The long gestation of the Wireless-N standard, otherwise known as IEEE 802.11n, is coming to an end and there'll be a lot of new hardware supporting the new, faster, wireless transmission standard. Linksys is well in there with a router, PC Card, PCI adapter and - the subject of this review - a USB 2 adapter.

Primarily intended for use as an easy-fit desktop PC adapter, this USB 2 device is roughly the size of a PC Card, with a USB plug on one end and two rather flimsy aerials on swivel mounts at the other. Wireless-N increases range and speed by using multiple aerials to transmit and receive data, so reducing 'dead spots' and multiplexing transmissions. This is why at least two aerials are needed on adapters and routers. The back edge of the WUSB300N card includes two blue indicators for power and network activity.

The Linksys card is quite cumbersome to attach to a USB port: it would be all too easy to knock it and possibly damage the socket. Linksys has thought of this and provides a small stand into which the adapter plugs. The stand itself plugs into a USB socket via a flying lead. Set-up is straightforward, thanks to a well-produced installation Wizard that loads the driver. After that, the software searches for any networks in range and gives you the option to join them.

We tested the adapter by transferring our standard 1GB basket of mixed files between the card and its companion Linksys WRT300N-UK Wireless-N router. At a distance of 4m, the transfer took 3 minutes 55 seconds, a full minute faster than using a PCI Wireless-N card. The Linksys utility reported transfer rates peaking at 300Mbps, but a real-world average is 1,000MB / 235seconds = 4.2MBps (33.6Mbps), around twice as fast as an 802.11g link.

Increasing the distance to 10m dropped the transfer rate to peaks of around 200Mbps and increased the transfer time to 4:51. The range of Wireless-N in this product is an improvement on Wireless-G, but not by the factor of four claimed by Linksys. The card is backwards compatible with 802.11g and 802.11b standards, as well as 802.11n.

The WUSB300N supports six common encryption standards, including WEP, PSK and PSK2 and has a three-year warranty, which is reassuring. You can download a Vista driver from the Linksys site, if you've moved on from Windows XP.

Verdict
This little USB 2 card is more impressive than its PCI cousin, but is still quite a way off the promise of the 802.11n spec. Linksys claims a 12 times increase over its own 802.11g kit, but we could only see around twice the performance. Even so, if you're travelling with a laptop or want an unobtrusive wireless desktop connection, this is a neatly designed, though pricey, adapter.

Company: Linksys

Contact: 0800 026 1418

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