Orinoco Gold 802.11b Wireless PC Card Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I purchased this card after failing to get Linksys' WPC11 to work with my Toshiba laptop (a common problem according to numerous users on Toshiba's tech support online forum).
Installation is trivial with Windows XP: just plug the card in and watch as WinXP recognizes the card and installs the driver. I've never even used the CD that came with it.
Want to upgrade the driver and firmware? No problem again, just use Windows Update.
My office-mate has a WPC11 for his Dell laptop and so we can easily compare signal strength. I am able to connect to the wireless network in the next building, and both my building and the other are brick. He's never once recieved a signal from that network. On the network in my building I always have a stronger signal than he does.
The bottom line - this is a great card that is well worth the extra money.

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The same ORiNOCO PC card can be used worldwide for the Enterprise, ISP, Public Access or Home/SOHO markets using any of the ORiNOCO access point infrastructure products. The card provides high-speed wireless networking at 11Mbps and secure Internet access for laptop and desktop computers, as well as a wide range of mobile client computing devices.ORiNOCO PC Card delivers the same high-performance connectivity as wired systems, with the added freedom to move around your building or campus. The ORiNOCO PC Card is designed with a choice of security levels to protect your data. The Gold version provides enhanced security with a 128-bit key, using RC4 encryption. The ORiNOCO PC Card is interoperable with other manufacturers high-speed IEEE 802.11b compliant systems and is fully compliant with the WECA (Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance) Wi-Fi 'wireless fidelity' standard.

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Belkin F5D7010 Wireless 54 Mbps Notebook Card Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I purchased this card after borrowing a card with an identical product number from a friend. My friend's card worked out of the box with my version of Ubuntu Linux.
When I received my card, it simply did not work. After doing some research, I found that I had a card with a different version number, and a different chipset. My friend's card had a chipset made by Atheros, which worked out of the box. The card that I purchased had a Broadcom chipset, which is notorious for being incompatible with Linux. Even after going to the forums, I was unable to make the card work.
Belkin is dishonest, in that it makes changes to the chipset without changing the product number, only the version number, which the consumer is not made aware of. Had I been aware that the card had a different chipset, I would not have ordered it.

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Belkin networking presents its latest innovation, the 802.11g Wireless Notebook Network Card. The Card works as an ideal standalone to give you instant networking capabilities. It features breakthrough 802.11g technology that makes wireless file transfers and downloads faster than ever before. 802.11g technology provides you with networking speeds nearly five times faster than the current Wi-Fi (802.11b) standard. The Card sets up with the ease and the simplicity of Plug-and-Play technology on any laptop equipped with a 32-bit CardBus slot. It slides into the 32-bit CardBus slot to enable a wirelessconnection to your network. 802.11g technology is the easiest wireless network to implement. The Card uses the wireless 802.11g 2.4GHz standard to offer you the widest working range-up to 1800 feet-and greater interoperability in mixed networking environments. 802.11g technology is backward-compatible with the 802.11b Wi-Fi networking standard, so it allows you to implement faster wireless technologies in combination with existing 802.11b Wi-Fi networks.

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Cisco-Linksys WPC11 Wireless-B Notebook Adapter Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I telecommute full-time from home and decided to get wireless network gear to allow me to work from anywhere in my house. Based on my previous good experiences with their other products, I decided on a Linksys setup. Setting up the Linksys wireless router was a snap, but unfortunately this "matching" PCMCIA card was not nearly as easy to get working.
Windows ME:
My first few installation attempts were on WinME. The driver installer, on the provided Linksys CD, had problems locating the necessary files it needed to install. The CD was either missing files or the installer was looking in the incorrect folders. Either way, pretty sloppy. Downloading the latest drivers from linksys.com fixed the installation problems. However, I was unable to get the card to make the wireless link with the access point.
Windows 2000:
Frustrated, I switched to the OS I should have installed it on in the first place, Win2k, where the drivers installed with no problems. However, again the card was unable to link with the router.
User Manual:
The manual supplied with the card, at first glance, looks promising. Flipping through, you see quite a few screenshots of their configuration utility (supplied on the CD) and a lot of text. However, I was disappointed and confused once I dug in. The text did little more than label the different configuration utility views and properties in each screenshot, providing little or no explanation for what the setting does and why. I could not even locate an explanation for what the LED's on the PCMCIA card indicated.
The most frustrating aspect of the user manual was the section I needed the most: troubleshooting. The troubleshooting section was a whopping two pages (not front and back) and consisted of three questions.
Linksys Technical Support:
Linksys has 7-day tech support, so I was able to contact them on a Sunday, which was nice. The quality of their technicians is what you would expect - good and bad. I first spoke with a guy for 30 minutes who was little help and, as I later found out, actually gave me some incorrect information. I called back later and managed to get a hold of one helpful technician that took literally 2 minutes to determine the problem and step me through fixing it. I also asked a few basic questions that the manual couldn't answer and the technician acknowledged that the user manual was "embarrassing" and "missing critical setup information".
Summary:
The card works great! While the router sits in my basement, I tote my laptop around the house and am able to work in the living room, back patio, on the 2nd story, etc, and the download/upload speeds are as fast as my desktop, which is cabled directly to the router. Despite the problems I had, I would still recommend the card. If you have trouble configuring it, I would seriously advise skipping the manual and just calling Linksys tech support.

