Review on Cisco-Linksys WMP54G Wireless-G PCI Adapter: High-Speed Connectivity for Your Desktop by John Patterson

I had some problems running WMP54G with encryption with my router (WRT54G) on Windows XP. The quick installation guide assumes that Windows XP will recognize the card and install it automatically. It didn't do anything of the sort for me; he wanted me to deploy the driver manually. I strongly recommend getting the latest driver from the Linksys website instead of using the one on the CD. I don't recommend using the Windows Network Assistant or whatever it's called. He added a network bridge device with an odd IP address. I couldn't communicate with my router until I removed this device. This wasn't intuitive at all, but again, this is a Windows issue. Let's move on to the next problem: When I used WEP encryption (64-bit or 128-bit), the WLAN connection dropped after exactly three minutes. With encryption disabled everything worked fine. I then decided to use WPA encryption, which is said to be more secure than WEP anyway. To add this feature to the operating system, an update for Windows XP must be installed. Unfortunately, I found that this didn't immediately solve my problem: WPA wasn't available to choose from in the wireless settings. I then updated the driver for WMP54G and was able to use WPA with no problems! One more note: DO NOT use the driver from the supplied CD! Download the latest driver from the Linksys website. I would assume this was also the cause of my WEP problems, but I never tried again. I am happy with WPA. Also, make sure your router's firmware is up to date. Some providers have only recently added the WPA function. Those difficulties aside, this is an excellent card. It works just as fast as my wired LAN connection.