BUFFALO AirStation N150 Wireless USB Adapter - WLI-UC-GNM

Pros: very small and worked for its application but dont expect excellent wireless connections after 25 feet

Cons: none

Pros: Windows 7 Drivers are available on Buffalo's Japanese website. Just search Google for wliucgnm105.exe

Cons: Windows 7 drivers are not available on Buffalo's US website.

Pros: works as a plain wireless reciever not some big honkin dongle hanging off the back end of a computer to bump into things and break low price

Cons: Wireless range is short and signal strength is inconsistant (not surprising given the antenna's size) included wireless software for Win XP does not auto connect to wireless router. Have to manually connect every time system boots up and reconnect if system idles. gets really hot to understand my dissatisfaction read other thoughts

Overall Review: I originally bought this because I read a product manual for the WLI-UC-GNM that claimed it was able to be used in a similar fashion to Buffalo's Nintendo Wi-Fi dongle where it would act as an access point for wireless devices that support AOSS like a Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. As it turns out, the manual I was reading was for the Asia-Pacific region. According to that manual, the Buffalo software has a feature for this specifically that is very easy and painless to do. In North America however, somehow this feature is illegal or infringing on some lame copyright in some manner and taken out. Just like how the Nintendo Wi-Fi dongle was yanked off store shelves for a similarly lame reason. really upsetting because this would have been a simple, painless, and cost effective method of connecting my PSP to the internet without haivng to reconfigure my entire network at least I can use it to connect a super old computer to the internet now lol

Pros: Small and Inexpensive. Supports current WPA2. Connections are just fine.

Cons: No 5Ghz support. Can get pretty warm.

Overall Review: I picked up a couple of these. One for a desktop and one for an older laptop that only had 11b support and couldn't connect to any Wifi network using greater than WEP. They installed easy enough, though I recommend not using the management software and just use what is included with Windows.

Pros: Very small size Low cost

Cons: Poor range Non-standard driver setup Gets very hot

Overall Review: Mine has a hard time maintaining a link at distances where other devices have no problem. It gets very hot. You can't just install a WiFi driver like you can for pretty much every other USB device, you have to install their complex client software. The device is not labeled in a way a human can read. And Windows can't identify it, even going online for drivers. So if you lose the driver disk and forget the model number, you're pretty much hosed. In fairness, I have a very high interference 2.4GHz environment with old phones and wireless video equipment that pollutes the band. It may be that it just doesn't handle that kind of environment well, or I might have gotten a defective one. But it's basically useless in my environment -- can't maintain a link reliably.

Pros: Works as a wireless adapter.

Cons: Software install required to use. Transfer speed does not improve even when changing the bandwidth. (The transfer speed I see is capped at 72 no matter which one I choose.)

Overall Review: Sometimes the signal drops for no reason. Works reasonably well as a wireless adapter, however I will get one with a PCI interface to see if that will work better.

Pros: Supports monitor mode and packet injection in Backtrack 6 (Kali). Range is poor, but for as small as this is, it goes well with conducting low profile penetration testing in places where it may be a bad idea to be seen with large antenna sticking out of your laptop or tablet.

Cons: Range. Runs very hot. Use caution removing from USB slot after prolonged packet activity.

Overall Review: Needed something that could stick out the back of a laptop without breaking off in strange situations AND support packet injection in linux. works a charm

Pros: For such a small adapter it gets great signal strength, connection, and doesn't over heat.

Cons: The adapter is pretty small so when I plug it into one of the USB ports on the back of my PC (which is opposite of where the router is directed) the signal strength drops quite a bit. This didn't appear to diminish my connection speed any.

Overall Review: A couple of years ago a friend of mine introduced me to Buffalo's networking products and I have never looked back. Nobody makes networking products as good as Buffalo.