Linksys WPC54G Wireless-G Notebook Adapter | 
| Brand: Linksys
List Price: $60.26
Buy New: $10.96
You Save: $49.30 (82%)
New (64) Used (13) Refurbished (3) from $10.96
Rating:  261 reviews
Format: Cd
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
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Windows
Network Interface: CardBus
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 4.5 x 2.1 x 0.3
Warranty: 3 years warranty
MPN: WPC54G
Model: WPC54G
UPC: 745883553877
EAN: 0745883553877
ASIN: B00007KDVK
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
Early Adopters Pick, January 2003. The first high-speed wireless networking PC card for laptops to use the 802.11g standard, which is four times faster than the current standard (802.11b) and backwards compatible. The new Wireless-G notebook adapter (PC Card adapter) from Linksys has both the 802.11b and newer 802.11g standards built in, so you can connect your notebook to existing 802.11b infrastructure and also the new, fast Wireless-G networks. The included setup wizard walks you through configuring the adapter to your network's settings, step by step. Then just slide the adapter into your notebook's PC Card slot and enjoy network access with your notebook computer, while retaining true mobility. Wireless-G is the 54 Mbps wireless networking standard that's almost five times faster than the widely deployed Wireless-B (802.11b) products that are found in homes, businesses, and public wireless hotspots around the country. But since they share the same 2.4 GHz radio band, Wireless-G devices also work with existing 11 Mbps Wireless-B equipment. Once you're connected, you can keep in touch with your e-mail, access the Internet, and share files and other resources such as printers and network storage with other computers on the network, wherever you wander. At home, you can surf the Web or use instant messaging to chat with friends while sitting out on the patio. You'll also be able to connect to any of the growing number of public wireless hotspots springing up in coffee shops, airport lounges, hotels, and convention centers. And as those hotspots upgrade to the new high-speed Wireless-G standard, you'll be ready to take advantage of the increased speeds. Get connected to current standard 802.11b networks today, and be prepared for the future with the Wireless-G notebook adapter from Linksys. | 
See a comparison diagram of the different wireless technologies. | Wireless networks are rapidly becoming more popular and coming down in price. Since they don't require cables, you can use the devices anywhere in an office or home, even out on the patio. There's no need to roll out an Ethernet network cable to each room of a house; you can network anywhere--without wires. Outside the home, wireless networking is available in hotspots at coffee shops, businesses, and airports--great when you're on the road and need to get some work done. For convenience, wireless networking is the answer.
Which Wireless Standard Is Right for Me?
Now that you've decided to create a wireless network, the next step is to figure out which wireless standard to use. Basically, a standard is a set of specifications for a device. All devices that follow a specific standard share operating characteristics, such as the radio frequency used and maximum data transfer speed.
For wireless networking, there are three standards to choose from at this time: To learn about the differences between the standards and select the right one for your network, click here for an easy-to-understand chart. |
Product 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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| Customer Reviews: Read 256 more reviews...
 Great Piece of Equipment January 28, 2003
Bob Feeser (Springfield, PA USA)
145 out of 155 found this review helpful
This is a review I wrote for the router hub and the PC Card. I had already submitted it for the hub and am submitting it here also for the card. The entire review is relevant to both parts of this system. One thing I forgot to mention was that I had called Dell to see what they had available,and they were using a mix of Linksys parts as well. So I decided to go direct with Linksys equipment. Here is the review as submitted.
For an item that was not even available in Best Buy and the other major stores when I first bought it from Amazon, and that I received it in only a couple of days is knowledge enough to make this a winning situation.
What about hookup and use? Another 5 star performance. If you have never hooked up a wireless network before, take the advice of the quick start guide that comes with the unit, and use their included CD. They strongly recommended that you use the CD rather than manually configure it. Having seen the problems that some others were having with setup, only to be resolved (some of them) by exactly following the directions, you can see, that is the best way to go. The setup using the CD is about as easy as learning how to open a refrigerator door for the first time. Shutting off what they tell you to shut off, and turning on what and when they tell you to turn things on, results in a delightful install. Not even one glitch. The CD determines your internet connection, then it determines your system configuration, asks a few questions, and bingo you are up and running.
I install the PC Card for laptops as well, and that is just as easy to install. Within 10 minutes your surfing the web from all over the house. No Wires !
