Review on Cisco Linksys WPC54G Wireless G Notebook Adapter by Marquel Floyd

The Linksys WPC54G laptop adapter is a pleasure. In combination with the Linksys WRT54G wireless router, G speeds of up to 54 MB/s are possible. I found the signal strength to be excellent throughout my home, spanning 2 floors and 2,000 square feet. The adapter itself is quite small and unobtrusive. This requires a PCMCIA port on your laptop and very little else. With Windows XP's Zero Network Configuration feature, I was able to connect and surf the Internet in just 10 minutes. If you have another Windows operating system, you'll probably need to spend a little more time installing drivers and tweaking configuration options, but there's no need to complicate the whole setup. As always with Linksys products, I recommend discarding the installation CD that came with the product. Automatic installation doesn't do anything even a beginner can't do. Also, not all network software is installed by default, which in many cases causes your perfectly working network to stop working. My gateway laptop gets very hot in the CPU area, but this heat is NOT transferred to the wireless network adapter. The card itself cannot get hot as there is nothing inside that could dissipate the heat. Rather, the heat mentioned in other reviews here could be due to the card pulling heat away from the CPU core. The adapter is visually appealing with a neutral gray antenna patch and a blue Linksys logo that is easy to see. The two LEDs indicate power and connection status, but are mostly unnecessary. In Wireless-G mode, this card greatly improved my wireless browsing experience. Pages load instantly and games don't slow down. My wireless gear also seems to have been positively impacted. The connections are more stable and the signal strength has improved. I highly recommend this product, especially if your infrastructure already uses Linksys components. Smooth installation, powerful features and an ideal price make this device indispensable!