| Linksys WUSB11 Wireless-B USB Network Adapter v4 |
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Model: WUSB11
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 360
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: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: IEEE 802.11b
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| Features: |
Connects desktop or laptop computers to your wireless network
High-speed transfer rate of up to 11 Mbps
Operating range of up to 300 feet indoors and 1,500 feet outdoors
Compatible with Microsoft Windows 98SE, Me, 2000, and XP
Easy plug-and-play installation |
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| Description: |
| The Linksys WUSB11 USB Wireless Network Adapter is perfect if you're looking to start a wireless network, or just want an easy way to connect to an existing one. With this external adapter you can access a wireless 802.11b from any notebook or desktop's USB port. Free driver/firmware upgrades Free technical support - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (for North America only) Includes - USB cable & driver utility CD-ROM |
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| User Reviews (360 total): |
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Easy to use, April 8, 2003
By Michael (Atlanta, GA United States)
This tiny (the picture makes it look much larger than it really is) device was probably the simplest add-on I've ever plugged into my computer. Windows XP immeadiately recognized the device and loaded the driver. I entered the WEP code, the network name, and that was it. The computer that this device serves is in the kitchen, and is surrounded by appliances. The wireless router is about 75 feet away on the same floor. The connection speed is almost always at 11mbs and the connection quality is always "very good." I cannot stress enough how simple setup was for this device!
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Excellent product, great price!, April 7, 2003
By Mr. Larry G. Jones (Palm Springs, CA)
Great support from Linksys makes this a 5 star product.
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Works great for PC and Tivo., April 2, 2003
By unknown
Great product, no trouble at all. Windows XP did not have the driver for this built in, so I had to install it from the included CD-ROM. I am now using it with my Tivo, it worked immediately upon plugging in. Funny, that Windows needed a driver for it but Tivo didn't. Anyway a very effective solution. Recommended. Not sure if it works under Linux though.
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Works great, but not with xp, March 31, 2003
By Marshal (Dubach, LA United States)
The range on this is awesome!! At my neighbors house, the link quality and signal strength is in the upper 90% range. I installed this adapter on my computer running windows xp, after much work, I got it to work. The next day, it quit working. It wouldn't get an ip address. I called linksys and had spent hours on technical support, but ti no avail. They recomended that I return it and get another one because it was defective. I tried that and it still didn't work. I installed it on my win me system and it worked immediately. I then tried it on my win xp laptop, but it didn't work. So beware, you may run into complications when installing on a win xp machine. I am very pleased with my other linksys products, just not this one.
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Excellent product -- works right out of the box!, March 26, 2003
By iransofaraway (Ramona, CA USA)
Regardless of what other people say on here, it _is_ compatable with Windows XP. You just need to install the drivers, the instructions are easy to follow on this. The back of the unit contains velcro strips so you can easily attach the unit someplace high. About 100 feet from my access point (and through three walls) I still get around 70% signal strength. Pretty good. This is an excellent buy and I'd suggest it to anyone.
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EXCELLENT RANGE !, March 26, 2003
By tekn (SF, CA)
I used this adapter across one room to test it out and it worked brilliantly.Wireless adapters doesn't have a good range when using it under routers such as using it a floor under the router. I tried to use the wireless adapter downstairs with a laptop and to my surprise, it still worked great. The range was still shown as "excellent" in the connection window. Internet performance was good also. I never got disconnected with this wireless adapter once, even when i was walking around the house with my laptop. Highly recommended. And yes i also have a Linksys Wireless PC Card that works great also.
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Small and compact, March 23, 2003
By R.Merrell (Ewa Beach, Hawaii United States)
Open. Place Cd in CD-Rom.Worked great out of the box. Had to unplug and plug it in the next day to get it to work. Odd. Only once though. I'd get it again. price is right and it small enough to fit in the computer bag. Laptop: OS Win XP.
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Does not work in Windows XP, March 22, 2003
By unknown
This device is NOT compatible with Windows XP.You will lose your connection about every minute. You get less than half your wired speed. You get poor signal quality. This is a problem with Windows XP Wireless Zero Configuration Utility. Linksys nor Microsoft seems to be resolving this issue.
