Review on Cisco Linksys WPC54G Wireless G Notebook Adapter by Andrew Walton

The Cisco-Linksys WPC54G Wireless-G Laptop Adapter was purchased to add network and internet access to an old Toshiba Satellite 2105CDS laptop. Installation was easy, and the included drivers on the CD worked right out of the box without getting the latest updated drivers from the Cisco Linksys website, although I downloaded and zipped them in case I needed them when I went later encountered problems. The upgrades made to this laptop were a 128MB memory upgrade, a larger and faster 120GB PATA hard drive, and a wireless G adapter. It's an OLD, OLD laptop, 400MHz AMD-K6 processor, 64MB RAM (now down to 160MB), S-3 VIRGE MX with 2MB VRAM, 24X CD-ROM and a 4.3GB Toshiba HDD . Current status from 1999 with Windows 98 SE. It's a "Kicks-n-Giggles" project, just see if I can get the poor tired old thing to work well enough to sit on my couch instead of either of the other two desktops and to read my emails. When I received this card I tested it on an original Windows 98 SE installation with an old hard drive and just added a 128MB memory chip. NO GO, couldn't get the CD drivers to work (the problem was that the graphics drivers needed to be updated). Installed a new 120GB hard drive and set up Windows 98 SE and Windows 2000 PRO SP4 in dual boot configuration after partitioning and formatting, then completed the OS installation. The BIOS update, latest driver updates and any installed MS updates will then be put on the driver CD for both operating systems and it will install and connect with NO PROBLEM. The adapter has a good connection signal, speed and range. I intend to reconfigure this system to dual boot with Windows 2000 and Linux. I haven't tested Linux yet. MORAL: If you are having trouble installing, update all system drivers, check MS Update for the latest OS updates and visit the Cisco Linksys website for the latest adapter driver updates, then try the installation again.