Pros: Super easy setup and provides reliable wireless communication.
Cons: A little bit fragile and ties up one of your USB ports.
The Bottom Line: A great wireless performer for less than $30. Easy to setup and provides dependable wireless communication. Compatible with several operating systems.
oillogger's Full Review: Zonet ZEW2500P 802.11g/b Wireless Adapter
I now own two Zonet ZEW2500P wireless USB 2.0 adapters. My first one was bought 12/03/06 from Newegg for about $24.99 with about $4.50 for shipping including shipping. The second one just arrived from Newegg and I paid $26.99 plus $5.29 shipping and it only took two days to get to me. The reviews at Newegg led me to buy the first one and the great performance the first ZEW2500P provided made buying the second one easy.
FEATURES The Zonet ZEW2500P wireless USB 2.0 adapter is plug and play compatible with 802.11g and 802.11b (2.4GHz) standards. The interface is USB with a 36 USB cable leading to a credit card size USB powered device. Data rates up to 54Mps are supported with automatic fallback rates to 11Mps. Encryption rates of 128-bit and 64-bit are available. On the left side of the device is a small fragile 3 swing-up antenna. The front left top has two led indicators for power and link status. The typical transmitted power is 17dBm in the 11b mode and 13dBm for the 11g mode.
OPERATING SYSTEMS - The Zonet ZEW2500P wireless USB 2.0 adapter is compatible with Windows98SE, 2000, XP, and the ever so unpopular Vista. There is another operating system that the Zonet ZEW2500P wireless USB 2.0 adapter is compatible with but not listed and that is Apple. My son has been using his Zonet on his Apple driven PC for months without any issues. A few months prior he was using the Zonet ZEW2500P wireless USB 2.0 adapter with a Linux operating system.
INSTALLATION Installation was a breeze. I installed the new Zonet ZEW2500P wireless USB 2.0 adapter on my wifes Packard Bell look-a-like HP computer with that hated by all Vista software. I went into Device Manager and disable the Linksys PCI wireless network card after I had downloaded the latest ZEW2500P Vista driver from www.zonetusa.com. Next, I plug in the Zonet ZEW2500P wireless USB 2.0 adapter into an empty USB port and allowed Vista to detect the device. After the computer churned for a while it decided it could not find the correct driver. I was allowed then to point the computer or Vista rather to the location where I had stored the driver. All was that was left was to pick which of the three networks the Zonet ZEW2500P wireless USB 2.0 adapter found was mine and to input and one of the encryption keys. Now my wifes computer was cooking! Much better internet screen loads than the old Linksys wireless adapter resting inside her PC disabled. By the way, our router is a Linksys WRT54GL.
SOFTWARE & INSTRUCTIONS Later on I installed the software that came with my second Zonet ZEW2500P wireless USB 2.0 adapter. The installation on Vista took about 5 minutes since Vista is so much faster than 1 minute that XP would have taken. The Configuration & Monitor Utility that the Zonet CD installed was fairly informative and offered a lot of control over the Zonet ZEW2500P wireless USB 2.0 adapter. Finally I decided to look over the instructions to see if I had missed anything during my initial installation and testing. The instructions were well written for an XP installation. I decided I really did not need the instructions or the provided software even if they were pretty good since setup without them was so easy.
BOTTOM LINE The Zonet ZEW2500P wireless USB 2.0 adapter is a super easy device to install and is compatible several different Windows OS, Apple, and Linux. Setup is a breeze and the performance darn good.
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