| Linksys WPC54G Wireless-G Notebook Adapter |
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Model: WPC54G
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 258
Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 4, Windows NT 5, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server, Windows
Operating system: Windows
Form factor: Plug-in module
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Product Type - Adapter
Data rates up to 54Mbps -- 5 times faster than Wireless-B (802.11b)
Also interoperates with Wireless-B networks (at 11Mbps)
Up to 128-bit WEP encryption
Advanced wireless security: Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), and up to 128-bit encryption |
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| Description: |
| LINKSYS WPC54G - Wireless-G is the emerging 54 Mbps wireless networking standard that's almost five times faster than the widely deployed Wireless-B ( 802.11b ) products found in homes, businesses and public wireless hotspots around the country. The best part is, since they share the same 2.4GHz radio band, Wireless-G devices talk to existing 11 Mbps Wireless-B equipment. |
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| User Reviews (258 total): |
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WPA Security Fun, December 29, 2003
By unknown
I've had this card for almost a year. The op system is xp pro and I connect to a linksys wrt54g router.
I changed from wep to wpa security. This required getting an update from microsoft.
While this is suppose to be more secure, what they didn't say was that it caused the card
to take 3 minutes to connect to the router. Microsoft recognized the problem and addressed the issue with update 826942.
So I install the update and then what happens is that while it reduces the connect time to only a few seconds,
after a few minutes I lose the connection and to top it off the wireless client reports
that everything is working wonderful. The work around, I discovered, is to disable the connection and then enable it
again and the problem goes away. I've installed the latest updates for the card and the router from the linksys site
and these did not help. By the way installing the update for the card is a pain.There is no utility, you have
to go through the device manager. The tech support is less than useless.
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Very Nice Product, December 28, 2003
By James Upton (Virginia, USA)
I just received this card along with a new wireless router for Christmas and have been exceptionally pleased with both. The card installs extremely quick and easy and I was up and running in about 10 minutes tops running Windows XP on a Dell Inspiron 4150. The adapter also continues to get exceptional signal and runs smoothly without problems or interruptions. The only thing I don't like about this adapter so far is that it appears on first Googling that the manufacturer does not provide Linux adapters which means that I can only use it when I boot into XP. None the less though this was an excellent purchase which has already paid for itself through hours of WiFi enjoyment ;) I can't wait to try my new toy out while traveling around the country.
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this thing is the bomb, December 26, 2003
By unknown
my parents gave me a sony vaio laptop with windows xp and the wpc54g card we plugged it in and we were picking up a wireless signal immediately out in our country subdivision its great high speed internet at no cost yeeha!!!!!
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Easy... works great, December 22, 2003
By unknown
Bought it a few months back and have had no problems. Took me all of about 20 minutes to be up and surfing. Great product, I recommend it.
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Simple and easy to use, December 17, 2003
By travishenning
This is a great product. Got it up and running within an hour on Windows XP Pro. The biggest problem was getting the new wireless router to access Comcast broadband. After some trial and error, finally got it going.
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Not the greatest signal reciever, December 11, 2003
By Erick C. (United States)
I bought this card with the wireless-g broadband router.About 30 feet away from the router and NO CONNECTION. I have to be about 15 to 20 feet to be able to get a decent "low" signal. And the signal only has to travel through 3 walls, not even cement walls. I bought a laptop recently with a built in wireless g card and that card can pick up the signal from where this linksys can. the laptop is a Toshiba P25-S509. ...other than that, the card is easy to install specially with windows XP Pro and its nice to have a wireless network at home.
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Stay away from Linksys WPC54g,not for novice, December 10, 2003
By unknown
I bought the Linksys wpc54g, this is a piece of garbage. If your laptop uses TI cardbus controllers, forget it, not compatable. If you have Win XP, you must not use the zero configuration utility, it can not use 128 bit wep encryption, and can only use AD-hoc mode. I returned this and bought a NetGear wireless card and BAM right out of the box it works great. Make sure your system is not incompatable before you buy, read what techies have to say about this linksys product.
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Easy and Reliable, December 10, 2003
By dbadelmann (Greenfield, MA)
I found this card very easy to install and configure. I connect to the Linksys Wireless-G router. I literally had my newtork working in 5 minutes.I have not found there to be a problem with the card heating up. Sometimes when my laptop has been idle for a long time I will lose my ip address, subnet mask, and default gateway. To get it back I open the wireless card properties and and click Repair on the Support tab. This always seems to fix the problem. Other than that I have had no issues and I get great connectivity throughout my apartment. I rely on this wireless network heavily to work from home and I have to say that it works great.
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I like it, December 10, 2003
By Scott W. Dudley (San Diego, Ca United States)
I own this as well as several other Linksys products and find that this card works well. Linksys may have pushed this technology out the door a little too soon and as a result the card can be quirky. However, I have found that Router/Access Point firmware upgrades to the router and driver updates for the PC Card have helped to reduce most of my problems - the majority being drop-offs. You can find firmware upgrades and patches on the Linksys site under "support." If you are new to firmware upgrades, you may want to contact Linksys to walk you through your first upgrade.
If you are using Windows XP and somewhat familiar with computers try using Windows XP to configure the card (under properties of My Network Places then properties of the card) rather than using the software that comes with this card. This has cleared up some of the issues I was having.
Additionally, I would recommend using WEP and disabling SSID broadcasting on your router (at a minimum) to increase security. It isn't very difficult for your neighbor, or others, to access your access point/router when you use your router with the default settings.
