I don’t understand why they have such a poor compatibilty. Could someone please explain?
They have to make a choice which drivers are going to be compiled in. They’re not going to provide for all the hundreds of drivers that’s out there; there’s just not enough space for them all.
NO appliance out there supports ALL WiFi adapters…
With your home computer, you just download the latest driver and you’re good to go. However, since there is no way to download drivers into the WD box, all of the drivers have to already be included in the WD’s operating system. Also, the companies that make the USB adapters have a habit of switching versions of their USB adapters. Frequently, even though the adapter will have the same part number, the different versions of it will have completely different chip sets internally…so a different driver is required.
At least WD provides us with a list of adapters that they have tested, which is more than a lot of other manufacturers provide.
I know WD cannot support every single adapter on the market, but it would be great if they added support for Belkin F6D4050 version 2000nt. Only the first version (1000) is currently supported, though.
That’s because the Belkin F6D4050 v1 uses the older Ralink RT2870 chipset.
But the Belkin F6D4050 v2 uses the newer Ralink RT3070 chipset.
In other words, the compatibility with USB adapters is going to get MUCH MUCH worse as time goes by. You’ll be forced to go on a hunt for outdated and discontinued products.
Western Digital should prioritize support for the most famous chipsets CURRENTLY on the market (made by Atheros, Broadcom, Intel, Ralink and Realtek).
There may be hundreds and hundreds of “manufacturers” of usb wifi sticks, but in the end there are only very few companies making chipsets (the five mentioned above cover probably 90% of the market worldwide).
But I guess that WD isn’t really interested in supporting this. Let’s be honest, they would rather you bought an external WD hard drive and plug it into the USB port to transfer files from your computer.
It’s a bit cumbersome for us, but it’s better for WD’s bottom line
My preference would be that they just OEM their own… Guaranteed support.
Almost every other manufacturer is doing it… LG, Sony, etc… Though SOME third party products will work (because they’re actually the same chipset) there’s no support for other makers.
My preference would be that they just OEM their own… Guaranteed support.
Almost every other manufacturer is doing it… LG, Sony, etc… Though SOME third party products will work (because they’re actually the same chipset) there’s no support for other makers.
