Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys WPC54GS Wireless-G Notebook Adapter with SpeedBooster

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

This is another solid product from Linksys. The adapter functions like an adapter should function. The installation was simple and free of complications. I have not experienced any break in communication between the laptop and the router.

For your information, this card is installed on a Dell Latitude C610 laptop. The operating system on the laptop is Windows 2000. The other components of my network are as follows: A Dell Dimension 8200, with a Linksys desktop adapter(with Speedbooster also). The Dell is running with Windows XP Pro. The second PC in the system is an old IBM 300PL, which is connected directly to the router through ethernet. A Linksys WRT54GS (Speedbooster) ties it all together. The network has been solid. No drop-offs.

There is really only reason that this adapter did not get five stars from me. In my opinion, the range of the card should have been greater. Even with a straight line of sight from the router, I cannot go far without losing a high percentage of the signal. So far, that has not caused any issues. However, I probably cannot go to the garage and surf the internet, for example.

I can recommend this card to a home user. In a home environment, the limited range of the card should not be an issue at all. For business use, I would probably try to find a Cisco Aeronet.

Well, I purchased my card (WPC54GS) and the router to match (WRT54GS) last Sunday for my work computer and after a week I finally got it to work no thanks to customer service at Linksys. There only help was to tell me the card was broken and I had to reinstall my operating system after 4 hours on the phone with them trying the same thing over and over again. But I'm sure that if you have windows XP or 2000 you wont have any problems but, my company gave me a great laptop but with windows 98SE which for those of you who have moved on to XP as I did with my home PC remember what a piece it was. If any of you purchase this card with 98SE and get stuck you can e-mail me at GEO1277@comcast.net and I can help you get it up and running. But as far as the product goes it gets great reception and as long as one of the antennas is pointed in the direction you are using the laptop or pc you can go through 3 well built floors and at least 100ft that I know of from my experience. Oh one more down side to this card if you have Windows 98SE you can't use the SpeedBooster unless you are using XP or 2000 just some info that I think was left out on this website but will be on the box when you get the card or router. I would give the Router 5 stars the Card 4 Stars and the customer service negative 5 stars.

I've taken Linksys to task on the 54GS series in other reviews, and I did not think highly of their install software for the WUSB11 either. So, when I needed a laptop card to connect to my home network, I bought the WPC54GS expecting some installation challenges... and didn't have any.

I mean, I had absolutely no problems with the installer this time around. Linksys puts "Run CD First" stickers on the card, on the CD, all over the box. So I ran the CD first. It installed all of the software, exited. Then nothing, as in, "what next?" I inserted the card, and several Microsoft digital signature warnings later, my card found my access point.

I had to log into my router from another machine to add the laptop's MAC, then key-in the password on the laptop for access to the router... and that was it. A fully encrypted connection, pretty fast from what I can tell, and no drops. I don't get the 125% speeds I should be getting (my other wireless link is the internal PCI card, and it goes 108Mbps almost always), but I'm satisfied.

One star withheld for the lack of Speedboosting, but the improved installer and sticker madness made me feel better about Linksys gear.

Fred

After two weeks of dealing with Linksys Tech Support I was finally told there are no drivers for the WPC54GS and Texas Instruments CardBus Controllers. If you're not sure what controller you have open Device Manager and expand your PCMCIA Adapter.

Having used Linksys other products at a Fortune 500 company, I expected a routine installation and immediate success.

The WPC54GS is an enhanced version of the popular WPC54G which we have used with success in a variaty of laptops. Linksys claims a 35% "real world" boost in performance, so out I went and picked up a WRT54GS router and a matching WPC54GS cardbus adapter. (Of course, it looks like the end of the non "GS" versions are near, so might as well go with the latest, right?)

Installation of the WPC54GS is simple and straightfoward under Windows 2000. The included configuration utility is clear and intuitive.

The unit worked the first time it was installed. Defining profiles and setting encryption keys was easy.

We had no problems accessing and getting connected with the Linksys access point, as well as a DLink 614+ and a Symbol Spectrum 24 access points. The connection status shown on the main screen is sometimes inaccurate. The utility sometimes said that there was no connection, when other parts of the same program said a connection had been established.

Problems began to surface, however, as soon as we attempted to remove and reinsert the adapter. The WPC54GS found and associated with the access point, but would net get an IP address. The same thing happened when the Thinkpad was suspended and restored or went into and came out of hibernation. In fact, the only reliable way to connect the adapter was after a reboot.

Requests for help to the Linksys web support link and e-mail support went unanswered. The first level technical support folks were polite but not technical (I've been in the computer business for 20plus years.) Much time was wasted performing scripted steps that had nothing to do with identifying or fixing the problem. After quite a while with the first level phone technician, Linksys suggested I replace the unit. I selected the cross-shipping RMA option and received a replacement in 3 days (not too bad for cross-country with no premium shipping charges.)

The new unit didn't work any better. More hours of additional phone support ending up in fourth level technical support yielded a big surprise: the card does not work because of an "IRQ conflict", something that's all but dead for PC users today.

The card had a conflict with the most basic, built-in hardware in the laptop (IBM Thinkpad T40, but could apply to the 41 and other series as well.) IBM later confirmed that there was no way to alter the settings in the laptop.

