Review: Linksys Wireless-G USB Adapter for Windows PC

I recently purchased a new Windows Vista desktop PC from HP, and I needed some kind of wireless adapter for it to utilize the wireless network I have at my home. To do this, I could either get an internal card that would fit in a PCI slot inside the PC, or I could just get an external USB adapter. Rather than open up the case of my brand new machine and then have an antenna sticking out the back of it, I opted for the USB device.

In short, the Linksys Compact Wireless-G USB network adapter (WUSB54GSC) installed without any problem and worked perfectly. I was a little nervous about buying a USB adapter for a Windows Vista machine because of the horror stories I've heard about people trying to get some hardware to work with the operating system. Of all the brands on the shelf, Linksys was the only one that touted a Windows Vista sticker on the front. I've also used products from this company in the past, and I know they are one of the best when it comes to networking hardware.

This USB device is about the size of what flash memory drives were back when they first came out. It's exact dimensions are 3.86" long by 1.1" wide, and it weighs less than an ounce. If you had an older laptop that didn't have wireless capability built it, or even if the wireless quit working in your newer laptop, this would be a good fix for it. I have it plugged into the back of my desktop where it goes completely unnoticed, and there's no interference with the signal.

Installation of this hardware was quite easy. All you do is first load up the CD that came in the box, and this will install the drivers you need. It only takes a few seconds. After that, you just plug in the Compact Wireless-G and Windows takes a moment to detect it and set up the drivers. All you have to do after that is locate the wireless network you wish to connect to, and enter a password if required. I was surfing the web within a minute of installing this thing, and it didn't require a reboot.

As far as speed of connectivity, it is as good, if not better, than what I was already getting on my old Compaq Presario M2000 laptop. Since it was a new machine, I had to go download a few Windows Updates, and I was hitting download speeds of more than 200kb/sec. While downloading various other software, such as Apple's iTunes, the speeds were the same as they were before. Keep in mind that your bandwidth wholly depends on your ISP, and that you will always have an upper limit.

For the geeks out there, here's some of the tech specs on this thing - It's compatible with USB 1.1 and 2.0, and it uses the IEEE 802.11g and IEEE 802.11b standards. It also features something from Linksys called the Speedbooster, which performs some kind of compression technique to help increase wireless performance.

I paid 50 bucks for this device, and it was well worth the money. Most internal wireless adapter cards were going for the same price. Given how easy it was to install and configure, I'd highly recommend this to anyone needing to add wireless connectivity to their Windows Vista PC.