Cisco-Linksys WGA54AG Game Adapter 802.11A/G 54 Mbps Review

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(More customer reviews)At $50, it's a steal for what this product does, right? Well, sort of... I purchased this device in order to allow my desktop machine to run Linux and connect wirelessly to my Netgear wireless router, thus bypassing all of the issues with wireless and Linux. I expected a nice setup process; connect the adapter to my NIC, configure some properties, and be off and running. I was wrong. Wrong in the form of a three hour session of head-versus-keyboard style troubleshooting. Hopefully this review will shed some light on this mysterious device.
Let's just get it out of the way that Linksys's customer support is nonexistant. Forget trying to call them. Also, the provided documentation is submoronic at best, and provides absolutely no information on troubleshooting. I had to figure everything out myself.
This thing is a nightmare to configure. I unpacked the unit, connected the power, and plugged into my NIC. Interestingly enough, my computer didn't automatically obtain an IP. After checking my TCP/IP settings, I reconnected and power cycled the thing a few times. Still no dice. As my frustration was building, it mysteriously connected! Awesome! I got no further than logging into the web interface, and it disconnected as mysteriously as it connected. I have no idea why it was designed like this, but it seems that you need to have a preexisting wireless connection for the thing to connect using DHCP!! The manual vaguely suggested plugging the thing into a router, so I tried that. Not only did I not connect, but my router wigged out several times, requiring me to restart it.
I finally figured out how to resolve all of these problems. It seems that since I have a netgear router, and the game adapter uses a static IP that is not in the router's DHCP range, this device behaves erratically when hard wired to the router. So...
1. Before doing anything, even before unpacking the adapter, log into your router and make sure your DHCP range is set to use IP's 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254. Most default router setups (except for Linksys of course) use 192.168.0.x, and this will simply not work.
2. Pray, then plug the adapter into a free port on your router. Nothing horrible should happen yet, so open up a browser and http on over to 192.168.1.250. You should get a login screen, so go ahead and leave the user name blank, and "Admin" for the password.
3. The configuration interface is horrible. Straightforward, but horrible. The "Scan" feature only works half of the time, so you may have to refresh the page a few times before it works. Here, connect to your wireless network by SSID. It should say "Setting Successful," at which point you can unplug the adapter. It will very likely crash your router due to connecting thru wireless at the same time as wired. There are some other options to play around with, but whatever you do, DON'T ENABLE DHCP. Everything else should work as configured unless you have WEP, in which case you're on your own.
4. At this point, you should be able to plug the adapter into the intended computer, and it should work.
Since I got it working, it's been a great little adapter. It's very robust and does everything I need it to. Here are some thoughts on getting it working without having to violate your router:
Since the adapter requires there to be a wireless signal present in order to log in using a standalone computer, you may be able to connect directly to it with a crossover cable. When connecting with a crossover, you have to manually specify an IP. Anything in the 192.168.1.x range should work, subnet 255.255.255.0, no default gateway or DNS servers. Using this method, you should be able to access the web configurator to set the adapter up. I recommend that you change the IP to one in your router's default IP range. Also, you can play with WEP. Again, don't enable DHCP, or your day will get a lot worse. Trust me on this.

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Linksys Wireless A/G Game Adapter - This external game adapter has 3 unique functions. For Playstation 2, GameCube, and Xbox owners, you canuse this device to wirelessly connect your console to the Internet for multiplayer gaming. Or, you can use two of these units on two separateconsoles for wireless head-to-head action! If you own a Media Center Extender-equipped Xbox, you can utilize the 3rd feature, which is to give yourXbox wireless access to your Media Center PC's media.

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