Xentronium.com

Ok, this was too good not to post.

Foreword: I think Jonaver was polite enough, no problem there, but I found the conversation beyond incredulous. Regardless, I do like the fact that LinkSYS has a live chat 24/7. I had zero wait time. I knew I was being fed a line of bull early on, but kept giving the guy a chance to offer something of technical value. Didn't happen.

----- LinkSYS Live Chat Session Start-----
Jonaver P. (18638): Hi, my name is Jonaver P. (18638). How may I help you?
xenadmin: Hi. For some reason, I've determined that my WUSB54GC will only connect to the access point when plugged into a specific USB port on my computer. It won't work in any other USB ports.
xenadmin: Specifically, the adapter is found, but it won't connect to the access point on any other port. Very strange to me.
Jonaver P. (18638): That means that the other USB ports may not be compatible with the USB adapter or it is not working.
xenadmin: Can we trouble shoot this? I don't understand why the other USB 1.0 ports wouldn't work. Shouldn't they all be the same?
Jonaver P. (18638): The Linksys adapter is not compatible with USB 1.0 only with USB 2.0.
xenadmin: Hehe- Jonaver, I've been using it on my USB 1.0 port for almost 3 years.
xenadmin: The reason I discovered this tonight is because I just installed a new USB 2.0 PCI card and wanted to plug the adapter into it. It wouldn't work on the USB 2.0 ports. I discovered that it would only work on 1, and only 1, of my USB 1.0 ports.
Jonaver P. (18638): How many USB ports you have?
xenadmin: USB 1.0: 2 in front, 2 in back. USB 2.0: 4 in back.
xenadmin: I wondered if I have to uninstall the adapter, reinstall it, then try connecting to the USB 2.0 port. But when I discovered it only worked with 1 of my USB 1.0 ports, I thought that it was time to talk to you guys. :)
xenadmin: uninstall the driver, I mean.
Jonaver P. (18638): The router should work with USB 2.0 and not on USB 1.0. If that is the case, the adapter that you have may have been defective then.
xenadmin: Router?
Jonaver P. (18638): I mean, the adapter. I am sorry for that.
Jonaver P. (18638): The adapter should work with USB 2.0 and not on USB 1.0. If that is the case, the adapter that you have may have been defective then.
xenadmin: No problem. Ok, so, I'm going to ignore the USB 1.0 strangeness and use the installation CD to reinstall the driver and hope that it works on USB 2.0.
xenadmin: So I was lucky that it worked with USB 1.0...
Jonaver P. (18638): Yes, we can say that.
xenadmin: I'll take your word for it. I'll check back if my plan doesn't work. Sound good?
Jonaver P. (18638): Yes.
xenadmin: Later
Jonaver P. (18638): For more information, you can also visit our Knowledge Base located at http://www.linksys.com/support. The site contains troubleshooting tips, how-to instructions, as well as solutions to common issues relating to all Linksys products.
----- LinkSYS Live Chat Session End -----

Here's the spec sheet for my WUSB54GC adapter:
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_CASupport_C2&childpagename=...
Once you drill down into the Data Sheet PDF file, you'll see this blurb: "To install, simply plug the Adapter into any available USB port. (It's compatible with both USB 1.1 and 2.0 ports, but 2.0 will yield the fastest speeds.)"

Notice that I mistakenly said "USB 1.0" instead of "USB 1.1" while describing my problem during the Live Chat. Still, Jonaver didn't bother exploring that possibility... yet I was talking to him on Live Chat over the WUSB54GC adapter connected to my USB 1.1 port at the time.

Just in case you're curious, my machine is an old Sony PCV-RX670.
The spec sheet is here:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-home.pl?mdl=PCVRX670&LOC=3
I haven't found anything that says whether it's USB 1.0 or 1.1 in the official docs, but since my adapter was working with it, and other posts on the web say USB 1.1, I'm going to say it's USB 1.1. Final answer.

Ok, so I'm beating this to death.
I'm going to try uninstalling the adapter via Add-Remove Programs, then try installing it again now that the USB 2.0 card is installed.

I'll post whether that worked or not.
And YES! It works now.
Specifically, I used the 1.0.2.0 version of the driver since it was more up to date than what's on my installation CD. You can get it from the LinkSYS site.

Moral of the story: I was an idiot for not trying this first and if you had to rely on technical support, you'd be up the creek still.

Later,
Xenadmin