Linksys WGA11B Wireless-B Game Adapter

Manufacturer:	Linksys
List price:	~~$49.99~~
Our price:	that is 100% off!

Linksys WGA11B Wireless-B Game Adapter

Average rating: Stars

Garbage

I have spent ages trying to get this thing to work and it always goes the same way.

After setting it up, which fails 7 times out of ten to find the Linksys WGA11B Wireless-B, I can get it to accept assigned IP and even set up profiles with my SSID (although this is not necessary according to the instructions, if WEP is disabled) By the way I had to disable WEP as I could get nowhere with it enabled.

In Infrastructure mode, which my wireless network is, I eventually get both LEDs for wired and wireless connections lit, but on any attempt to connect to the net on a PS2, both LEDs will go out. Once the connection has failed on the PS2, the LEDs will come on again. I have tried several network Cat5 cables, just in case the one supplied was faulty, but this wouldnt explain the reluctance to get and keep a wireless signal. My router connects perfectly to any and all my laptops wherever they are in the house, but the WGA11B has great difficulty.

I am no novice to computing or networking and I should find this childs play. However I am rapidly losing patience with this things inability to do the advertised job.

I am exceptionally disappointed with the performance of this device. All the information I gathered before purchase didnt give any hint that there would be such trouble.

Linksys WGA11B Wireless-B Game Adapter - Linksys

Great Adapter. Set up takes a little time but isn't too bad.

I bought this linksys adapter mainly to play games on my xbox online but I also use it as a wirless adapter for another computer in the house. Its a great adapter and does what its supposed to do: give you a fast and lag-free connection. It is not strictly for consoles, you can also use it like i did to add wireless to a computer by plugging it into the ethernet port. For most users it should be plug and play. If thats not the case there is some simple work that you need to do before you can get going, especially if your wireless network is WEP password protected.

Plug the adapter into one of the free outlets on your router. (If they're all occupied, unplug one that is not going to the computer you are closest to, since you will need to use that computer).
Run the setup disc that came with the adapter on that computer. Change the settings shown on the screen to match the settings on your router. You can figure out those settings by typing "ipconfig" in the command prompt window. If you don't know how to get to command prompt, go to Start>Run, type in "cmd" and the command prompt window should open.
The next set of settings are about WEP. Type in the info there based on your router settings. The homepage for the settings of most routers is http://192.168.1.1 on your internet browser.
Now this is the part where I had problems. It would not let me type my network key in the "Key" field because it had letters that were not in the Hexadecimal range(0-9, A-F). When I entered it in the "pass-phrase" field, the adapter would not work. Thats when I realized that my router just used any word as the key. It did not use the 64-bit or 128-bit hexadecimal format. So my "key" was infact just any pass-phrase as far my router was concerned. This key can be used in pretty much any other network adapter. For example, this key works on the wireless usb adapter (linksys wusb11) that I use to connect another computer. But for this gaming adapter, you cannot use this key. The key that the game adapter needs has to be hexadecimal. So here is what I did. I typed in a word into the pass-phrase field in the setup of the gaming adapter and copied down the hexadecimal key that it generated in the field below. Then i changed my router's key to match that hexa key. Since you now changed your network key, don't forget to make that change on all the other devices that use your wireless network. So change the key on all those devices to the hexa key you now have.
(now, an alternative is to just make up your on hexa key and use that but i thought the method I used would be easier and error free. Since the word is something you know and will remember, in the future you can always type that into the pass-phrase field and find out your actual key.)
You have to remember that these settings are now stored in Profile 1 of your adapter. So keep hitting the blue button on the side until it says P1. The adapter is now good to go.
I realize that it sounds really complicated but its not that bad. My initial troubles can be blamed on the Westell Versalink modem/router that came with my verizon dsl service. Its a great router, but it's too bad that it didn't tell me the corresponding hexadecimal notation for my password. From what I've heard linksys routers don't have this problem. They tell you what your password/phrase is and also the actual key.
Now for two final thoughts:
A) I have read a lot of reviews for linksys products(mainly their routers) where people blast the linksys tech support. I dont know what these reviewers are talking about. I had to call their tech support a couple times and every time I got through pretty fast and the people i got were knowledgeable and extremely helpful. One woman though had a strong accent and a very soft voice and she was kind of hard to understand. But that was the only once.

B) The g adapter. Many of you looking at this adapter have probably also heard about the other game adapters which offer 802.11g. There is no real need for this new format. When the sales rep. at the electronics store tells you that you are "better off with g", he's just trying to get you to spend the extra money. He might also tell you that if you have a g router, the entire speed of your network will drop to b if you add a b adapter. While this is true, I don't see any problem in the speed dropping to b when there is practically no internet service today that gets close to the top speeds of b, let alone g. The only real use I see for the faster speeds g offers is if you frequently transfer large files between computers in your network. Then that extra speed might come into play.

Hope I've been helpful. Good luck.

Linksys - Linksys WGA11B Wireless-B Game Adapter

High Quality for low price

I was a bit skeptical getting this product since I hear so much about how 802.11B is supposed to be so inferior to 802.11G (especially from Best Buy, as a previous reviewer mentioned), but after getting this product and using it, I have yet to find any fault.

I use this adapter with a D-link 802.11b router I bought some time back and it was completely compatible. It does require some setup if you use a WEP code (that code to keep people from leaching your internet), but it was actually quite minimal and easy to adjust.

As for connection, I have experienced no lag with my Xbox when playing Halo 2. Everything has ran very smoothly.

I highly reccomend this product and am now a firm disbeliever in the bad talk about 802.11b wireless connectivity, especailly since I am using it to connect two laptops and an Xbox now. Encouple the quality and ease of use of this product with the fact that it's about half the price of every other wireless adapter out there, and there really isn't much reason to choose anything else.

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