Sadly, this information which was readily available to senior Linksys support is not posted on their web site, nor is the incompatibilty mentioned in the product's documentation or packaging. Somehow the information didn't get through to the first three levels of technical support either.

Applying all possible software updates did not help, so I'm afraid it's back to the store with this card.

(A final note: I have to return the new card to Linksys to avoid RMA charges and asked Linksys if they'd pick up the return shipping since the entire problem should have been identified with the first phone call. Alas, it seems that such a courtesy is beyond the powers of the customer service supervisors.)

Overall: WPC54GS could be a good product, but make sure you verify compatability. If you are find yourself needing technical or customer support, return the card immediatly and choose a product from a competitor who take technical support and customer service seriously. If want to try anyway, don't bother with the web/chat support or email, call.

Some of the reviews here claim the card doesn't work with Windows 98 or XP. I am typing this review using the card on a Sony Vaio pcg-z505hs with Win98SE.

That said, I don't *recommend* this card for Win98. The WEP encryption never worked with it on that platform (although it does work with XP). If you have a Win98SE machine, I recommend the WPC11 instead. WEP works on it, and I find the signal range comparable to the WPC54GS, if not better.

In general I find performance to be just fine. I had a bit of trouble with the internet connection dropping until I upgraded to the more recent drivers available from the Linksys website.

The software for installing the card has a few funny glitches when dealing with Win98. If driver/utility installation and operation had been as smooth for the Win98 machine as it was for my Dell Inspiron running XP, and if Win98 could actually do WEP encryption with it, I would have given the product 5 stars.

I have used the card in the XP laptop in cybercafes all over Glasgow and in US and UK airports with no problems. I use Mozilla Firefox; maybe other browsers cause problems, but this one works for me. At home I used it with a SMC Wireless Access Point until my Linksys WRT54GS router arrived.

Contrary to most of the experiences described here, customer service was fine, even if the phone queue was sometimes a bit long. Considering they provide 24-hour free human support, I think it's decent. When problems went beyond what the first level of techs could manage, they bumped me up to the more experienced people. A RMA with the router went fairly smoothly. There's the added bonus of being able to trade balut stories with the people on the other end.

Here's how I got the card to work on the Win98 laptop:

1) Dowload the most recent driver software from Linksys. Make sure that you allow your decompression utility to recreate the subfolders of the driver installation software. I had to select the "use folder names" box on WinZip.

2) Run the setup utility. Let it reboot the computer.

3) Stick in the card. Let Windoze do its driver update thing. I got a popup box that asked me to put in the Win98 CD. I did, but ended up using the file it wanted from C:WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS.

4) At this point, mgsrv32 froze, so I did the standard 3-finger salute (ctrl-alt-del) to get the taskmanager and killed the process, which unfroze everything. This is where Linksys lost a review star.

5) Let the firewall software know it's OK to allow the card access to the internet.

6) Use the configuration utility in the system tray to search for and connect to the access point.

Sometimes when the laptop boots up the config utility doesn't show up in the system tray, but it works just fine when started from the programs menu. This is another reason to drop that last review star.

I purchased this card for a Dell Latitude laptop and my recent network configuration that included removal of a WAP11 due to failure and my BEFSR81 Router, replacing both with the WRT54GS. I wanted to install it correctly, yet I am not the type to read the instructions.

I removed the Linksys Utility and drivers for my old "B" card and rebooted my machine. I placed the "G" card in the machine and it was immediately recognized. I then enabled the device by installing the drivers from the installation CD. DON'T DO IT THIS WAY!!!

Here's what worked for me: Run the autorun feature from the CD ignoring or cancelling the XP Plug and Play routine upon reboot. Let the Linksys Configuration Utility and drivers get set up from CD. After the prompted reboot, it worked great! My router configuration uses both the WEP encryption, but also a MAC Filter function, allowing only the physical MAC address access to the wireless network. It's secure, signal strength is higher and pages "leap" on to the display (it should be noted that your mileage may vary) dependent on ISP provider or platform.

I read some of the reviews, and got convinced to bye Linksys WRT54GS Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster and this Adapter. This was my first ever wirless connection installation. I just read what the product manual told me to do, and the rest was taken care off by Win Xp. I have no problems so far (I have been using it for 6 months). I am using it with a compaq labtop 1500. The house I live in has concrete walls and ceilings. This could be a problem between levels but not between walls. So far all my use for the network is in one level, but if I choose to widen my network to another level in the house, I will try to set it up higher than it is now, or just get a booster for the other level.

Bought the card to match the Linksys Speedbooster Router, but the card didn't work well enough...My old Orinoco card (802.11b) worked seamlessly with the router also the inbuilt Intel-Pro wireless card (802.11g) worked with the router without a glitch. I tried upgrading the firmware etc as specified by Linksys but it didn't help. Finally I am returning the card.

I just set up a home network with Linksys BEFCMU10 EtherFast Cable Modem, Linksys WRT54GS Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster and this Adapter. The set-up of this Adapter was a little troublesome. My problem was I didn't use a 10-digit WEP password, instead, I used a 8-digit password. I wasn't given any error message, neither I can find any help from the linksys web. Once I changed to 10-digit password. This adapter works very great, fast and makes me very happy.