Convenient little adapter...go wireless!

My college recently put in a few wireless hotspots on campus a few weeks before finals. And since the impending doom of finals week was looming ahead of me, and camping out in the library was going to be a given--I invested (ha!) in this adapter since my laptop didn't come equipped with a wireless network card. That was about 3 months ago. Today I'm still using the adapter at home--I liked wireless access so much that I purchased a router for my house.

For those of you who aren't very familiar with wireless, you'll need this adapter if there is already a wireless connection available to you, but your PC doesn't have wireless capability. The adapter can either plug right into a USB port, or it can be connected to your PC via a cable that comes in the package. It's best to use the cable so that you can position the adapter so that it picks up the strongest signal you can get wherever you are, which depends on where the wireless signal originates from.

The package also includes a few small pieces of velcro, so that you can literally stick your adapter wherever the signal is strongest.

As for ease of use, it wasn't necessarily difficult to get the connection up and running but since I barely understood what I was doing at the time it took me about an hour. I have Windows XP Professional and I've found that it's best to use Windows to connect to the wireless connection--although the Netgear software encourages you to use its utility to connect. To this day I can't connect wirelessly to the internet using Netgear's utility, but on Windows all it takes is going to Start menu, connect to, then click wireless connection and you're online!

This is the only adapter I've used, so I can't speak to how its reception ability compares to other models, but I can tell you that the router I recently installed is on the ground floor of our house. My laptop gets very good signal strength upstairs, and my brother uses the wireless connection in the basement. The maximum speed for the adapter is 54.0 Mbps, and one floor indirectly above the router I'm consistently connected at about 36.0 Mbps which is really fast--I can't imagine 54.0 Mbps being faster or my noticing a difference between the two speeds, that's how quick it is.

A few possible issues with this adapter: due to its size and the fact that it is external it may be susceptible to damage. Especially if you have it protruding out in any manner it could be bumped or knocked down--I know it won't break to pieces but with a catastrophic fall it something could go wrong. Just a guess though, since I've had no problems!