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Worked the minute I loaded the driver. The adapter flew out of the laptop, the one piece unit unsnapped into two pieces and the USB connector portion bent. Very Durable. Within 24 hours of my receiving it, my grandson knocked over my laptop, with the adapter connected. I'm like "oh no, I haven't had this device for 24 hours and it's destroyed." Believe it or not, I was able to snap the unit back together and straighten out the USB connector. I plugged the unit back into my laptop, and VOILA: The adaptor still works.
After the switch, I haven't had a dropped signal since. I bought it to replace the D-Link wireless N USB adapter which I bought about 6 months ago. I have had a lot of problem with the speed and and stability of the internet connection with the D-Link. It was easy to install and I was on line in less than 10 minutes. Highly recommended although it is a little bit on the pricey side.
Now, several weeks after my most recent contact with Cisco, there is still no ETA on a new one. Cisco had a driver on their website but it was withdrawn.
and some hate it. Some people seem to like this adapter.
(Because of comments below) Dual-Band does work in all the XP and Vista scenerios where I have used this device.As of today's date, however, I cannot recommend it for Windows 7. I have purchased several of these (the v2 firmware) for use on Windows XP and Windows Vista machines, and they have functioned well.
The software install process is longer than I would think is necessary, and it took some coaxing on Windows XP Home on machines with less than 1GB of RAM, but it does function there. I got a beta of a replacement for it and managed to coax it into the machine, but only the 2.4gHz "g" band works (and this is a dual band NIC).
As most people buying this adapter want the expanded range, I would hold off until you can be sure drivers exist.
This adapter will NOT work with Windows 7. LinkSys acknowledged this when I called after being unable to get it to install. According to LinkSys in January, 2010, the only wireless adapter that will work with Windows 7 is the 54GS (NOT the GSC). Perhaps LinkSys will figure out a way to create a driver for this N-series adapter compatible with Windows 7, but do not buy this adapter for a computer running Windows 7 without first checking to see IF LinkSys has made a driver available.
The P4 is Dual Boot XP/Win7, but I did not install in XP. VISTA yes. I installed this (V2) on two machines, both WIN 7 32-bit. No secret there, my router, a WRT54G is only about 12ft away. Most of my hardware/software has migrated well from XP and VISTA, maybe my equipment has a more friendly environment. WIN7 could not find a driver, so I installed with the LINKSYS disk. Nowhere on my adapter's packaging does it mention Windows 7 compatibilty, either 32 or 64.
If people buy it for WIN7 under the assumption that it should work because 7 is similar to VISTA, they are wrong. One a 6yr old P4 and the other a 2yr old Quad-core. Just because it is certified for VISTA does not make it automatically WIN 7 compatible. It took about 5 minutes and installed perfectly with excellent signal strength. I left this adapter on the Quad and transferred my WUSB54GC to the P4, WIN7 picked up the 54. I made no such assumption, I just took the chance and won. However, if anything goes wrong later, I will report it.
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