USB N adapters?

[ChristineBCW]

Here's a Google page resulting from "usb extension cradle" and there are a few $5 items, then Sabrent is selling one for $20?!! Sheesh... I can still buy Rosewill N adapters using the Netis-style cradles for $11-12 each, and use that USB cradle instead!

We bought a handful of the $4 DLink's - 3-feet in length, decent enough - but I do enjoy 6-footers.

 

[stevech]

http://www.monoprice.com/Search/Index?keyword=usb+extension

always best for cables

 

[F5ing]

Having to check for driver support is a given when purchasing a device like this. Even more so nowadays considering Microsoft's accelerated pace in creating new versions of Windows.

I'm sure you'd have better luck finding driver support for Win 8.x if Win 8 had caught on with consumers as they had expected (hoped). Business, in general, is bypassing 8.x; sticking with what they've already got while maybe waiting to see if the jump to 9 will make sense for their business. I think MS has given up on 8 (for the most part) and is focusing almost exclusively on 9. All this has an effect on accessory manufacturers when they consider how to go about supporting their own products to work with the various OSs (including non-MS OSs).

 

[stevech]

Having to check for driver support is a given when purchasing a device like this. Even more so nowadays considering Microsoft's accelerated pace in creating new versions of Windows.

I'm sure you'd have better luck finding driver support for Win 8.x if Win 8 had caught on with consumers as they had expected (hoped). Business, in general, is bypassing 8.x; sticking with what they've already got while maybe waiting to see if the jump to 9 will make sense for their business. I think MS has given up on 8 (for the most part) and is focusing almost exclusively on 9. All this has an effect on accessory manufacturers when they consider how to go about supporting their own products to work with the various OSs (including non-MS OSs).

I'm no fan of Win 8 and I have it on one partition here to play with. I managed to get it to look like Win 7 and not a tablet OS. That done, it's OK but really not significantly better than Win 7.

MS gave up on Win 7 when the discontinued sales of Win 7 retail full.
I've bought the non-OEM win 7 from
http://www.greenforestsoftware.com/store/c/429-Windows-7-Home-Premium.aspx
as a download. They did send a legit license. And it Activated OK. This is the only vendor I've found with the non-OEM version.

All that aside, Win 8 is successfully forced upon 90% of customers who aren't geeky nerds. It's not a tech issue; it's MS's need to once again restart revenue due to a saturated market with Win 7. Feed the beast.

 

[speedlever]

Thread drift mode... initially, I was not a fan of Win8 either. But I installed Win8.1x64 and x86 pro versions on a ton of XP machines from P4 to Core i processors and 1GB ram and up. It really needs 2GB to run well and preferably 3GB for x86 versions. It runs well on old hardware. I also use Classic Shell and disable the Metro interface (which I think is largely the downfall of Win 8.1).

I've been amazed at how well it runs in this environment. That being said, there have been some older software compatibility issues related to Win8.1.

Still (and even though I run Win7x64 on my home desktop), I've come to prefer Win8.1 (without the Metro interface). It runs like a champ and I find it easier to tweak than Win 7. But it took a ton of installs for me to get to that point.

 

[speedlever]

Back to the Win8.1 driver issue for the AE3000, it appears that the Win7 driver works for Win8.1, based on this link:

http://kb.linksys.com/Linksys/GetAr...apter_Installation.xml#windows8-devicemanager

 

[speedlever]

Forget all this dinking around. I just ordered the AE3000 from Amazon. I'll send it back if I'm not happy with it.

 

[ChristineBCW]

That should be fine. Well... unless you believe those rumors. Y'know, about the AE3000's LED lobotomizing some people. I don't. I don't believe those at all... well... mostly not. Of course, if we never hear from you again... well...

 

[F5ing]

I'm no fan of Win 8 and I have it on one partition here to play with. I managed to get it to look like Win 7 and not a tablet OS. That done, it's OK but really not significantly better than Win 7.

MS gave up on Win 7 when the discontinued sales of Win 7 retail full.
I've bought the non-OEM win 7 from
http://www.greenforestsoftware.com/store/c/429-Windows-7-Home-Premium.aspx
as a download. They did send a legit license. And it Activated OK. This is the only vendor I've found with the non-OEM version.

Thread drift mode... initially, I was not a fan of Win8 either. But I installed Win8.1x64 and x86 pro versions on a ton of XP machines from P4 to Core i processors and 1GB ram and up. It really needs 2GB to run well and preferably 3GB for x86 versions. It runs well on old hardware. I also use Classic Shell and disable the Metro interface (which I think is largely the downfall of Win 8.1).

I've been amazed at how well it runs in this environment. That being said, there have been some older software compatibility issues related to Win8.1.

Still (and even though I run Win7x64 on my home desktop), I've come to prefer Win8.1 (without the Metro interface). It runs like a champ and I find it easier to tweak than Win 7. But it took a ton of installs for me to get to that point.

I think Win 8 is actually better than Win 7 "under the hood". Kind of leaner, meaner and cleaner under there. But MS screwed it up from the get-go with the UI. Part of why business and a lot of the general public didn't care much for it. If you're not going to deal with the registry and want to use the UI to change some settings, why would they force you to change some settings from the standard desktop applets yet other changes need to be made from the charms crap applets? Used to be that there were various ways to get you to where you needed to go to review or make changes to something, but they all led you to the same place. Why did they decide force you to navigate to two different UIs to change a couple of closely related changes?

