Like many reviewers said installation was simple and straightforward (at for win98se). For WinXP Pro, it's a bit tricky when WEP is enabled. Users are required manually entering the 40-bit (or 104-bit) security key. Once the installation is done, I was amazed by how good the performance is. It's virtually having a DSL connection to the second system.

Since I installed my SMC USB wireless network adapter, I have been unable to dial into my ISP because the computer crashes eachtime Dial-Up Networking tries to connect. SMC have been no help. Uninstalling has not solved the problem. At least the network functions from time to time, so I can connect to the Internet over the network, as long as my notebook dials in (I have a wireless PC card on that machine)

As far as I can tell, the drivers are simply not XP compatible.

The network took a little time to set up. When it functions, it is great having the wireless connection. Using encryption drops transmission rates significantly below 11mbps, and for reasons that I cannot understand, it is erratic about whether it connects or not from time to time, especially with encryption selected.

But, I also have Panasonic 2.4 GHz Gigarange phones. When the phone is in use, the network stops working. The signal strength gauge drops to zero. Turn the phone off, the network recovers. Turn the phone on, the network fails. It is really easy to convince yourself of what is going on. Both are using 2.4 GHz, which I knew, but that they would be completely interfering was a surprise.

The adapter was about 25 feet from the base station of the phone. It seems the base station is the problem, not the handset. The adapter was in the same room, but even hiding the adapter down the hall 5 feet did not solve the problem. I even put a bunch of metal next to the adapter in line with the phone base unit, but that did not seem to help.

I tried different channels. I set it to use only 1 Mb/s. I called SMC tech support and was treated nicely -- but the answer was that the unit would not work near this phone.

The cordless phone selects the channel it uses. Apparently the network is not strong enough for it to try to avoid. Changing the channel on the phone (hit the "ch" button) can get the network to work.

I had to return the unit.

However, I was very satified with SMC. I would definately buy from them again.

1) Plug the adapter into the computer's USB port using the included cable

2) Wait until the computer detects the adapter and follow the Wizard instructions to install the driver from the floppy disk

3) Run setup.exe in the \utility\ directory of the floppy to install a utility that presents signal strength and link quality and also supports configuration.

We installed the adapter on two computers - my homebuilt 800 MHz Duron running WIN2K Professional and my daughter's Gateway 500 MHz PIII (also WIN2K Pro). In both cases, installation was absolutely trouble free.

Performance is significantly better than any of the PCMCIA wireless network adapters we've previously tried. From my daughter's upstairs bedroom, all the PCMCIA adapters we tried provided marginal link qualities (< 20%) while the USB adapter consistently ran 90 - 95% on the link quality readout. I think that this is due to the fact that the USB adapter has two external antennas that can be adjusted to match the polarity of the wireless access point antennas. We've found the best results with both sets of antennas oriented at 45 degrees.

We're delighted with the product and I'm seriously considering purchasing another one that I can use when I bring my company laptop home (which has a Cisco PCMCIA wireless adapter card that barely maintains a link 30' away from the wireless access point.) It won't be as convenient to have to deal with the separate adapter on the end of a USB cable, but it beats hoisting my laptop in the air and rotating it everytime I want to load a new page off the Internet (the current procedure to get adequate link quality with the Cisco adapter when I'm in a different room than the wireless access point).

The trouble was I couldn't get my system back together and keep the adapter working. SMC Support told me that connecting it through a USB hub is an unsupported configuration, and from my experience I can see why. It was associating, and my DHCP server gave it an IP address, but it never received data. (BTW, the monitor application isn't great, but it was able to give me this information, and I give SMC points for that.)

I had to return the adapter, because it wouldn't adapt to my system. If you have a simpler configuration than mine, though, you may be quite happy with it.