Belkin F5D8000 Wireless Pre-N Desktop Network Card

I have a multi-computer home where the machines are located in two different areas, not to mention a laptop which roams everywhere. I previously was using a Linksys Gaming Adapter for one of my desktops to access my wireless network. I would get frequent drops or hangs which would require rebooting even though I had great signal strength. I purchased this card and birtually all of my network related problems have cleared. I still have had an occassional loss of access where a reboot fixes the problem, but since the card it is a once in a quarter thing compared to a several times a day problem with the gamining adaptor.

So on the advice of several positive reviews for the Belkin Pre-N router and card, i got it for my desktop which is only 150 feet away from the unit. I had a wireless g card from linksys in my desktop and it got low reception so I thought the pre-n would do the trick. On the box they brag, quite falsely, that it is 800% better than wireless G. This card got very weak if any conneciton (worse than my old g card) and after 2 hours of working with Belkin's HORRIBLE tech support, and trying all 11 channels and configurations, I had to return it.There are very few obstructions in the way, yet tech support swears there must be interference. But I think that's a load because I have two laptops that get a great signal and work just fine sitting on my computer desk where the desktop card simply couldn't perform.Other's have had success with this card so it might be worth the gamble.

Just Got the Pre-N Card and Router. It works great with all my XP computers but I have removable hard drives. One with XP and One with Vista. Called Belkin and they told me they could not help it was not compatible and that is all there is to it. When I put the intall disk inwith Vista it would not run at all. So I hit start and went to my computer and saw the Belkin set up disk in the CD-Rom drive. I right clicked on the set up disk and hit open and saw the set up Icon and then I right clicked on it and opened properties and then opened compatibility menue and ran it in XP compataiblity mode and hit apply and then downloaded the driver and it works perfect. Pre-N works great and now that I have it running on Vista I am elated. I hope this help someone out there with the same problem.

EDIT: I now see why I could never get this to accept a WPA2 signal (WPA encryption is fine) despite the matching Belkin Pre-N router offering it. This card is NOT on the WIFI Alliance's list of compatible and approved products and hence won't use the more secure WPA2 protocol, again despite it being part of the matching Belkin Pre-N router's setup and is considered necessary for security these days. No, a firmware update for either the router or the card won't do the trick.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pros: Takes advantage of Belin's Pre-N Speeds to a pointCons: HIGH rate of lost connections; can be a bear to setup even for expertsSummary: Short and sweet: I've had this product for well over two years, having bought it along with my Belkin Pre-N router. The stories about the increased range and higher-than-G transfer speeds are true, though I'd take the numbers with a grain of salt.I had networking experts in local industry and from my embassy (I'm an overseas expat) attempt to help me with the initial setup, and this card couldn't find the router for two weeks, which eventually turned out to be a quirk in how the Belkin Pre-N and XP interact to allow WPA security. I won't bore you with details, but suffice to say that setup may not be as standard as you think, noob issues notwithstanding.Over a year later, my biggest gripe is that after periods of inactivity, the connection to the router is intact, but my HTTP connection is not. This is not an issue for laptops or other wired devices on my network, which maintain rock solid connections with both the router and the internet regardless of time connected, idle or otherwise. I have tried with and without other devices attached to the network and have also assigned static IP addresses to each device, all to no avail. Driver issues don't seem to enter into this either, and Belkin's tech support is flummoxed. That this occurs with the card specifically designed to take advantage of the Pre-N router is an unredeemable ding in its rating as far as I'm concerned.If you can put up with this annoying shortcoming involving constant software reboots of the router and occasional computer/router hard reboots, the connection is good and the range is great. It's also very forgiving of physical obstacles, I find.

Very easy to install and use. Connected at 108mbs to my pre-n router and I lost no speed at all with my internet connection 3106kbs upload and 254 download (this is the max speed my cable company offers in our area).Only trick is if you want to configure WPA-PSK security over your network you must have windows XP sp2 installed on your PC and use XP's wireless network connection (instead of the belkin software) to configure your connection.

Item failed to perform. No help from Belkin. Contacted Amazon about return and was informed I had to deal with Computer Brain who informed me I had to pay return freight plus 15% restocking fee for an item that was faulty. Never buy from Amazon again

I had a problem installing this device. If the card isplugged into a laptop, the card plugs in with the indicatorLEDs up, but when plugged into my Dell desktop it plugs inwith the indicator LEDS down. It doesn't have a key toprevent incorrect installation.