CoolTech: Buffalo NFiniti Ultra Compact Wireless-N USB Adapter - model WLI-UC-GN

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Introduction
I am sure you, at some point, may have wished that you could have a wireless USB network adapter that was ultra compact, easy-to-use, not prone to accidental breakage, and very reliable working on a range of Operating Systems.

The Buffalo NFiniti Wireless-N Ultra-Compact USB 2.0 Adapter does all of the above at a reasonable price. I purchased one a month ago and am very pleased with its performance. quality, and reliability.

Buffalo Technology Wireless-N Ultra Compact USB 2.0 Adapter. BUY HERE!

Features

• Wi-Fi Certified™ to insure compatibility with other certified devices
• Faster speed and greater range than standard 802.11g
• Ultra-compact - smallest form factor
• Great for multimedia streaming or online gaming
• Push-button Setup with AirStation One-Touch Secure System™ (AOSS™)
• Supports WPA2, WPA-PSK (TKIP, AES), and 128/64-bit WEP Security
• USB 2.0 support
• Backward compatible with 802.11g and 802.11b

NFiniti USB Adapter Ease of Installation
The product is very well designed with a thin, small, handy and attractive form factor. It is also very easy to install and use. The product comes in an attractive red package with remarkably detailed information on the product package for the discerning buyer. The package comes with a CD Driver and Wireless utility installer and a Usage Guide. Once you get the product, place the CD into the drive, and the installer would auto run and install both the Wireless Configuration utility and the 802.11n USB driver. Place the USB Adapter in the USB slot and bingo, the hardware configuration screen gets you up and ready in minutes. After that, its a matter of discovering and selecting your router SSID and entering any security credentials such as your WEP passphrase and you are ready to go online.

A Word of Caution though that the drivers and utility do not work on Windows Vista 64-Bit. However, please see the note below on how to overcome Vista 64 bit support problem.

The product packaging does not explicitly say 64 bit Windows Vista is not supported but simply states that Windows Vista (32-bit) is supported. One can easily generalize and assume that it would work on 64 bit as well. But all is not lost. See more a little later below.

NFiniti Quality of Service
Although the WLI-UC-GN model product package indicates that for online video and internet phones, a Wireless-N network with both the card and the router being Wireless-N capable, is required, in my experience this is not necessary. In my case, I have a NetGear RangeBooster Wireless-G router which is about a year and a half old and along with this card, all video (HD) and Internet Phone calls on Skype are crystal clear and sharp although my Desktop is far away from the router with only 63% max bandwidth showing up on the utility.

Compared to the above, I had a pretty patchy experience with the D-Link WUA-2340 USB adapter which was relatively large sized and an accidental brush with a cleaning cloth cost me the D-Link USB wireless card breaking up. With the D-Link card, almost all times, I would have trouble getting good response rate on browser page loads let alone audio or video. I was never really happy with it and blamed it on the distance between the router in the family room and the desktop in my bedroom. Through all this time, I have had Comcast's 15mbps cable internet service. I am grateful now that I was forced to look for another USB card and got the Buffalo NFiniti USB Adapter. ;-)

How to use Buffalo NFiniti on Windows Vista 64 bit
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On Windows Vista 64 bit, the CD that comes with the product does not work and would ask you to close the program as soon as it launches - pretty shocking when you are looking forward to using this nifty handy little thing.

Here's what I did for one of my other boxes running Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit.
Googled a lot with the model name and came across this helpful but sketchy forum post.

In that post, a forum poster suggests downloading the USB driver for an OEM product, Ralink whose Wireless USB Adapter works with Windows Vista 64 bit. However, the forum post had limited specifics on exact steps on how to get around installing and getting the USB adapter working. So here is a detailed set of steps you can take to make it easy for you to configure Buffalo NFiniti Wireless-N Ultra-Compact USB 2.0 Adapter so that it will work on Windows Vista 64 bit.

1. Download the Ralink USB Adapter driver program from here


2. Double click the downloaded executable file and follow its onscreen instructions to install the driver.


3. Once the installation is done, plugin the Buffalo NFiniti Wireless-N Ultra-Compact USB 2.0 Adapter into the USB slot.


4. If Windows Vista auto-discovers this new hardware and launches the hardware configuration wizard, you may cancel it.


5. Go to Control Panel and click on "Hardware And Sound" and then under "Device Manager" click "Update device drivers" assuming you have Administrator privileges. You should now see the following screen. Select the Network Adapter device type.


6. You should now see a Window asking how to search for updated driver software. Select "Browse my computer for driver software".


7. On the next wizard screen, select the "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer" link


8. From the following screen, select the Ralink Technology, Corp. on the left side and its corresponding 802.11n USB Wireless LAN Card entry on the right side.


9. Hit Next and you should have the card now configured for internet access.
   


10. Down in the right hand side of the Task Bar, you should see an icon with a "R+" on it that may be flashing. Right click this icon and select "Launch Config Utility"
    


11. If you do not see the R+ icon, go to Start->All Programs-->Ralink Wireless->Ralink Wireless Utility and launch it. And then get to the configuration screen
12. From this point on, it should be familiar territory in that you first create a profile, select your router's SSID, then click on the Auth.\Encry. tab and select WEP as your security protocol.
    


13. Enter your router's security Hex code
    


14. You should now be connected to the internet. :-)

Here again is a link to buy the Buffalo NFiniti Wireless-N USB adapter.

Feel free to post your comments/feedback on this post.