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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wireless networking comes of age... finally, 15 Aug 2003
I finally snapped the end off my Netgear 802.11b card, and I've been meaning to install a hub at the office as well as at home. I wanted a faster 802.11g set-up, too, and this looked as if it would fit the bill. It's claimed to work with the slower 802.11b hubs. Even though it's one of the cheaper cards on the market, this is a well built piece of kit. The end protrudes rather more than other 802.11b cards but appears rather more solid. I hope so. Two LEDs, one for power, and unusually one indicating network traffic, help diagnose driver issues. Compared with Netgear drivers the software is excellent. It supplements the Windows XP drivers and appears in the Network Connections control panel alongside the fixed and modem connections. On inserting a card a scan is done of local networks which are displayed in a menu to choose from -- if they're not WEP encrypted, just choose one and you're away. If they are, a text box allows the key to be entered. (The "Advanced" dialog allows entry of hex digits rather a text string.) You'll need to visit the Belkin web site for final 802.11g drivers -- the ones in the box are "54g pre-ratification", meaning that they might well not work with 802.11g gear from other vendors. Both sets of drivers look the same so any differences are in compatibility only. The Advanced dialog brings up a much broader display of options than regular plain-jane Microsoft drivers. You can choose to automatically connect to local networks (handy if you're roaming) and run diagnostics. The Site Monitor allows you to check the signal, noise, and S/N ratio of each of the local sites; an Advanced window (to the Advanced dialog!) lets you keep a log of these sites, handy for those wardriving trips. Ah yes, but does it work? Yes, it most certainly does. The first surprise is that even when connecting to 802.11b hubs the connection is better. I have the hub in the loft, and using the card on the ground floor I'm consistently getting 5Mb/s connections. Besides having faster throughput the connection responds quicker, too. Connecting through Telnet to a Linux box, characters are echoed much more quickly as compared to the old card where there was definitely a bit of a delay. So - better range, better software, and a faster connection - thoroughly recommended. All I need to do now is make sure I don't snap the end off this card too.
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