Review on Cisco Linksys WPC54G Wireless G Notebook Adapter by Jeff Richardson

I bought a G-Set which is all Linksys - a router, a PCI card and a card for my laptop. Here is my hardware setup: Machine 1: WIN 98 First Edition; 400MHz PII, lots of RAM; DesktopMachine 2: WIN 98 First Edition; 233MHz, moderate RAM; Desktop computer 3: WIN 2000; lots of speed and RAM; LaptopRouter: Great product. I hooked it up to machine 1 and it was up and running in under 5 minutes, including the hardware. I did NOT use the supplied software, but configured the router via the web interface. This is the key. The router doesn't even support WIN 98 First Edition according to Min. Linksys claims. However, my setup works fine. In fact, it seems to have boosted my internet speeds somehow - something I can't figure out but am more than willing to go with. PCI Adapter: I'm giving this an average 3 star rating because I honestly didn't get it. works, but on the other hand it really shouldn't have worked with WIN 98 First Edition since it runs on machine 2. That's why I feel I should rate this article at all - even if it's not supported, download the software and try using it shouldn't crash your system and cause errors. In fact, I had high hopes as the software appeared to load, but in reality it was just bugging the system. Well, after much trial and error, my poor old system is worse than before. I just don't understand why Linksys doesn't offer a way to work with WIN 98 First Edition. Basically it's just hardware and I guess at the end of the day a computer isn't that different from an ethernet card. I may be wrong, but why can't they create an interface for the old OS? In any case, if you don't have a newer system, don't worry. Laptop Card: Works like a charm. I installed the software on machine 3 running WIN 2000 and within minutes I had a great signal. The laptop was at least 50 feet from the router and in the basement (router on tier 1). So I still had a lot of power and signal quality through walls and from a distance. The fall was not noticed and all settings were set to a high security level. There was absolutely no extra heat as someone pointed out. In addition, there are no problems when working between a wired network at work and a wireless network at home. Simply insert and remove the card and you're done (I have to do this at work because of the cramped docking station). So overall I'm happy with Linksys.