We've all heard of the desktop replacement laptop, LP has one, it's so heavy that if you sit it on your lap it gives you dead legs, so why do we like this desktop replacement thing? possibly its due to the idea that most laptops will be wireless and so you can move them around the home, but we rarely do they stay on a desk or table, so perhaps all we want to do is get rid of the wires?

And that's where USB adaptors come in, unlike a laptop fitting a internal WiFi card is a bit of a pain and so a number of USB WiFi adapters are on the market, these are normally quite big and have a cable to connect them to the PC, but the latest Netgear WG111 Wireless USB Adaptor seems to have got the right idea.

The WG111 is about the size of an over grown USB key and slides directly into a spare USB port on your PC, you do need to be careful as it does tend to hog the space around the port but it's a lot smaller than many of the alternate options, it does come with an extension cable for those really difficult plug in's. Styled in a rather dull silver the WG111 measures 94.5 x 30.2 x 15.2 and will sit happily in shirt or jacket pocket as it weighs only 94.5 x 30.2 x 15.2 32g, there is no power adaptor to worry about as it takes all its requirements from the USB connection.

But the beauty of the Netgear WG111 is the ease of install within 5 minutes we had the USB and driver up and running and acting as a network connection for our test PC, this time didn't include the setup for encryption which we'll cover later, but we had joined the WiFi network at the Lordpercy.com office and were happily browsing around our favourite gadget haunts. The install process is aided by an smart install wizard which seems to be making an appearance on all of Netgear's devices even this little USB WiFi Dongle, while we'd have coped without it we can see that it may make using wifi much easier for the networking novice.

The WG111 is a 54mbps device supporting the latest 802.11g standard which when paired with a suitable partner card or home gateway / hub can achieve speeds far in excess of the older 802.11b devices, in fact we happily played MP3's streaming for an hour and managed to surf while this was going on and given more time our video tests maybe have been a bit more conclusive but it was enough to say that MPEG4 seemed to work well. Netgear have also plumped for the USB 2.0 standard ensuring that the physical connection doesn't become a bottle neck as the later USB technology is 4 times faster than the older USB 1.1 connections.

Encryption is provided with the Netgear USB dongle adhering to the WEP standards and able to work at 64 / 128bit encryption which should stop your data communications being sniffed and its easy to switch on and off which is vital if you intend to use the USB dongle to connect to wifi hotspots in airports and stations or as a guest at another company or location.

Try as we might its difficult to get excited about a WiFi USB dongle, but this one does a great job and doesn't make a fuss about what's it's doing, not once did we need the user manual and at under £50 it looks like good value for money too, so if you want to go wireless don't plump for a new desktop replacement just yet try the Netgear WWG111 wireless USB to give your old PC a new lease of wire free life.

What's in the box?

• WG111 54 Mbps Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter
• 5 ft (1.52 m) USB cable
• Resource CD
• Cradle and Velcro
• Installation Guide
• Warranty/Support Information Card

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