Pertaining to the speed issue: Remember when I discuss this that their is a difference between the speed inside of your network, and the the speed you are connecting to the web. I got 54MBps while I was in the same room. When I went into the living room, it went to very good, instead of excellent, and gave me 37MBps. Let's get a perspective here. A standard modem works at 56kbps tops. This router works at 54MBps that's megabyte not kilobyte. Their are 1024 kilobytes in every megabyte. So 54 Megabytes per second is about a thousand times faster than a standard modem. When hooked up to a Verizon DSL basic connection, you are running at a maximum of 700 plus kilobits on the download end, and 100 to 150 upload speed. I know I am getting specific, but the point I am making is that it does not matter what the connection speed you are running at any given moment, based on how close the base unit is to the PC card. What is important is that your internet connection will never even approach the speed capabilities of this router, so don't hassle yourself with any concerns over varying connect speeds of the wireless network.
Broadband hooked up to this wireless setup flies. As soon as you click on a site, it appears on the screen.
Faster connect speeds are important when communicating across the network, between machines, like when backing up drives across the network. For that reason, the faster N designated wireless is a little bit more expensive, but a lot faster than G. To go a step farther the ultimate in inter network communications, a hard wired gigabit or 2 gigabit connection rules. So the ultimate is to use an N connection for your router, which is your connection to the slower web, and use the faster N to a portable device, then hook up a gigabit switch, to run your hard wired connections between your devices in the network. I guess I am getting off on a tangent here, so back to the device at hand, which is still the most popular selling adapter.
Anyhow, just for reference, hooking up a DSL, or a broadband cable modem that was supplied by Comcast, with the Windows XP operating system, installation was as near automatic as can be. They do supply instructions when using Windows ME, 98 etc, that includes one more step than XP.
All in all this is a 5 star piece of equipment. Follow the directions exactly. It is easy. Hope this helps. This is the reason why I have a website, to help people with their installations. Did you know that as much as 30 percent of the wireless network products are sent back, because people give up trying to install them? Let's all save Amazon from the return product blues. I am here to help.
 Intermittent disconnection October 21, 2003
M. J Lane (USA)
81 out of 89 found this review helpful
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.
 Requires XP Wireless Zero Configuration Service be enabled February 16, 2003
Michael J. Macczak (Tampa, FL USA)
21 out of 23 found this review helpful
I installed the WPC54G with the WRT54G Router on a Sony GR-390 with Windows XP. The Router configuration went well using the included disk. After going to the Linksys site and downloading the most current driver for the PC card, the PC card installation seemed ok. The problem was that the PC card showed inactive and would not communicate with the router. I ran msconfig and checked the services tab and did not have Wireless Zero Configuration on the list. This is required to configure the wireless connection. Sony (and probably other OEMs) elected not to start this process in the Windows Registry. This is most likely the problem many XP users are having. It can be corrected by editing the Windows Registry to automatically start WZCSVC, but this should not be attempted unless you know how (if you must ask how, you should not be trying it). After making this change and using the Linksys knowledge base article ID KB10934338 mentioned in another review, everything works well.
 Not plug and play. March 3, 2003
slow cooker (Mountain View, CA USA)
21 out of 26 found this review helpful
I bought this card with the hopes of an easy installation on my W2K notebook. Getting it to work with a non-Linksys wireless hub took several frustrating evenings. The documention that came with the device and on the Linksys web site was absolutely useless. The installation software had conflicts with the firewall software so I had to remove both the firewall and linksys software and reinstall the software. Getting the 128 bit WEP configuration to work required asking a consultant for help. Apparently, you must enter the long security code versus the network access password. This obscure nuance was not obviously noted in the manual or on line documentation. I'm sure it is a little more straight forward if your network is all one brand but getting this device to work in a mixed brand environment was difficult and I should have listened to the consultant and bought the NetGear card.
"G" WiFi January 19, 2003
18 out of 21 found this review helpful
Great Card. I combined this with the (finally delivered) WRT5G wireless "G" router.
Pretty easy setup. Made an icon on my laptop desktop for easy network admin of the card - works pretty slick.
Speeds are just as fast as if I plug in the old hard wired Linksys card (cable ISP)and about 3X as fast as the old 802.11B WAP I just removed. Seems to get much better signal as well (was getting 37% at 100 feet now 97% at same distance).
WEP security was pretty tricky - direct typed in the hexidecimal instead of using the passphrase generator (shudda worked?)
The bonus is I can take this on the road and still connect to "B" airport/hotel/starbucks WAP's.
I'm excited that I upgraded, my wireledd laptop is just as fast as my desktop and fileserver.Rich in California
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