Specifications

Orange County IBM PC Users’ Group
April 2004
8
Orange County IBM PC Users’ Group
October 2003
8
connection to the Access Point and
thus your computer. Not that it is
needed, it just helps. In fact I did not
even install the software at first, and
still could find the Access Point
connection to my desktop computer. It
does help to configure the connection
with setting it to obtain an IP address
automatically (DHCP), or by using a
set IP address.
When I first got the Actiontec
802.11g Wireless PC Card I took it to
the Southwest Computer User Group
Conference in San Diego. Intel was
there and offering a free Wi-Fi hot
spot. Putting the PC Card in, it
registered and installed itself with no
sweat. In the system tray up came a
“balloon” saying there was a wireless
connection available. I clicked on it and
picked up the Centrino connection. In
another test I tried lunch and the free
Wi-Fi at the
Panera Bread
store in
Newport
Beach. It was
so easy it’s
unbelievable.
I put in the
card, found
their wireless connection, and accepted
their agreement for getting on. I then
connected to the Internet with no
problems. I also tested the download
speed with their connection. It was
pretty good, albeit through a 802.11b
connection. I went to PCPitstop.com
for the Internet connection test. My
download transmission speed was
1223kbs and my upload speed was
418kbs. By comparison on my cable
hook-up my transmission speed is
3182kbs.
Now what you have to keep in
mind is the speed rating is kilobits per
second (kbs), not bytes. For a real
world test I transferred files between
my computer and my notebook using
both a 802.11b and 802.11g cards. With
my Belkin Wireless Router and Buffalo
Actiontec…
(Continued from page 7)
Wireless PC Card both being 802.11b
I transferred 51Mb (megabytes), it
took 91 seconds. With the Actiontec
802.11g Wireless Access Point and
PC Card it took 29 seconds.
The wireless speed can not
compare to Ethernet. If you have to
transfer large files often, then it may
not be fast enough for you. Wireless is
for those that have to connect to
another computer and don’t want to
drill holes to run the cable. Or, in my
case have to face my wife after
drilling the holes. It works great for
connecting my computer with my
son’s. We could transfer files, share
the printer, even played games. It
easily keeps up with cable modem
speed with both of us on.
The Actiontec 54 Mbps Wireless
PC Card will do Dynamic Rate
Shifting to automatically select the
best available data rate while
maintaining the connection and
extending range. While you are
roaming you can
protect your data
from eavesdrop-
pers by using 40-bit
and 128-bit WEP
encryption, and
WPA. With the
WPA, you will be
able to add in
password protection to really make
your network secure. It works in 2.4
GHz frequency, and no problems with
wireless telephones. Both the Wireless
Access Point and PC Card come with
a one year warranty.
Actiontec 54 Mbps Wireless Access
Point ($129.95) and 54 Mbps
Wireless PC Card ($79.95)
www.actiontec.com
There is no restriction against any non-
profit group using this review as long as
it is kept in context, with proper credit
given to the author. This review is
brought to you by the Editorial
Committee of the Association of
Personal Computer User Groups
(APCUG), an international organization
of which this group is a member.
Useful USB Switch
(SIIG 4-to-2)
by Gary Covington, III
Three computers, two printers and
no LAN. How was I going to hook up
all this stuff so that any computer
could talk to either printer without a
complicated maze of wires and
switches?
Enter the
“USB
Switch 4-to
2” by SIIG,
Inc. It is
about
3inches square by ¾ inch thick with 4
USB input jacks and 2 USB output
jacks.
This switch allows the output of up
to four computers to share 2 USB
devices such as printers, scanners,
hard drives, zip drives and more. It is
easily switched between systems by
activating a “hotkey” (CTRL - F11) or
using the mouse. It requires no
separate power supply (uses the
power from any of the USB plugs)
and came with software to provide the
hot-switching and two USB cables. It
is plug-and-play compliant.
In my case I am using three
computers, one with Win 98, one with
Win ME and one with Win XP and I
am connecting to two printers. One
printer is my Minolta 2300 color laser,
the other is my Cannon i70 photo
printer. This device makes the printer
switching easy. The hot swapping
feature allows me to connect/
disconnect USB devices without first
powering down the systems
I had never heard of SIIG before,
but they apparently make a lot of USB
devices. Beldon makes a similar
device called the Belden 4X4 USB
Peripheral Switch (Part # F1U400. It
retails for $129.00
I purchased the SIIG USB
switch Part #: JU-DS4212, Model
#: US2271 at Fry’s for $39.99.
Installation on all of my computers
was effortless.
It was so easy it’s unbeliev-
able. I put in the card, found
their wireless connection, and
accepted their agreement for
getting on. I then connected to
the Internet with no problems.