USB WLAN Interface Windows XP x64 (64 bit)

A little bit unexpected I needed an external WLAN interface for my laptop, which still runs the much dead OS Windows XP x64 (64-bit Edition). And I was really scared with the last driver madness in my mind.

Anyway I got this Ralink thing for only 15 EUR (around 20$) on eBay and I was really surprised. The device came with x64 drivers. Yessss…and it worked right after I installed them. Unbelieveable…

The performance was a little bit bad, so I grabbed the newest drivers from the Ralink website. The performance increased a bit and also the newest drivers have a great support for x64 based OS (also Vista and Windows 7).

Nearly all Ralink chipsets feature x64 compatible drivers which is – at this price level – a really cool thing. Most upper class devices only have a support for Windows 7 x64, but not for Windows XP x64 or other x64 systems.
But with all the good news about this device, there´s one thing that can´t impress as much as the rest. The antenna which should supply a +5dbi connection boost. It was really hard to notice at least a boost, but honestly there´s one, but only around +1dbi / +2dbi. If you´re on a bad coverage this antenna won´t make things better at all.

In general, you can´t do anything wrong with this device at that price and if you don´t plan to use any other OS than Windows XP x64 you won´t have much choice at all.

Update :

Well with this nice 2.4 GHZ WLAN antenna from hama I boosted my WLAN stick. It works really good. Connection raised from a low signal strength to a good and sometimes even very good signal strength. The antenna was about 18 EUR on eBay (around 25$) and can be wall mounted. It is connected via a reverse SMA plug, compatible to the Ralink WLAN stick.

restaurant : IKEA, Erfurt / Germany

Short and simple – the food at IKEA is really cheap and the quality is really bad.

I´ve never been a big fan of this place but from time to time I go there to buy some fresh furniture. I want to be part of the yuppie hype too…

Anyway – I had a classical german Schnitzel with french fries and cream sauce. It was more cold than hot, the Schnitzel reminded me of my morning newspaper and the fries have never seen some salt. At least the sauce was okay, but also not a celebration for my palate. My girlfriend had some organic noodle casserole with tomato and cheese. The whole thing was dry like a desert, I couldn´t find any cheese and it was cold too.

The only good thing was the free refill for the soft drinks. My no-name coke tasted a little bit like a mixture of CoCa Cola (Coke) with some lemon limonade. Ohhh and the 2nd good thing was the price – not even 10 EUR for 2 persons is incredibly cheap.

Our menu :

– Schnitzel with french friens and cream sauce

– organic noodle casserole with tomato and cheese

– no-name coke

http://www.ikea.com


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