BELKIN F5D8013 N Wireless Notebook Card

works good

Reviewed By: panku on 4/24/2010

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: really good piece of equipment for old comps with windows xp

Cons: none i can think of

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Reviewed By: on 4/21/2010

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Price

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Although there are a few things I would like that this card doesnt offer, I cant bring myself to listing any of them as a con.

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Very nice for the price

Reviewed By: on 4/20/2010

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Very inexpensive upgrade to wireless N for older laptops.
Not as bulky as most USB adapters
Able to receive 270 Mbps with a WRT300N router
Takes older laptops beyond the USB1 wireless limitations.

Cons: I received 2 different versions, v1000 and v1011, I've read in previous reviews that there are other newer versions being shipped out. Both versions I received are working great for me but be aware that others seem to have had problems with the older versions, at the cost of these it's worth the gamble, extra work and research to get them up and running.
I've read that these cards are limited when setting up Wireless Security, I've got them set up to run WPA2 Personal and they haven't been a problem.
I'm not real impressed with the Belkin software, it works, but doesn't seem to work as smoothly or as fast as the software I was using for the USB adapters I bought from Newegg a year ago.

Other Thoughts: I was looking for better than 11Mbps (USB1 limitation) on an old P3, with Windows 2000 Pro, that I own and ran across this card. I decided to take the gamble and buy 2, one for the P3 and one for a P4, with Windows XP Pro that was able to maintain a decent 54 Mbps with it's USB2. It did take some research, time, effort and patience to get these cards setup but the reward was 270Mbps on both laptops with very few drops, good enough for the wife to do her Facebook thing on the P3 and smooth streaming video on the P4 from sites like Hulu and Netflix.
I'm so impressed that I've been thinking about buying a few more to have around for guests so I don't have to include their individual MAC addresses in my routers MAC filter.
This card does stick out anywhere from 1.25 to 1.5 inches, which is typical of older card, but that's small compared to most of the USB dongles and a lot nicer than being hooked up by a USB or Ethernet cable. I don't think it's a con at all.

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