Product Description

The 802.11g WAP connects to your network switch and lets you join your wireless-equipped PCs to your wired network. It is based on breakthrough 802.11g technology that makes wireless file transfers and downloads faster than ever before. 802.11g technology provides you with networking speeds nearly five times faster than the current Wi-Fi (802.11b) standard. When connected to a gateway, the WAP can increase your network's coverage area and allow you to take advantage of expanded wireless roaming capabilities. Once you've done the simple setup, you can share data and peripherals, as well as a single Internet account among all your computers. 802.11g technology is the easiest wireless network to implement. The Access Point uses the wireless 802.11g 2.4GHz standard to offer you the widest working range-up to 1500 feet -and greater interoperability in mixed networking environments. 802.11g technology is backward-compatible with the 802.11b Wi-Fi networking standard, so it allows you to implement faster wireless technologies in combination with existing 802.11b Wi-Fi networks. An added Turbo Mode feature isolates your network from 802.11b wireless clients and allows your network to transmit data at the highest 802.11g data rate, 54Mbps.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13819 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Belkin
• Model: F5D7010UK
• Released on: 2003-03-24
• Platform: Windows
• Dimensions: .84 pounds

Features

• Adds wirelessly networked PCs to your wired network, or extends the coverage range of your wireless networking environment
• Extends your 802.11b or 802.11g wireless network
• Three times the operating range of 802.11a
• Compatibile with all 802.11b devices
• Provides a wide wireless range, requiring 75% fewer access points to cover the same wireless area as an 802.11a network

PC Plus
Value Award

Manufacturer's Description
Belkin networking presents its latest innovation, the 802.11g Wireless Notebook Network Card. The Card works as an ideal standalone to give you instant networking capabilities. It features breakthrough 802.11g technology that makes wireless file transfers and downloads faster than ever before. 802.11g technology provides you with networking speeds nearly five times faster than the current Wi-Fi (802.11b) standard. The Card sets up with the ease and the simplicity of Plug-and-Play technology on any laptop equipped with a 32-bit CardBus slot. It slides into the 32-bit CardBus slot to enable a wireless connection to your network. 802.11g technology is the easiest wireless network to implement. The Card uses the wireless 802.11g 2.4GHz standard to offer you the widest working range - up to 1500 feet -and greater interoperability in mixed networking environments. 802.11g technology is backward-compatible with the 802.11b Wi-Fi networking standard, so it allows you to implement faster wireless technologies in combination with existing 802.11b Wi-Fi networks.

PC Plus Value Award

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

Belkin 802.11g Wireless Notebook Network card, excellent !
The Belkin 802.11g Wireless Notebook Network card was easy to install and operates well with my Linksys wireless router. No problems with Signal strength always very good.
Excellent product, excellent value, highly recommended.

No problems, does the job
I bought one of these to use with the Belkin ADSL modem/router, and now it's up and running, it does the job well. It was easy to install, and immediately found not only my own wireless network but also those of my neighbours!

The only problem I had with it was getting it to work with the security encryption with the router, but now that this problem is fixed, I'm well pleased.

The card itself looks fine. It protrudes a fair way out of the PCMCIA slot which doesn't bother me, but it might bother you. It's got two lights on it - one to show that the radio link is enabled and another which comes on when data is being transferred.

Seems to be a solid and reliable card so far.

Wireless networking comes of age... finally
I finally snapped the end off my Netgear 802.11b card, and I've been meaning to install a hub at the office as well as at home. I wanted a faster 802.11g set-up, too, and this looked as if it would fit the bill. It's claimed to work with the slower 802.11b hubs.

Even though it's one of the cheaper cards on the market, this is a well built piece of kit. The end protrudes rather more than other 802.11b cards but appears rather more solid. I hope so.

Two LEDs, one for power, and unusually one indicating network traffic, help diagnose driver issues.

Compared with Netgear drivers the software is excellent. It supplements the Windows XP drivers and appears in the Network Connections control panel alongside the fixed and modem connections. On inserting a card a scan is done of local networks which are displayed in a menu to choose from -- if they're not WEP encrypted, just choose one and you're away. If they are, a text box allows the key to be entered. (The "Advanced" dialog allows entry of hex digits rather a text string.)

You'll need to visit the Belkin web site for final 802.11g drivers -- the ones in the box are "54g pre-ratification", meaning that they might well not work with 802.11g gear from other vendors. Both sets of drivers look the same so any differences are in compatibility only.

The Advanced dialog brings up a much broader display of options than regular plain-jane Microsoft drivers. You can choose to automatically connect to local networks (handy if you're roaming) and run diagnostics. The Site Monitor allows you to check the signal, noise, and S/N ratio of each of the local sites; an Advanced window (to the Advanced dialog!) lets you keep a log of these sites, handy for those wardriving trips.

Ah yes, but does it work? Yes, it most certainly does. The first surprise is that even when connecting to 802.11b hubs the connection is better. I have the hub in the loft, and using the card on the ground floor I'm consistently getting 5Mb/s connections.

Besides having faster throughput the connection responds quicker, too. Connecting through Telnet to a Linux box, characters are echoed much more quickly as compared to the old card where there was definitely a bit of a delay.

So - better range, better software, and a faster connection - thoroughly recommended. All I need to do now is make sure I don't snap the end off this card too.