Linksys: AARRRRRRGGG!

I have created a nifty little studio office with a nice sound system. I love music. I have 72gb of ripped music, and have about 200 more CDs to load to my hard drive. I pack around a full 40gb iPod. I have 70 mixed tapes that take up 15gb alone. I have vinyl - lots of it, and when it suits me I listen to records and cassettes (although this is pretty rare now).

That's why a wireless media streaming device from my desktop machine to my hi-fi is a practical tool for me to own. The leader in this category has to be the Apple Basestation Express. I tried this device (which was a breeze to install) but after several days of testing, and a call to Apple Support I could not get it to hold a signal. Stopping and restarting iTunes constantly is a bummer, so it was returned to the store.

EVERY piece of Linksys equipment I have ever used has not lived up to expectations. I swore "Never Again!" but I tried one more time and, boy, what a waste.

What was left? Not a lot that is affordable. For $120 I thought I'd try Linksys' WMB54G "Music Bridge". Wow, I've still got mental scars from what happened.

How about this: it's a wireless device, so how do you set it up? Yes, the engineering geniuses at Linksys tell me to unplug the ethernet cable providing me internet access, and plug it into the Music Bridge to configure it. This is an ominous sign, but I continue.

I run the install CD, then I unplug the device to see if my wireless card can see the device. Nothing, so I decide to call the 1-800 support line.

After 10 minutes with a junior support person (call is to India, natch), and the fact he is unqualified to answer any of my questions about this device, I am put over to a senior phone tech support person.

I won't bother you with all the details, but I was on the phone for 90 minutes. We had to manually override all the device's default settings, create a peer to peer network that made my wireless network card work with the bridge only (which was fine).

We're good to go, the card sees the Music Bridge, we click connect and hurray! it connects...

Oh, wait a minute. It dies and says "disconnected".

Huh.

Okay, let's try to connect again. Nothing.

The tech support guy says maybe we can talk on the phone tomorrow about it.

I reboot my machine. Try to connect. It connects...wait 5 seconds. It disconnects.

That's it. That is my last ever experience with a Linksys product. I uninstalled everything, and repacked all the adaptors, cables, disks and ad inserts. It's going back to the store.