Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys WUSBF54G Wireless-G USB Network Adapter with Wi-Fi Finder

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a direct comparision between the Linksys WUSBF54G and TrendNet 509UB.

Both perform as expected when used as a standalone hot spot detector.

Both perform as expected on Windows XP. Installation was quirky for both. After driver installation, inserting into USB slot it wasn't recognized at all. Fiddled around for awhile and it finally detected the device. Had to disable the notebook's builtin wireless before XP recognized the device.

Client software does not detect a device under Windows Vista Ultimate RC2. I assume this will be true for Windows Vista RTM too. Inserting the device into a Windows Vista RC2 system often completely froze Windows Vista (had to hold down power button for complete reboot). Had to disable the notebook's builtin wireless before Vista recognized the device.

Appears that the TrendNet and Linksys devices are so similar that they must be made by the same OEM or reference design. As expected, evaluation results are similar.

1. Both devices seem to have same sensitivity, similar to notebook's internal wireless card.
2. TrendNet device doesn't have Windows XP signed drivers so an extra click during install is requried. Also installing on new USB ports requires extra clicks.
3. TrendNet device supports 801.11a whereas Linksys does not.
4. TrendNet device sometimes crashes Vista Ultimate RC2.
5. Neither device's software client works under Vista Ultimate RC2. This isn't a deal breaker for me as they both work under Vista Ultimate RC2 networking as a USB wireless key. You just lose the client software feature.
6. The Linksys has a somewhat useful backlit LCD, TrendNet does not.
7. Both devices work as standalone hotspot locators equal well.
8. In hotspot mode, both devices show SSID, channel number, encryption mode, etc.

Conclusion: For XP, I recommend the TrendNet so save the extra dollars. For Vista, I recommend the Linksys device as it never crashed Vista Ultimate RC2 whereas TrendNet device was gave occasional freezes.

I just received my new WI-FI finder. I have version 1.1 and it DOES have a light in it and it works great. I just plugged it into a USB 2.0 port and Windows searched for the drivers and found them online and I did not even read the book or use the CD! It works great and charges thru the USB port. Highly Recommended-by the way I got it thru New Egg which was the cheapest shown using Amazon as a starting point.

Outstanding and worked out of the box after installing the software. Very, very impressed.

works great with good speed and easy to install (on usb 1 or 2 )(using win xp sp2)

It works great. Here's a tip if you are using a Linksys WRT54G wireless router: disable UPnP and you will not have a problem connecting to your network with the WUSBF54G. I'm running Windows 2000 SP4.

I take this every vacation as it works great in airports & good size for traveling. Best investment made & had it for sometime now. As pleased now as I was when I first got it. It's nice!

I attempted to connect two Gateway computers to my network. I tried several options but nothing seemed to work like the Linksys WUSBF54G-G USB Network Adapter. I had an instant connection to my network after the installation. Another amazing outcome that caught me off guard was the speed of delivery. While stewing in a sea of internet withdrawal I was jolted back to my senses by an unanticipated ring of my doorbell. My order had arrived what seemed like a day sooner than expected. After a seamless installation I was reconnected with the world. I gave this product five gold stars.
Barry Jones-Alexandria, VA
Linksys WUSBF54G Wireless-G USB Network Adapter with Wi-Fi Finder

Works as advertised. Finds and diplays available WiFi networks and connects to my home network easily. Highly recommended.

This adapter works very well when it connects, and I am getting 100% with no drops at all.

The only downside was that it took quite a while to get it working. The Linksys claim of finding a network and getting connected right away was misleading. First I found out that the drivers on the CD were old and would not work so I downloaded the new ones from their website. After doing this I went through the setup again. I kept getting the same thing. It would try to connect then time out with no connection. I even tried disabling security on my router, but this did not work either. All of this is on my desktop so far. After playing around with it for a couple of hours I decided to download the new drivers to my laptop. Surprisingly everything worked right away and I was connected through the adapter. Only one problem, I did not need a new wireless adapter for my laptop.

Reluctantly I contacted Linksys tech support. Up to this point I had tried connecting the device to 4 different USB ports, 3 of which had working devices on them already. Linksys had me do everything I had already done and after about 30 minutes their support told me my USB ports were bad. I just kind of laughed and told them the ports had working devices on them. After this they had no idea what to do and offered no further help (very worthless support).

For some reason I had clicked on Windows Update (not sure why...maybe some kind of divine intervention). I noticed there was a SP3 update for XP. I downloaded the service pack and after rebooting starting playing with the adapter again, and miraculously it worked on the first try. My guess is that something was out of date. I thought it might have been the USB drivers, but they were the same.

Ever since the update it has been working flawlessly. Lot's of hearache for a supposed plug and play adapter.

Bought in 2006 and still working. Very handy for traveling and have used it almost daily without a hitch. Highly recommend.