Linskys USB WiFi Adaptor

[MorseLady]

A few months ago I bought the WUSB54G USB Adaptor from Amazon for my husband's computer and it has gone up two or three times since then from about £24 to over £29. It works very well but I needed another one to use with my spare computer and I found a similar Linskys one in Tesco Extra today for £19.99. It appears to have exactly the same spec but the model is HU200 and the brand is Linskys @ Home and it is white whereas the original one is Linskys blue and standard Linskys brand.

I also noticed that the corresponding router at Tesco was about half the size of the one I bought from Amazon and also white so I wonder if Linsky @ Home is an inferior product manufactured for non specialist stores. I have not yet taken it out of the packaging and will take it back if it is inferior to the one sold at Amazon and PC World.

[TripleRLtd]

Typically white box products are nothing more than "wholesale" products. In other words, they don't come with all the "bells and whistles" that retail products come with, and, they are cheaper. They are the sort of product that I would buy. Whether or not in the UK that makes a difference, I am not sure about, so, perhaps a Brit could answer this so that you can be sure. The thing that concerns me is the fact that the new product is a different size...not that that is uncommon...but it may be something to worry about. I'd say wait for someone who knows the Brit market.

[TechZ]

Linksys Teams with Tesco to bring Wireless Networking Solutions to the Mass Market in Britain

London, United Kingdom – 18 May 2005 - Linksys®, a division of Cisco Systems, Inc., a recognised global leader of VoIP, wireless, and networking hardware for home, SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) and small business environments, today announced a unique line of wireless networking products for home users which are now available from selected Tesco superstores in the United Kingdom called the Linksys@Home Product Family.

The line consists of a Wireless-G ADSL gateway (HG200-TS), Wireless-G Broadband Router (HR200-TS Wireless-G Notebook Adapter (HP200-TS) and a Linksys@Home Wireless-G USB Network Adapter (HU200-TS).

Souce: Linksys

As TripleRLtd said, basically rebadged products.

[MorseLady]

The product is not white box, I meant that the actual device was white rather than the usual Linskys blue. The USB adaptor is the same size as the full product one I bought but I noticed that the Router Tesco sell is half the size of the one I bought and again white rather than blue.

If the product is in any way cut down or modified I will return it and buy the full product. I believe in the motto you get what you pays for and I do prefer to get the best I can afford, just did not notice at the time that this was not quite the product I thought it was.

EDIT: I have just been to the Linskys UK website and both surfed the site and the PDF download but I can find no reference to the Tesco product as I was hoping to compare specifications.

[slgrieb]

Think this is strictly a branding/packaging issue. I doubt that design and production costs for a different version than Linksys standard product would be cost effective. HP, for instance, has some WalMart-specific model numbers, but these are special bundles rather than unique machines.

[darkhorse]

Not sure about internal differences but I recall noticing that newer Linksys devices have done away with the traditional blue and black plastic styling ?

[MorseLady]

Thanks everyone and I have decided to break the bubble wrap and keep the device.