Tonight I went out and bought this very cool-looking 802.11 dongle. The dream was plug and play install. Unrealistic, sure, but the little lozenge made life far harder than acceptable.� Avoid it: http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product_Id=3687232&ProductPageTab=Details
Next willing guinea pig might want to try the linksys instead: http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.process?RestartFlow=t&Section_Id=1&Product_Id=3675199 � BAD FIRST GO First, when the CD installed, the program didn't have the installation icon (bad sign). Then on the first run it crashed XP on my machine. I took my other computer and went to the NetGear site. Thank goodness they had an software upgrade. It specifically notes "Improved utility stability in Windows XP on certain HP/Compaq EVO laptop or desktop systems."� I run XP on an HP pavilion. In a couple minutes, I got the new dongle running on the laptop, but to do so I had to actually go into the card settings and turn on the defaults on (C'mon Netgear...). I saved the package to a storage card and loaded it back to the desktop. BAD SECOND GO It couldn't run because the initial installation folder was corrupted. Holy heck! Reboot, run the cleanup wizard, start again. Then the InstallShield gets stuck on iKernel.exe--"The filename, directory name, or volume label are incorrect." Argh! MARGINAL THIRD GO I went back to the folder, right-clicked the right INI, and installed the drivers.� It worked.� Then after fifteen minutes it promptly shut down my machine. CONCLUSION All in all, this little dongle is a downer. Installation took over 90 minutes. The original software didn't install, necessary settings were all disabled, the new version of the software didn't install either, and I had to go straight to the INI file.� Maybe it was just the HP desktop I'm running, but this dongle is not ready for prime time. Caveat Emptor. � � __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Exclusive Video Premiere - Britney Spears http://launch.yahoo.com/promos/britneyspears/ -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
