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We all love wireless, that much we know. The praise is almost universal. The ability to connect multiple computers in different rooms through a single Internet connection without metres of cable, transfer files between them and even surf the web on a laptop from the bottom of your garden (perhaps not in the middle of winter) are all affordable luxuries to the modern computer user. If there’s one problem with wireless networking it’s that it still isn’t as simple as it should be for the average user. While for desktop owners looking to install wireless PCI cards, the “screwdriver” element still remains.

Things are much easier for laptop owners, built in wireless is virtually a standard feature these days and if not PC Cards offer a user friendly alternative. But for desktop owners the ageing PCI card format bizarrely still seems to be the medium of choice. Certainly, there have been attempts at more convenient USB based wireless keys but often the price higher than a PCI solution, the transfer rates poor in comparison and the signal strength noticeably inferior due their lack of an external antenna. However, it seems that Buffalo is one of the companies making great strides to solve these issues, and it’s getting a little help from the web retailers.

Ok, let’s break it down, Buffalo’s WLI-U2-KG54AI-3 may not have the catchiest name in the world or look anything other than perfunctory but it comes with a some notable features namely 54g wireless, driverless installation and support for Buffalo’s impressive security system AOSS. For those with short memories, AOSS is an automated one touch security system where pressing a single button on an AOSS enabled Buffalo router will configure the security on every device on a network up to each ones’ maximum capability. AOSS carries support for Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) - still the highest wireless security standard, Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), as well as standard 64 and 128bit WEP.

Now with USB based wireless adaptors range has often been an issue but I am pleased to say this was not a problem with the WLI-U2-KG54AI-3. At a distance of roughly 30 feet and separated by one floor it reported a signal strength of 85 per cent, almost identical to that of PCI based cards tested under the same conditions. This is all the more remarkable given that unlike PCI cards the Buffalo has no external antenna.

Moving onto performance I was also pleasantly surprised when the WLI-U2-KG54AI-3 clocked a time of just 34 seconds to transfer a 58.4MB MP3 album without encryption over this distance, an average of 17.2Mbits/sec, which is within a couple of seconds of the equivalent (and excellent) Buffalo PC Card we tested in September. Turning on AOSS made very little difference with the transfer time falling to 38 seconds (15.4Mbits/sec) which tied with the PC Card.

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