My first post here. Perhaps if I had found this forumn or one like it I would have saved myself countless hours of headaches and frustration.

At the very least, maybe my experience will help others make an informed decision.

My son is old enough now that he likes to get on the web and do research for school and run educational games, etc. Ok, fine (after I get a machine setup with the appropriate blockers and filters).

So I setoff to create a wireless network to provide more than 1 PC internet connectivity to my cable modem. I did some reading and figured I'd go with a 802.11g network for the increased speed and future expandability, etc.

My first inclination was to go with Linksys. It seemed a no brainer as Cisco is the only routers we have used at work in the 18 years I've been in IT.

I purchase the WRT54G router and a PCI WPM54G wireless card for the desktop.

Setup for the router was easy enough and my wired PC still had connectivity.

The problem started when trying to load the drivers from the Linksys CD for the PCI card in the desktop to be connected wireless. Windows XP Add Hardware wizard kept reporting that it could not find the drivers on the CD. Wouldn't matter if I let it do it itself (recommended) or tried to load them directly through either the Drivers directory or via the Setup utility on the disk - no doing.

Ok, first call to Linksys support.....45 minutes and 5000 "Come again, what did you say?" laters I'm passed off to a senior tech as the first one couldn't get things going - no settings we tried work. He suggests I burn a CD with my wired computer of their drivers from their website. Do that. Initially have the same problem. Finally though the autorun catches and it installs the drivers.

Problems still persist though in that no settings we try provide connectivity. The wireless connection just won't work and no networks show up in the available networks - regardless of what I try - through at least 4 calls with 4 seperate first and senior level techs (none of which could speak English better than a drunk Russian - sorry to offend any drunk Russians, I don't mean too) - and 4 hours of banging my head against the monitor I'm beginning to realize this is why I've been putting off setting up a wireless network. I just "knew" it would be hell. One of the techs even said, its because you are too far away from the router. The router was downstairs in the studdy and the wireless PC was upstairs in my sons room. I dunno, 40-50 feet mabye? I tell him fine, I'll call back after I move the damn thing into the same room about 4' away from the router. I do when its all setup - and still not working of course. Again they are no help (and I'm thinking I need some sort of phone language translation software to boot).

Finally in exasperation I decide "To hell with it." Box up the router and network card and go back to Best Buy to exchange for another brand. The salesman looks at me with pitty and understanding. He says "Here, all of us in the department here use this - it'll work out of the box." If you do need to call support, it will be someone that speaks English well.

He hands me a D-LinkDI-524 802.11g router and a D-Link DWL-G510 802.11g PCI Lan card. They were even $20-30 cheaper Linksys. Hmmm....OK...I'll give them a try.

Take them home and setup the DI-524 router. It setsup even easier than the Linsys - no shutting off this and turning on that and repeat and stuff...., works well right out of the box and my wired PC has connectivity...cool. There is a cool wizard for setting all the settings for the router, fast and easy.

Now for the moment of truth. The instructions for the PCI card say to install the software FIRST then install the card. Hmm...reverse of Linksys....I'm thinking that was probably their problem all along? Anyways I do that. CD works fine. Driver loads with no problems. Put the card in and what do you know, my wireless network actually shows up in the available network box. Select it - and bingo, it works. Not one problem. Not one issue. I called tech support only to ask where the firewall setting is and was told that it is enabled by default there are some advanced firewall settings for allowing certain addresses, etc. but basic firewall functions are allready provided and enabled. He was courteous - and OMG, spoke English like this Texan.

I go ahead and define my WEP key and get encryption set up and going - again no problems. My wireless PC is still in the same room as my wired PC and the router. It has a "very good" connection according to Windows Wireless Network connection info and a speed of 54Mbps....I drag the PC upstairs and set it up expecting a drop in performance. Nope, windows still reports 54Mbps with a Very Good connection. Network Bandwidth tests over the internet (CNET.com) show a wireless connectivity bandwidth of over 3700 kbps (3.7 Mbps) essentially the same readings I get on the wired connection.

I'm a happy D-Link customer. My son will be a happy D-Link user.

Linksys....well....Grrrrrrr......

Earl

To be fair to Linksys, Belkin and others, most need the software installed first. I know this goes against the habit we all had over the years with wired things, installing hardware first, then software either found and installed by windows or we were asked for the CD/Floppy...

I suppose Linksys support should have told you that if that was the case.