Installation was a snap - a few minutes of one's time. Find an available PCI slot and load the included driver with the supplied CD. Once installation is complete, the card will detect all available networks in the area. All you have to do is enter the necessary WEP key (if enabled) in ASCI or HEX format, depending on the type of wireless router.In my case, I am using an Apple Airport Base Station for my two Apple computers. I recently added a Windows PC using XP. I initially had hesitations in wireless network compatibility for the "G" standard properly commuicating with my "B" standard Base Station. I finally decided on buying the Linksys and found that there was no compatibility issue at all.The signal strength is excellent. I never had any problems with my network status and online surfing experience.My only complaint is the unattractive long, generic-looking antenna. Compare this with other products like D-Link, Netgear and SMC Networks that have a short (flat/square design) antenna.Why did I settle on the Linksys brand despite the ugly antenna design? For one, I have great experience with their wireless router (BEFW11S4) which I purchased years ago during it's initial release and have not had any problem with it. Second, Linksys is the current leader in wireless technology. I am hoping that they will be able to provide excellent drivers should compatibility problems arise with the latest operating systems. Third, Linksys is owned by another leader in the networking industry, Cisco Systems. These factors should be enough to assure a sturdier product.But before you purchase on any product, do your own research for your specific system compatibility. Cisco-Linksys WMP54G Wireless-G PCI Adapter
This PCI card, installed in a 300Mghz Gateway tower, running Windows ME was a relatively easy install. A couple of glitches did occur though. When I first installed it, I followed the directions, and installed the software first, shut the computer down, installed the card, and rebooted. It auto recognized, and configured, and automatically found the signal, and it was done. Almost done. The signal was there, according to the icon at the bottom of the screen, but I was unable to log onto the internet. Additionally the computer was running super slow, way slower than usual, so I uninstalled the software, then removed the card, and it was back to running normally. Here is the fix, do not choose AD HOC as your system choice when setting up. Use the selection that allows, hard wired, and wireless devices, or any combination. Once I installed it that way, it worked perfect right away. Additionally, I removed the 56K modem via Control Panel, System, then Device Manager, then highlighting the modem and click on Remove. Then when I shut down the machine, I permanently removed the modem. It was useless anyhow, with a broadband wireless connection in the machine. Wah lah, great connections, and the computer was back to flying at full speed. Now I am super happy with the performance, and the ease of setup. One thing that should also be mentioned is that security with a wireless system is something to address. Anyone with a wireless laptop, can drive down the road, and get a connection. Changing the name from the default network name of "Linksys" is the first step. I would set your entire network up first, get it all running, then concentrate on keeping others out. Eliminates the confusion. Additionally, some firewall software, is also a good idea. When installing the card in the laptop running Windows XP it almost installed itself. XP has wireless network capacity built right into it. Wireless is the wave of the future, and it is here now. At the Comdex show this year, it was all the rave. The hardware manufacturers are working at a feverish pitch, in order to jump on the bandwagon with all kind of add on wireless devices. Definitely a cool tool, a must have add on.
I had a few problems getting the WMP54G to work using encryption with my router (WRT54G) under Windows XP. The quick installation guide implies Windows XP will detect the card and set it up automatically. It did no such thing for me; it wanted me to provide the driver manually. I highly recommend getting the latest driver from the Linksys website rather than using the one on the CD.I don't recommend using the Windows network wizard, or whatever the thing is called. It added a Network Bridge device with an odd IP address. I could not communicate with my router until I deleted this device. This was not intuitive at all, but again this is a Windows problem.On to the next problem: when I used WEP encryption (either 64 or 128-bit), the wireless connection would drop out at precisely three minutes. Everything worked fine with encryption turned off.I then decided to try WPA encryption, which is supposedly more secure than WEP anyway. There is a Windows XP update to add this capability to the operating system, which you'll need to install. Unfortunately I found that this didn't immediately solve my problem: WPA was not available as a selection in the wirless network setup. I then updated the driver for the WMP54G and I was able to use WPA with no problem! Again, a word of advice: do NOT use the driver on the included CD! Get the latest driver off the Linksys website. I would imagine this was the source of my WEP problems as well, but I never went back to try it. I'm happy with WPA.Also make sure your router's firmware is up to date. Some manufacturers have only recently added WPA capability.Other than these difficulties, this seems to be a great card. It works just as fast as my wired LAN connection.
I've looked around on various boards to see if anyone had a solution to the problem so often described with this product where you see a message "A wireless connection is available", and the SSID shows up as an available network, but then you can't connect to it. I don't think I've seen anyone write up the solution I found, so I'm going to give it a try here, hopefully it'll help reduce stress for at least a few other users...I messed around with this problem for HOURS yesterday, but decided to try fresh today... I'd decided that if I didn't get it all working today, it was all going to get boxed up and sent back tomorrow! The root cause was that the router was on one channel (6 I believe), and the WMP55G cards (at least when you install the new driver) defaults to channel 11. (I may have these reversed). In this configuration, the network SSID was visible to the client systems, but would NOT connect - at least not usually - they actually connected once or twice briefly with the channels mismatched, but with everything in close proximity. The WRT54G's channel number (assuming you're using the linksys router) is on the "setup" tab on it's web interface. (I had a PC hardwired to the router to do this - that's a good idea if you're having RF problems as I was). It's down near the bottom of the screen in the "Wireless" section. Remember to hit "APPLY" after changing it, so that it takes effect. The WMP54G's channel number (Windows XP - SP1 with the latest driver, anyway) is on the "Wireless G Notebook Adapter Properties" window under the "Advanced" tab. It's labeled "IBSS Channel Number". You must hit the "OK" for it to take effect. I THINK I tried changing the channel on the router yesterday, but failed to hit "APPLY"... I had been seeing the same thing over and over... the network was visible to the client computers, but wouldn't connect... Interestingly enough, my portable WOULD connect, but the two PCI cards would not. Once I got all the channels synced up, it was fine. You would expect that if the card and router were on different channels (especially as far apart as 6 and 11), that the network would not be visible from the cards, but that's not the case! They are visible, but just will not connect - usually anyway. I believe that any sort of RF problem might cause a similar symptom... a bad antenna connector, an interfering wireless phone, (another network next door?) or what have you. The first thing I did today was to disconnect all the wireless phones in the house BEFORE starting to troubleshoot. The next thing was to turn SSID transmit back on, and security off. Once we got the channels synced up, both PCI cards synced up right away... then I turned SSID transmit off, verified that it was OK, then put in a WEP key, verified again, then went in and restricted the mac addresses to those of my client computers. It's all working reliably now. - Wireless Network Adapter - Linksys - Wmp54g - Wireless'
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