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.

The card does get hot, but it doesn't seem to affect it's performance. Overall I am very pleasd with the card, and all the Linksys products that I have used.

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.

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.

"True" plug n' play installation in less than 5 minutes

+ No issues since install =

A great solution for getting your wireless network up and running.

I have not had a single issue with the product during installation or since, found the product documentation to be excellent, and am very happy I went wireless.

Here is my hardware setup:
Machine 1: WIN 98 First Edition; 400 MHz PII, plenty of RAM; Desktop
Machine 2: WIN 98 First Edition; 233 MHz, moderate RAM; Desktop
Machine 3: WIN 2000; plenty of speed and RAM; Laptop

Router:
It is a great product. I hooked it up to Machine 1 and had it running in under 5 minutes and that includes the hardware. I did NOT use the software included - instead I configured the router through the web interface. This is key. The router doesn't even support WIN 98 First Edition according to the min. req. Linksys states. Nevertheless, my setup works flawlessly. In fact, somehow it seems to have increased my Internet speed - something I can't understand, but am more than willing to go with.

PCI Adapter:
I am giving this an average 3 star rating because frankly I didn't get it to work but then again it really wasn't supposed to work with WIN 98 First Edition as is running on Machine 2. Now, here's why I feel I should rate this item at all - even if unsupported, loading software and giving it a try should not crash your system and cause errors. In fact, I had high hopes considering the software seemed to load, but in fact it just gummed up the system. So, after quite a while of trying, my poor old system is worse off than before. I just don't understand why Linksys didn't include a way to work on WIN 98 First Edition. At heart this thing is just a bit of hardware and I would think ultimately not much different to the computer than an Ethernet card. I may be wrong, but why can't they design an interface for the older operating system? Anyway, don't bother if you aren't running a newer system.

Card for laptop:
Worked like a charm. I popped in the software on Machine 3 running WIN 2000 and in a couple of minutes had a great signal. The laptop was at least 50 feet away from the router and in the basement (router on 1st level). So, through walls and over distance I still had very sufficient signal strength and quality. No dropping was noticed, and the settings were all set for a high level of security. There was absolutely no extra heat as someone noted. Also, no problems working between a hardwired network at work and the wireless at home. Just pop in and out the card is all (I have to because of the tight fit of a a docking station at work).

So, overall I'm happy with Linksys.

I now have *two* of these cards running, one in my laptop and one in my wife's. Each took less than ten minutes from opening the box to complete service. Neither of us has ever had a dropout, the signal remains very good to excellent at all times, and we have no laptop heat problems.

In fact, this external card runs *cooler* than the internal card, which would keep the laptop fan going to loudly and so strongly that we couldn't hear the TV. Now I can actually operate wirelessly in the den without annoying my wife. :)

In reading other reviews here, recognize that many of the problems are *not* due to this laptop adapter. Yes, you may experience some problems under Windows 98. But if you're using a laptop running a six-year-old operating system, you have bigger problems than wireless trouble, and will save yourself plenty of hassles (and time and insecurities) by upgrading to Win2K or XP. Yes, you may have trouble connecting to Netgear's router, but that's because Linksys' router is far superior; get the right router, rather than dissing on this adapter. And yes, if you're unable to distinguish WEP from DNS, you may not be capable of receiving good technical support.

I, for one, have nothing but glowing praise for this card, the linksys "g" router, and linksys tech support. Anyone with a contrary experience may well be misattributing to the WPC54G problems that have nothing to do with it.

My major complaint is that Linksys has stopped providing the specs for their chipsets as of the 802.11g series. The 802.11b series cards work great with Linux/*NIX, but the 802.11g does not and will not work at all. Apparently the company Linksys chose for the chipset, Broadcom [www.broadcom.com] refuses to release the specs so no one can write drivers without months of experimentation and reverse-engineering.

I have always found that devices that do not provide linux support are inferior in quality and reliability to other devices that do.

Also, I tried connecting to another of my colleagues' Netgear wireless network, and I was able to connect in no time. the card just recognized that a "Netgear" wireless connection was available(though his WEP may not have been set).....

Great product, though Linksys really sucks at Technical Support...

Another thing is that, it is better you have your slot on right hand side(as the picture shown) since genious engineers of Linksys/Cisco put their logo and led labels horizontally. If you have your slot at left, you will see logo and labels backwards.
I would recommend another product since this has such annoying problems.
I do not have info about Dlink's 54G but their 11B was also workin' at the same environment and was having great look.