Linksys Wireless-N PCI Adapter WMP300N

Average customer rating: 2.5

Great in theory, but too many bugs
Works, but not without a lot of hassle!
Works OK if you ignore the included drivers
Caution, nightmare
What a terrible product

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Linksys Wireless-N PCI Adapter WMP300N

Manufacturer: Linksys
Product Group: CE
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B000FDDUXG

Related Categories:

Networking & Online Communication

Networking & Online Communication

Desktop Cards

Product Description

The Linksys Wireless N PCI Adapter installs in most desktop and tower PCs and lets you put your computer almost anywhere in a building without the cost and hassle of running network cables. The Wireless N PCI Adapter uses the very latest wireless networking technology, Wireless N. By overlaying the signals of multiple radios, Wireless N's Multiple In, Multiple Out (MIMO) technology multiplies the effective data rate. Unlike ordinary wireless networking technologies that are confused by signal reflections, MIMO actually uses these reflections to increase the range and reduce dead spots in the wireless coverage area. The robust signal travels farther, maintaining wireless connections up to 4 times farther than standard Wireless-G. With Wireless-N, the farther away you are, the more speed advantage you get. It works great with standard Wireless G and B equipment, but when both ends of the wireless link are Wireless-N, the throughput can be increased even more by using twice as much radio band, yielding speeds up to 12 times as fast as standard Wireless-G. Once you're connected, you can surf the web, keep in touch with your e-mail, and share files and other resources such as printers and network storage with other computers on the network. To protect your data and privacy, your wireless connection is secured by up to 256-bit WPA2 encryption. The included Setup Wizard will walk you through configuring the adapter to your network's settings, step by step.

Customer Reviews:

Great in theory, but too many bugs.......2007-05-29

I have a Belkin Pre-N network at my house and liked the specs on the new Linksys product (WMP300N PCI adapter and the WRVS4400n router and access point) for my office. Out of the box nothing worked. An upgrade to .13 firmware in the router at least got it working. Speeds are impressive, but as many others have noted, the system hangs up at random times driving users to distraction. I returned the product and reinstalled my Cat 6 cables.

Once Linksys gets the bugs out I'll try them again, but they released this product without enough testing, in my opinion. This is a classic example of buyer beware.

Works, but not without a lot of hassle!.......2007-05-21

I bought this along with the corresponding Linksys wireless router. Set up was easy until I tried using the PCI card. After installing, my computer would freeze every few minutes unrelentlessly. I spent a good 3-4 hours trying to solve the problem with no luck. Finally I went on the Linksys Website Forums and discovered literally 100's of complaints about this PCI card from users that were having the same problems as me. After fishing through post after post, I came up with a solution.

If you buy this card, DO NOT install the linksys software from the CD installer. Get the drivers ONLY from Linksys and use Microsoft to set up your wireless. Apparently, the Linksys Wireless Monitoring software conflicts with the operating system. I am using XP Media Center version. Once I installed the drivers only and removed al the Linksys software, my computer was again stable with no freezes. I am getting connects speed from 216-270 which, although not as fast as advertised, is credible. I'm sure a firmware upgrade is down the road eventually.

I was going to trade all the Linsys "N" hardware for something else like a "G" Mimo, but I actually got it to work. Would I recommend? Yes, if you are computer savvy enough to get this card to work. If you want strict plug and play, this card isn't going to do it. If you can get it to work, the speed is worth the price of admission.

Works OK if you ignore the included drivers.......2007-05-21

Having had quite a bit of success with Linksys products in the past at first I decided I couldn't go wrong buying this product. However, immediately after installing the Linksys monitoring software and drivers on my PC, it would lock up or there would be a random BSOD within about a minute or so.

After searching around the net the key was to uninstall the Linksys monitor (allowing Windows to control the connection), download the new drivers on their website and bypass the setup.exe by manually installing the driver. Also, one has to turnoff the power save mode under the network connections advanced settings tab otherwise there is instability waking from suspend.

After a couple of hours of my time I managed to make the product work and it seems to work well in my environment. However, I'm not happy with the fact that the software is worse than useless and that calling support was a waste of time since they simply said: "try another PCI slot." Unless you are comfortable with manual driver installs I would stay away from this product. To avoid potential headaches do not install from the enclosed CD!

Caution, nightmare.......2007-04-01

I am not a computer whiz. I installed this product and the drivers. The product seemed to work fine. Soon after I noticed the computer was freezing up. Foolishly I didn't put 2 and 2 together, and assumed that the computer was overheating, because I'd had another do this. I began fiddling with the heat sink, and ended up screwing up the computer. I ended up getting a whole new computer before I realized that it was this product that was bad. My new computer began freezing up, too. Duh. I finally got it. So beware!

What a terrible product.......2007-03-24

I bought this new network adapter based on my many years of using linksys products. Linksys had been up to this point extremely reliable and easy to install, as well as long-lasting. I am quite the experience computer user, and most technical issues I can easily resolve - not so with this network card.

Firstly, I was having trouble like almost EVERYONE else who bought this card with connectivity. I had to uninstall the Linksys program, and then overwrite one of the driver files manually with a file I had to download from a guy who posted it on a linksys technical support forum (note that he didn't work for linksys). I had thought so highly of linksys's reputation that I almost reinstalled the operating system prior to troubleshooting the network card (I thought there was something wrong with the way windows was handling wireless networks).

Even after all of this, the speed that it connects with my belkin N-router is marginal at best. About 2 months later, I installed a top-of-the-line ati video card and all of a sudden the sound is rather choppy at a variable intervals. I figured it was a sound card issue or video card issue, and a weird one at that. Turns out the the wireless network card spikes the CPU usage when it transmits or receives just 1 packet of information. I looked online for a fix, and sure enough, other people have the same problem, with absolutely no help from Linksys.

I'm going to remove this card, and throw it away. What a complete and utter waste of money. This piece of garbage prompted me to write my very first review of any product on amazon, so that others may not have the misfortune of dealing with this.

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