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

I've searched various forums to see if anyone has a solution to a problem that's been reported so often with this product, where you see the message " A wireless connection is available" and the SSID is shown as an available network, but then you cannot connect to it. I don't think anyone has described the solution I found so I'll try it here, I hope it helps reduce the stress for at least a few other users. I played around with this problem for HOURS yesterday but decided to try again today. I thought if I don't get everything working today everything will be packed up and sent back tomorrow!, the reason was that the router was on a single channel (6 I think) and the WMP55G cards (at least when a new driver was installed ) by default on channel 11. (I can swap them). With this configuration, the network SSID was visible to the client systems, but NOT connected - at least not normally - they actually connected briefly once or twice to mismatched channels, but to all in close proximity. The WRT54G channel number (assuming you are using a Linksys router) is located on the Setup tab in the web interface. (I had a PC connected to my router for this - a good idea if you have RF issues like me). It's at the bottom of the screen in the Wireless section. Don't forget to click "APPLY" after making the changes for the changes to take effect. The WMP54G channel number (Windows XP - SP1 with the latest driver anyway) can be found in the G Notebook Wireless Network Adapter Properties window under the Advanced tab. It is labeled "IBSS channel number". You must click OK for the changes to take effect. I think I tried changing the channel on my router yesterday but couldn't click 'APPLY'. I kept seeing the same thing. The network was visible to client computers but not connected. Interestingly, my laptop CAN connect, but two PCI cards cannot. After syncing all channels everything was fine. One would expect that if the card and router are on different channels (especially between 6 and 11) the network would not be visible from the cards, but that is not the case. not the case! They are visible but just don't connect - usually anyway. I believe any RF issue can cause a similar symptom. bad antenna connection is interfering with cordless phone (other network nearby?) or whatever you have. The first thing I did today was turn off all cordless phones in the house before I started troubleshooting. The next step was to re-enable the SSID broadcast and disable security. Once we synced the channels, both PCI cards synced at once. I then disabled the SSID broadcast, made sure everything was ok, then inserted the WEP key, checked again, then logged in and limited the MAC addresses to those of my client computers. Now everything works reliably.