Here is a set of screenshots, taken not more than minutes apart in both Firefox and Epihpany of the exact same URL, note the price:

Every time I reloaded the page I got a different price! I even got different prices based on what browser I was using, however it was unclear if this was completly random or actually based on cookies. At one point I was even redirected to a completly different product!

I don’t know if this is still true with dell’s website, I have not visited it since.

The first thing we tried was a “Hi-Gain 6dBi Omni-Directional Wireless Antenna” ($30). This thing did absolutly nothing. I swear the rubber ducky antenna the card came with worked better. I was extremely unimpressed with this thing.

So after that failure we went online to look at what our solutions were. While browsing Linksys’s website, we came acrosss the WRE54G. The summary sounded like exactly what we needed. Just plug one of these somewhere in the middle of the house and we’re set – no wires or anything. So after spending about 20 minutes trying to get their horrible software to discover the device I was presented with an error telling me that the WRE54G was unable to assoceate with this AP in repeater mode. I dont remeber the exact error text but I remember it not even being correct english.

So I call up Linksys technical support, and before I am even able to say “Hi” I am forced to surrender my name, phone number, and e-mail address. I should also point out that the person I was talking to had a pretty strong accent, I highly doubt linksys’ technical support is in the USA. Basically after explaining the problem he tells me that this device will ONLY assoceate with the Linksys WRT54G router/wireless access point. I looked *very* carefully at the box which only said that it requires an “802.11b or 802.11g Wireless Network”. I guess Linksys figures that anyone who has a wireless network is going to have one of their products. The tech tells me that the WAP54G can also function as a repeater and supports any access point. Right when I was about to hang up he starts telling me that I can find answers to frequently asked questions from their website and then starts going into DETAIL on how to get there using my internet browser even after I told him at least 5 times that I’m set to go with all that. I think I ended up hanging up while he was still explaining it.

So we go back to the store (which took a very long time thanks to the football game just letting out) and extange the WRE54G for a WAP54G. We get back to their house, I configure the access point, and WHOOP! The access point works but shows no signs of wanting to communicate with the router. So I call up linksys technical support once again and after waiting on hold for a while someone answers. I explain the problem as detailed as possible, and after at least 5 minutes of going through all my perfect settings (although he didnt even ask to verify that I had correrctly set up the “Repeater” configuration) he says “well it looks like the AP isnt communicating with the router”. “Yes, that’s what I said 5 minutes ago!” I reply. We went back and forth with him telling me to check some worthless setting and then him admitteding “Yes, the AP isnt talking to the router” several times. Then he tells me that the only thing left we can do is reboot the computer. I was pretty pissed off at that point and I said something like “look man, you just told me that you agree the problem is something between the AP and the router, why on earth would rebooting my computer do anything?” Then he says something that confirms what I figured all along: “Well the sheet says that’s what I should try next, so let’s just do that”.

??!?!?!?!

So just to humor him I reboot the computer, and sure enough nothing works just like before. He tells me that all we can do now is start trying to disable WEP, plug the computer directly into the AP, and a few other uselesss things along those lines. I had to leave just then anyway so I asked him for a case number and hung up. So basically the whole thing could have gone slightly better.

So to summarize, and to make sure google picks this up…

• Wireless networking sucks
• Wireless networks suck
• 6dbi Antennas suck
• Linksys sucks
• WAP54G sucks
• WRE54G sucks

Update 2004-10-12: I was getting some grief over the title so I changed it from “Wireless Networking Sucks” to “Linksys Sucks”. I should really say that I like wireless networking alot…when it works. When it doesn’t work, however, it makes you want to jam a fork in your eye.