Works fine with new driver software
Written: Dec 06 '03 (Updated Dec 06 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent build quality, impressive driver utilities, good range, supports 802.11g with new driver.
Cons: New drivers must be downloaded for 802.11g support, yellow addendum sheet is inaccurate.
The Bottom Line: A great card if you want both 802.11b and 802.11g support, but be prepared to download new drivers for proper 802.11g support.
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| red3kgto's Full Review: Belkin Wireless Notebook (F5D7010) Network Adapt... |
I purchased a Netgear DG834G wireless router and needed a wireless network card for my notebook. I picked this Belkin one up from PC World for £45 because it was the cheapest (the Netgear ones were £60). I could have got it cheaper mail-order but wanted it urgently.
The back of the box says it supports 54g, which was based on the "DRAFT" 802.11g (54mbps) standard. The DG834G supports the now ratified 802.11g standard, so I was a bit concerned that the card would not work at 54mbps with the Netgear box. Anyway, I went ahead thinking that I could always bring it back, as PC World are quite good on returns.
Upon opening the box I was impressed by the quality of the packaging and the manuals, which included a "quick-start" guide to get you up and running. This mentions that you should install the software and insert the card only when it prompts you to. I followed the instructions and installation was seamless (this was on Windows XP). The card initialised straight away and detected my network. After entering my WEP key (the card supports both 64 bit and 128 bit encryption) I was able to see my network and surf the internet wirelessly. Result!
After verifying that everything was working, I checked the signal strength with the in built utilities. These are very impressive and allow you to monitor all the SSID's that are being broadcast and their signal-to-noise ratio's and whether they support b or g standards etc. I was able to walk down stairs and sit at the breakfast bar in the kitchen and still get an excellent signal (the DG834G was situated upstairs and was broadcasting through two concrete walls and a wooden floor).
It was at this point that I noticed the utility saying that the card was only supporting 802.11b (e.g. 11mpbs). So Belkin's 54g standard is not compatible with the 802.11g ratified standard that the Netgear uses. This was a little worrying, but there was a yellow sheet of paper in the box stating that Belkin would support the new standard when ratified. The sheet of paper says to go to http://networking.belkin.com to find more information but this site doesn't mention anything about the wireless network adaptor and is more concerned with their range of routers. I then went to www.belkin.com and did a search for the F5D7010 driver, and sure enough an updated driver was available for download.
I downloaded the new driver, which comes as self-extracting executable and ran it. It first uninstalls the old driver and then you have to run it again to install the updated driver, but you must remember to take the card out first so that you can re-insert it when prompted. I forgot to do this and the driver didn't work, but once I had been through this process a couple of times, my system recognised the card again with the new driver. I couldn't find any instructions about applying this patch, which would have helped, so I have marked Belkin down a bit there.
Once up and running with the new driver the monitoring software told me I was now supported at all speeds up to 54mbps and also verified that 802.11g as well as 802.11b were both supported. So I am now very happy that the card is supporting the ratified standard that the Netgear supports. This also proves that it is possible to use hardware from different manufacturers that support the 802.11g ratified standard and you should not expect them to interoperate if they say they only support the draft standard.
However I feel that Belkin should update the supplied driver CD with the latest driver and not have to rely on people downloading the new driver, or even just make the software available at http://networking.belkin.com as the yellow sheet suggests. So this is a mark off their score too. Let's hope new stock is going out with updated driver software.
The card also has two diagnostic leds, one to tell you that the card is receiving power and is initialised, and another to tell you when it is transmitting data.
Overall I am very impressed with the build quality of the card and also the software features.
[NOTE: At the time of writing the picture used by epinions for this product is incorrect]
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
red3kgto
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Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 0 members
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