Also the 54G card and router are really only beneficial if you are in a network environment where you are sharing information between 2 or more computers. For one computer cruising the internet, the 54G product line does not add any more value. Your typical high speed connection (cable modem or dsl) travels at approximately 1.5 Mbs/sec, whereas the 54G product line travels at up to 54 Mbs/sec. You really don't need to know what Mbs mean to understand that if you have a card that can use up to 54 of something, but your internet speed can only run as high as 1.5 of something, what is left over is not utilized and can be over kill. If you are using only one computer to connect to the internet and do not plan on networking computers together then the "B" series of wireless devices may be all you need - saving you money. Where the 54G product line shines is when you are passing information between two or more computers, within a local network.
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This Thing Rocks, December 6, 2003
By Ian T. Ostby (Forest Lake, MN United States)
What could be better than wireless internet. I get the internet fast and free with this connection. This thing rocks.
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Works great, December 6, 2003
By anotherlawyer (Weston FL)
Having a new Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router installed made me want to increase my wireless capabilities. It made sense to get the G card to link my old laptop that my teenage daughter uses to the router. It was a good choice. It installed easily and worked immediately. The connection is very fast as well.It only costs a few bucks more than the B band card. It is clearly worth it!
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Sweet Cable internet, December 5, 2003
By unknown
I have not lost my connection once and always have an excellent connection. Definitly worth the investment if you dont want to run wires through your entire house.
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Stay Away from Linksys!!!!, December 1, 2003
By unknown
This review is not only for their Wireless-G Notebook Adaptor Model WPC54G, but also for their USB wireless PC adaptor. Linksys Technical Service is terrible, needed help today to hook up both of these new items. Their reps were rude, unknowledgeable, and one even hung up on me when he couldn't answer the questions. Both of these items are being returned tomorrow....I'd rather stay wireless than deal with this rude customer service.
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0 star and 5 stars so it got 3 stars, November 14, 2003
By unknown
The CD-rom that comes with the 54G wireless card is outdated. You need to download the latest drivers, or have Linksys e-mail them to you. Otherwise, you'd get a prompt asking for the mprapi.dll file, which does not exist on 98SE. And it screws up the already screwy AOL.Even with the newest drivers, if you have 98SE and AOL 9.0, or 98SE and AOL 8.0, you may as well forget it. Keep yourself wired instead. So, it gets 0 stars. The 54G wireless card and the 54G router work well with AOL 9.0 if you are running XP Pro. With XP Pro, it gets 5 stars. Installation is not as easy as you'd think. Maybe I'm just dumb. Try asking for a tech on the escalation team if you keep running into problems.
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BE AWARE of RTS threshold!!!, November 8, 2003
By a_walkyrie (La Jolla, CA)
XP + HP Pavilion + WPC54G + BEFW1154
Folks, that's not a joke, Lynksys documentation omits an essential point on RTS.
if you have poor pings after you've got the IP or even if you cannot get an IP from the router, you must change the RTS threshold in the configuration of your card at least to decrease it from 2347 to 2304. The connection's performances improve dramatically.
You can change them on the router, too, and on all the clients, but in my case it seemed unnecessary. If the WPC54G get a 2304 and the router keeps 2432 it works charme. With the default settings I've got 1 packet back from 20.... Now I am almost as wired. :)
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Great wireless card. Upgrade drivers didn't work though., October 23, 2003
By Picky Computer Guy (New Orleans, LA United States)
The card works great with WinXP. When I tried to upgrade it using the drivers from linksys website, it bombed. use the original driver disks that come with the card, they work great.Overall, decent performance for a PCMCIA wireless card, good range and strong signal pickup.
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Intermittent disconnection, October 21, 2003
By M. J Lane (Whitestone, NY USA)
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.
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Update
I did eventually figure out that 2.4Ghz phones will interfere with the signal that this wireless router uses. If you have a 2.4Ghz phone or anyone in an apt near you does then that could be your problem.
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Avoid this product at all costs - it's not too late for you, October 12, 2003
By unknown
Don't waste your money, it will has issues that you can't imagine. I have a Dell laptop with XP that is otherwise perfect. The card slows it down to a crawl when opening certain pages and entering msn services. It also freezes programs that don't use an internet connection. Avoid this product at all costs.
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Happy w/ Wireless Router -- Unhappy w/ Support & Manual, October 9, 2003
By unknown
Setup of Wireless Router & Wireless Adapter Card took 4 long evenings. Installed on Dell laptop running W2K Pro. Technical support was generally poor. Experienced very long wait time on hold only to have call dropped. Same result on second call. Irate tech support staff member disconnected me! Got better support from Verizon DSL supplier vs. Linksys tech support line. Over 6 or so calls to Linksys support, often could not understand their instructions (they're evidently located somewhere far outside US and have3 trouble with the language). Initial install resulted in "Continuous Blue Screen Rebooting of laptop" (not a fun thing. Took about 30 hours and 20 or so calls to tech support, to resolve. Once installed, wireless Linksys system is running very well. Once first laptop was set up, second install and setup on laptop with Win XP was a breeze. Net, net: very happy with hardware but unhappy with poor tech support and hard to follow manual.p.s. Feel "blue screen continuous reboot" issue on W2K Pro likely a software issue that may not exist on XP. Be sure to follow instructions for W2K very, very carefully.
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Wireless in your house?, October 6, 2003
By David Griffith (Anacortes, WA United States)
Why would I want wireless in my house? I have a desktop! I just can't get it to work in marinas (as advertised) throughout the Pacific Northwest. It's good for about 50 feet (sometimes) from the antenna. I don't know what the range is supposed to be but it definitely is low-end. I made a mistake-I admit it! Now I have to buy one that will work the way it should.
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