Belkin Wireless G USB 2.0 Network Adapter

King Kelly

Has anyone used one of these? Do they work?

http://www.pcwb.ie/catalogue/item/BELWLG07

I'm trying to set up an old Dell PC with no network card and running W98 to pick up broadband from my Eircom router. Trying to find the cheapest/easiest solution.

irlrobins

Firstly Belkin suck. Trust me on that one. So try and get a different brand if you can. Linksys, Netgear and Dlink are all well recommended.

Secondly, you'll need Windows 98 Second Edition (SE) if you're planning to use any USB devices. Windows 98 doesn't support USB.

ethernet

If you have an ethernet port on your PC, insist on using wireless and don't want to change OS, then it might be worth looking into a wireless bridge. You won't have to worry about any more drivers. Here is a decent one.

King Kelly

Thanks irlrobins - I do have 98SE on that PC.

King Kelly

Thanks ethernet - No network card/cat 5 socket on old PC which I presume the wireless bridge requires. I don't really want to get into installing a network card on old PC. I thought the wireless adaptor approach woud be simpler and I could reuse it in future.

Karoma

King Kelly wrote: »

Thanks ethernet - No network card/cat 5 socket on old PC which I presume the wireless bridge requires. I don't really want to get into installing a network card on old PC. I thought the wireless adaptor approach woud be simpler and I could reuse it in future.

... I could reuse it in future.

Depending on the revision (With each Belkin 'model' there are different versions of the same 'model' card.), it may not work with Vista and in my experience, even if Belkin say it should work with Vista - it won't.

The Belkin adaptor casing is flimsy and will break over time.

I never liked or trusted people who brand bash but in Belkin's case, they're right. Spend and extra 5-10 euro and pick up a Linksys or D-link. (Netgear make some crap cards - but a lot less than Belkin)


Win98 + USB is always risky. Even with SE. It should be OK though.

USB adaptors generally don't have the best signal - a PCI card with an external antenna would normally give you a little more flexibility and better signal. They're not that difficult to install and uninstall.

Cabaal

moving to wireless

-annex-

I have that Belkin adapter running on one of my xp machines (it also works on Vista). It gave me a bit of bother initially while setting up but it's running fine now and picking up a full strength connection. The Belkin wireless connection program that it installed was terrible and would cause the connection to drop periodically for some reason so I had to disable it in msconfig and activate Windows wireless zero to manage my connection (if you uninstall the belkin software it won't connect anymore). But after I figured that out it's running fine.