BTW, there are/were ISOs available that will allow you to legitimately install any version of Vista or 7 on any machine. Catch is, of course, that you've got to have a valid license key. Use them quite often to install/reinstall for others (as long as they have that valid key).

All that aside, Win 8 is successfully forced upon 90% of customers who aren't geeky nerds. It's not a tech issue; it's MS's need to once again restart revenue due to a saturated market with Win 7. Feed the beast.

Got a couple Win 8 machines around here that I "manage". Never bothered to install any third party apps to make them more like 7 as the users aren't really bothered about it. The users aren't, as you say "geeky nerds"; I'm the one that has to deal with their machine issues, and I'm willing to navigate however I need to take care of the fixes, so never really bothered.

And maybe MS is trying to make sure that 7 doesn't turn into another XP (successful as it was) that was supported much longer than they planned to.

Back to the Win8.1 driver issue for the AE3000, it appears that the Win7 driver works for Win8.1, based on this link:

http://kb.linksys.com/Linksys/GetAr...apter_Installation.xml#windows8-devicemanager

Finally, closer to being on-topic, this has to do with something I wanted to mention in my previous post.

I fix a lot of machines for others, and the reason I bought the Edimax that I mentioned in my first post wasn't for speed, distance, etc. It was only for compatibility. Advertised as compatible with XP, Vista and 7; I had to search to find that the 7 driver was likely compatible with 8 (bit-for-bit).

 

[speedlever]

On that issue of compatibility, I found that some old printers worked fine with Win 8.1 when Vista drivers were installed (there were no Win7 drivers).

On the issue of Edimax, I read an Amazon review where a user was struggling with drivers for Win8.1 as of last week and Edimax was sending him a new driver to try. I wonder why this user didn't try the Win7 driver? Or maybe he did? I think the Edimax you mentioned was the single band model and not the dual band model I referred to above. I wonder if they use a common driver?

IAC, early on in this thread, Roger said the AE3000 works with Win8.1. And MS says it's compatible. So other than the price I paid, I expect to be happy with the performance.

 

[speedlever]

I received the AE3000 today. In preparation, I went to the Linksys site and snagged the Win7 driver and unzipped it. When I connected the AE3000, I was able to see it in device manager.

In device manager, I updated the driver using the Win7 driver (x86) that I had previously d/l and unzipped. The AE3000 seems to be working fine and connects very quickly to my 2.4and 5 GHz bands.

Here's the connection info:

2.4GHz:

5.0GHz:

When I tested the network throughput using a large Quicken file (120+MB), I saw throughput around 7.5 to 8 MB/s using the 5GHz connection. On the Intel 2200 BG internal adapter, I was seeing 1.5 - 2.25 MB/s, so roughly an improvement by a factor of 4.

 

[F5ing]

Thanks for the follow up. Can't be disappointed with those results, can you?

Reports on range would be appreciated whenever you get the chance...

 

[ChristineBCW]

I guess it's useless to ask for a report on the lobotomizing LED rumors. Not that I actually would believe in such things...

 

[speedlever]

Thanks for the follow up. Can't be disappointed with those results, can you?

Reports on range would be appreciated whenever you get the chance...

That was one thing I left out, didn't I? The results above were with the router in my home office (sitting behind a flat screen monitor) with a couple of sheet rock walls in between... probably 25-30 feet straight line distance away. Hardly optimal, as it were.

If I test in the same room, I'll post results.

 

[speedlever]

I'm curious what to tweak to show the connection at the router max... 900 Mb/s. Showing 450Mbps on the 5GHz band, I'm halfway there.

Any thoughts?

I suppose if I've been lobotomized by the LED, it really won't matter though.

 

[F5ing]

So you're using it in that older machine that you've got with Win 8.1 pro installed? And the 7 driver apparently installed without problem? Have you checked out the device's settings via Win 8.1 Device Manager?

 

[ChristineBCW]

(Speed, I doubt that Linksys will confess that my avatar is their original 1954 design for the AE3000, but if you do start chanting "assimilate! assimilate!", some of us might worry. Do you have Chief Bromden's number - just in case?)

I need to open up that Win7 driver and see how it's laid out. I wonder if this is one more episode where manufacturers said "We refuse to pay more needless certification fees to Ballmer-dom?"

 

[speedlever]

So you're using it in that older machine that you've got with Win 8.1 pro installed? And the 7 driver apparently installed without problem? Have you checked out the device's settings via Win 8.1 Device Manager?

Yes, the Win7 driver installed without issue. I didn't even deal with running in compatibility mode. Pentium M/1.6GHz with 2GB ram and an EIDE 80GB HD. I just plugged in the AE3000, went to device manager and found the device, chose the option to update the device driver and pointed it to the unzipped Win7 driver (x86 version).

Any particular settings in WDM you'd like to see?

In some of the reviews of the AE3000, I read that some users experienced issues of connections being dropped every minute or so. Thus far, mine appears rock solid. So far, no complaints here.

Christine, you might be more concerned if I were to tell you, "Resistance is futile," or "Exterminate! Exterminate!"