It's a known problem posted all over the Internet
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Fast speed and easy intergration for Windows 2000, March 19, 2003
By unknown
A surprisingly vast improvement in range and performance fron the PCMCIA adapter
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Equipment is great, technical support needs improvement, March 17, 2003
By Dr. J (Needham, MA USA)
I ordered the USB11 wireless adaptor with the Linksys BEFW11S4 Router. The setup was quite straightforward, and within minutes the wireless adaptor was communicating with the router. However, the computer connected to the wireless adaptor would not connect to the internet. After a 20 minute wait on hold, I reached tech support and began working with a tech support rep whom I could barely understand, and had to ask to repeat almost every question and instruction. There would be frequent long pauses, during which I am assuming the rep was reading a script. After over an hour of work, the rep advised me that I needed an updated driver for the USB11, which she promised to e-mail to me within the same day. I never received it, but was able to download the updated version from the Linksys website on the wired computer, burn it to a CD and install it on the wireless computer. It still didn't work. I then spent another 25 minutes on hold waiting for the tech support rep, and engaged with another rep whose enunciation was just as poor. After an additional hour, going over the same checks, she advised me that the USB11 adaptor must be malfunctioning, and I should replace it. I ordered a new adaptor, installed it, and still could not connect to the internet. At this point, I hired a local technician to help me. He quickly discovered that the settings for WEP were incorrect. As soon as he changed these, the system worked flawlessly. I would expect that the technical support representatives would have gone through this step, but neither one did. Linksys needs to improve the quality of technical support it provides.
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does not work, March 17, 2003
By unknown
Simply does not work. maybe i could have figured it out, but spending 2 hours with it was enough. I run XP and that may be the problem. support was useless. don't buy if you have XP and not a lot of time.
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DOA Also, March 16, 2003
By Colin Robertson (springfield, PA United States)
Just received my USB adapter and it is dead straight out of the box on March 15th. Also tried it on 3 PC's and I am also an IT network administrator. No luck with Windows ME, XP Home and XP Pro. It is a shame as I have several other Linksys products and they all work great.
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Buyer Beware!, March 16, 2003
By unknown
The Linksys WUSB11 USB wireless adapter does NOT work if you turn off SSID broadcast at the wireless access point (WAP). Turning off SSID broadcast, although not the only security measure one should take with wireless, is PART of our security requirements. When I did broadcast the SSID, the WUSB11 worked just fine. BUT this is not allowed in my environment. Over several days, I spent about 5 hours with tech support on the phone. I also reverted to email (which takes them a day or longer to respond - one email per day only, even though I email them back within minutes of their email). One tech said it was a "known issue" and I should wait for a driver/firmware update. Another tech said the unit was not defective and I somehow did not understand how to configure it (I've been in the IT profession for over 18 years and have configured wireless equipment). Another tech said that it should work, but none of her solutions helped. Finally, tech support said their solution was for me to sacrifice my network security and broadcast the SSID. They blamed Windows Zero Configuration utility in Windows XP - and said that any product that uses Windows Zero Configuration utility in XP will not work if you don't broadcast the SSID. Well - THAT JUST NOT TRUE! Read on ... After much frustation and wasted time, I finally sent the WUSB11 back for a refund and purchased an OriNOCO USB Client Gold (Gold = 128 WEP encryption). It worked flawlessly without my WAP having to broadcast the SSID - just like I needed! Needless to say, it's been a mixed bag with Linksys. Their Routers and WAPs seem to work just fine. Their WPC11 wireless PC card also works just fine. But their WPS11 print server was DOA and I returned that too after hours of wasted time with tech support. Speaking of tech support, they are generally non-helpful and rude about 85% of the time. They often seem to not really care to try to understand the needs of the customer. Once, I asked that my incident be escalated to level 2 support. I was told that their level 2 support is through email. When I asked to speak to his supervisor, he flatly refused and told me to send email to tech support. In another incident, I sent my complaints to their customer service on their web site. That was over 10 days ago and I have yet to receive a response. Obviously Linksys just doesn't seem to care much for the customer. STAY CLEAR OF LINKSYS PRODUCTS AND THEIR TERRIBLE TECH SUPPORT! They're inexpensive and look really nice, but that's about it. I WILL NOW USE AND RECOMMEND ORINOCO products and suggest you consider them too.
