I'm making a rare post to the blog to warn anyone considering buying the BlueNEXT BN-WD54G Wireless USB Adapter to not even think about it. It proudly declares itself to be "Mac Compatible", but on closer inspection it provides only marginally better wi-fi connectivity on a Mac than a toaster.
I should have known that it was true good to be true - a USB wi-fi adapter for a Mac for under a tenner? The Mac compatibility is in fact probably the least possible that the manufacturers could provide without being taken to court for false advertising. Their website declares (in broken English) that technical support cannot help Mac or Linux users. Whilst most third-party wi-fi cards for Macs will integrate with the AirPort feature, typically being reported by the interface as third-party wi-fi cards, although in some cases being reported as a genuine Apple AirPort card (thanks to clever people using the same chipsets).
No such joy for users of this pile of faeces. OS X doesn't even recognise it as a wireless card - it shows up just as a standard network card. Management of the device is done through a proprietary piece of software, which looks just like the worst wireless interfaces you tend to see on Windows, except with no option to switch to WZC. It has the ugliest-ass icon you can imagine, which will sit in your Dock the entire time. It doesn't remember your network preferences unless you manually create a profile. It can't be plugged into a non-powered hub because it doesn't get enough power (OS X is kind enough to tell you), but it's so large that it blocks out all the surrounding ports on your machine, so you have to find a USB extension cable. On my iMac, it actually caused the machine to fail to boot the first time I tried to boot with it plugged in.
But this pales in comparison to the performance issues the thing experiences. Cisco VPN Client (another piece of work in itself, but I don't think the culprit in this case) refuses to connect over it, claiming that there is no IP address. And today, it has point-blank refused to connect to an ad-hoc network. It claims to be connected, but it never gets an IP address.
All in all, this product is all but useless. I'd send it back, but I doubt I'd get a refund. I strongly advocate against its purchase - spend the extra couple of pounds and get a named brand. You'll save money in the long run.
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