of Windows XP, I was able to connect and surf in a matter of 10 minutes. If you have a different Windows Operating System, I suspect that you will have to spend a bit more time installing drivers and adjusting configuration settings, but there is no reason for the whole setup to be complex. As always with Linksys products, I recommend throwing away the installation CD that comes with the product. The automated installation does nothing that can't be accomplished even by the novice. Furthermore, you don't get all the networking software installed by default which will, in many cases, cause your perfectly working network to cease functioning.

My Gateway notebook gets quite hot near the processor area, but this heat is NOT transmitted to the Wireless adapter. The card itself cannot heat up becuase there is nothing inside it that causes heat dissipation. Rather the heat referred to in other reviews here may be because the card is conducting heat from the processor core.

The adapter is physically pleasing with a neutral grey antenna patch and the blue Linksys logo clearly visible. Two LEDs show power and link status, but are largely unnecessary.

In Wireless-G mode, this card has greatly enhanced my wireless surfing experience. Pages load with a snap, and games exhibit no lag whatsoever. Furthermore, my wireless-b hardware seems to be positively affected as well. Connections are more stable and signal strength has improved.

I fully recommend this product, especially if your infrastructure already uses Linksys components. Smooth installation, powerful feature set, and perfect pricing, makes this a piece of hardware not to miss!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Flawless operation, good performance, easy installation
Review: I bought the WPC54G and the WRT54G. Card installation on my Windows 2000 laptop (Thinkpad T-23) was seamless (follow the instructions and you can't go wrong ...) WRT54G router setup was amazingly simple, will save that for another review.

The card has performed flawlessly for me. Good connection to my router (about 60 feet away right now through several walls, 48mbps speed). I've been using for several days and had no connection drops. (The CD included did have the latest drivers, I didn't need to upgrade from the website.) I use it for secure VPN, and again, no issues or problems.

The card also does very well with "Suspend" and comes right back and restores my connection without any intervention. The card gets a little warm, but its most likely sucking up heat from my laptop's CPU. No real issues there.

As another reviewer mentioned -- the card has two LED's which are basically useless. I don't care (still has 5 stars), I wouldn't care if it didn't have lights. Just kinda odd for a card that seems to do so well to have useless lights. :)

All in all -- been very happy with my purchase of the card & router. I have had no (read ZERO) problems. Would highly recommend.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Depends on Operating System
Review: Linksys is a very good company, however they are having a lot of problems with the software for this card, from what I hear the WPC54G works fine with XP, however with older operating systems such as Win 98 or Win Me you have a large chance of receiving installation errors. Like other users I have found support to be very unhelpful, they either don't know about the problems or refuse to acknowledge them. They will blame your operating system even thought they are having reports of problems from many users. Check out www.dslreports.com/forum for updates on problems. I'll be returning this one for another brand, its a shame what could be a great product is unuseable.


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