I exchanged the Belkin Wireless router for a Netgear RangeMax router which was Vista compatible. I installed the router software OK on the Vista laptop and that worked fine even when I disconnected the ethernet cable.

The Netgear router came with it’s own USB Range Max adapter so I installed that on the XP desktop PC. Physically next to that PC is the newer Vista desktop PC and that is still using a very basic Belkin USB adapter. These PC’s are at the other end of the house from the cable modem and Netgear wireless router. I expected the broadcast range of the wireless modem to cover the whole of the house, just like it showed on the cover of the routers box. And did it? Sort of, just. The Vista PC with the old Belkin USB adapter gets a reliable but not very fast connection. The XP machine with the Netgear Range Max USB adapter disconnects all the time. This is the wrong way round.

I did disconnect the Range MAX adapter from the XP machine and plugged back in its old Belkin USB adapter and ran its software but it was just as flaky. I got a 45 foot ethernet cable and plugged that into the back of the XP machine and connected that to the router, before I remembered that XP doesn’t think I have an ethernet adapter. I got fed up with that recurring problem and having backed everything up in triplicate I have run the system restore disk to get all the hardware working again. That will finish some day soon.

I did some research and to get coverage over the whole house I’m going to have to get a G+ MIMO router and do a second exchange of the router. I did warn the shop that if it didn’t work I’ll return it and they agreed. Hardly any of the greater range and faster routers run on Vista, only XP. Hence the restore of the XP machine.

I also decided that the laptop with Vista Ultimate, with an installed SP1 on it, and that runs like a dog can also get reacquianted with its system restore disc, so ran that. That restored pretty quick and the machine does run a lot faster with XP on it than with Vista Ultimate SP1. Ran Windows Update and that found 72 updates to install and most of them did go on OK before a couple failed.

Swapped the Netgear router for a Linksys Wireless G with Rangebooster, which again is not Vista compatible, and now that I have at least 1 PC with XP on it, the other is still restoring, I can have a go at installing that and see if I do get the range that they promise. If that doesn’t work I’ll have to go with 802.11n, but I’m not sure if it’s backward compatible. If it’s not then I’ll need to get several expensive 802.11n USB adapters and no doubt another kettle of fish will be opened, like the Internet radios won’t work. Such fun.