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DOA, March 12, 2003
By T. Lee (La Habra, CA USA)
Linksys USB Wireless adaptor looks nice... but that's about it. Was dead right out of the box. After installing software and connecting, power LED lights up, but computer doesn't even detect the wireless adaptor. I tried the adaptor on 2 other computers to make sure that it was the Linksys adaptor that was at fault. By the way, I'm an IT professional and I have experience with wireless equipment so I know what I'm doing. I've had problems with Linksys equipment in the past. When it works, its great... Linksys has made too many defective equipment for me to recommend this to other people. Not including this adaptor, I've also had problems with 2 Linksys Wireless Access Point/Router(BEF11S4) and 1 linksys wireless access point(WAP11). Netgear equipment in my experience seems to be a lot more reliable with similar prices.
note: I have determined that the USB cable that came with the wireless adaptor as at fault. It seems they shipped a whole batch of wireless adaptors with defective USB cables.
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This product works for me, March 11, 2003
By e_whw (California, USA)
I have this USB adapter connected to a D-Link AirPlus 614+ AP. It works fine for me.
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XP Users: Don't do it., March 10, 2003
By unknown
If you're using XP Pro, drop the extra [$$] on the PCI card instead (WMP11.)XP didn't recognize the WUSB11. Linksys tech support and google-searching provided no remedy. Installing and setting up the PCI card took about 10 minutes from the time I opened the computer to submitting this review.
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Mixed Performance - Needs More Range, March 8, 2003
By wkuntz1 (San Diego, CA USA)
I installed a home wireless network using LinkSys products to connect 3 PCs. My Roadrunner cable modem is connected to the LinkSys BEFW11S4 Wireless Access Point/Router. This is connected by Ethernet cable to my Dell PC. Flawless, high-speed, error-free performance.The problem is with the two PCs linked via a wireless connection using WUSB11 wireless adaptors. One works pretty consistently, but with a fair to poor signal that often slows speeds from 11Mbs to 1 or 2 MBs. The other works sporadically, frequently losing the connection and requiring unplugging and replugging the USB cable and fiddling with antenna orientation. Recently this unit has stopped working at all. We have a pretty large house. The WAP/Router is downstairs, the two wireless adapters are upstairs and at the opposite end of the house. Clearly range is a problem - this wireless network is at the outer limits. Wish LinkSys would make a wireless adaptor with more range, or come up with a signal booster.
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good wireless, March 8, 2003
By tommy lee (Omaha, NE)
I bought this WUSB11 v 2.6 in Jan 2003 for my home network, which is a mixed bag of Airlink 614+, Airlink PC cards, Airlink PCI 520, and Linksys PCI, Linksys PC cards, and Linksys USB. Overall Linksys seems to be of better quality, judging from the outside appearance, sturdiness, look, coverbox, etc. But the heart of wireless devices is in its functionality - speed, range, encryption ability, and ease of setup. In this context, Linksys is better functionally. While the speed, encryption, and ease of setup are are similar between Linksys and Airlink, Linksys has better range. In my direct comparison between the Airlink 520 and Linksys WUSB11, WUSB11 is better. Despite what Airlink says about their range, my connection from the Airlink router 614, located on the East side first floor of my house, to the Airlink PCI 520, located on the second floor on the west side of my house, is at best in the "good" range and tends to be in the "poor" range. This is a 900 sq ft home floor plan, built in the 1920's. When I experimented and swapped this Airlink PCI 520 with the Linksys WUSB11, the connection was clearly better. There you have it. Linksys, however, is more expensive and sometimes difficult to set up (I still am working on installing a Linksys PCI card on my spare laptop with Win98...it keeps asking me for certain dll files which I don't have...XP and 2000 are better) I gave up on calling their tech support.
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This wireless LAN component is a pleasure..., March 8, 2003
By SWM RN (Central NJ USA)
I've been using this unit for about a month, switching from WIN98 and WinME machines with barely a hiccup. Reading the instructions; that is installing the software, rebooting and as the machine reboots, plug in the USB connector... is a good thing! The little grean window that indicated a connection comes up,and with the USB its always been at 100% connection. More than I can say for the LINKSYS PCMCIA card in my laptop, used at the same distances. I'll probably use the new one I ordered for when I bring the laptop on the deck in the spring. Hope this helps, but for a non computer guy, this was a pleasure.
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Start to finish in three minutes, March 7, 2003
By ram320 (CANTON, MI USA)
It took me no more than three minutes to install software and comunicate with the wireless Router. We have great signal strength and love this product.
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