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Whether you're at your desk or in the boardroom, the Linksys InstantWireless Network PC card allows you to share printers, files, and more anywhere within your wireless LAN infrastructure, increasing your productivity and keeping you in touch. The Instant Wireless card gives you the freedom to work your way, from where you want--letting you take full advantage of your notebook PC's portability while providing you with access to all your network resources. A high-powered built-in diversity antenna means that you're covered--at a distance of up to 150 meters (492 feet) inside and 500 meters (1,640 feet) outside. And because it occupies only one Type II PCMCIA slot, you're free to use your other slots for additional accessories.

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Linksys WPC11 Instant Wireless-B Networking Adapter, PCMCIA Card Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought the Linksys WPC11 to go into a Toshiba Tecra 780CDM notebook running Windows 98 SE. The network I have is an Airport Express bridge connected to a Belkin 4 port router. After following the instructions and installing the software, I got a couple error messages indicating that I couldn't have more than 6 TCP/IP configurations, and no more than 4 PPP configurations. But the software seemed to install just fine. However, I could only connect to the Airport basestation, but couldn't access the internet, nor the network.
I called Tech Support, and got a very polite and knowledgable service rep in about 5 minutes (on a Sunday night). He troubleshot the installation, and agreed that the software was installed correctly, and the card was working correctly. His diagnosis was that the card was communicating with the basestation, but not to the router. He suggested I speak to Belkin.
Then I called a friend, who suggested I open the Device Manager and remove all the network devices. When I restarted the computer, only 2 (out of an original 6) were recognized by Windows, and it installed both devices. Then I connected to the Airport Basestation, and voila! Full connectivity and compatibility!
I take away 1 star because Tech Support was not able to correctly identify and fix the problem. Otherwise, this is an excellent card, and can be found at an excellent price.

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Whether you're at your desk or in the boardroom, the Linksys Instant Wireless Network PC card allows you to share printers, files, and more anywhere within your wireless LAN infrastructure, increasing your productivity and keeping you in touch.
The Instant Wireless card gives you the freedom to work your way, from where you want--letting you take full advantage of your notebook PC's portability while providing you with access to all your network resources. A high-powered built-in diversity antenna means that you're covered--at a distance of up to 150 meters (492 feet) inside and 500 meters (1,640 feet) outside. And because it occupies only one Type II PCMCIA slot, you're free to use your other slots for additional accessories.
Wireless networks are rapidly becoming more popular and coming down in price. Because they don't require cables, you can use the devices anywhere in an office or home, even out on the patio. There's no need to roll out an Ethernet network cable to each room of a house; you can network anywhere--without wires. Outside the home, wireless networking is available in hotspots at coffee shops, businesses, and airports--great when you're on the road and need to get some work done. For convenience, wireless networking is the answer.
Which Wireless Standard Is Right for Me? Now that you've decided to create a wireless network, the next step is to figure out which wireless standard to use.
Basically, a standard is a set of specifications for a device. All devices that follow a specific standard share operating characteristics, such as the radio frequency used and maximum data transfer speed.
For wireless networking, there are three standards to choose from at this time:
802.11b
802.11a
802.11g

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NETGEAR WG511NA Wireless G Pc Card Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I just bought the Netgear WG602 access point and the Netgear WG511 54G Wireless PC Card. I am very impressed and both items work great. All I did was connect the ethernet cord (that comes with the access point) from my existing D-Link wired router and into the Netgear access point. Then I installed the PC Card software on my laptop and rebooted and then put the card in. It was up and running in 10 minutes. At about 1 foot I was connected at 100% out in the living room about 30 feet away through one wall it was between 78-86%. Then about 60 feet away through 4-5 walls it was 60%. Even at 60% the connection flew. It was just like I was connected through a wire. I then walked outside my house about 200 feet and was still connected. I hear that the PC Card is the main factor in signal strength, if so this one takes the cake at 200+ feet. My dad has a Linksys 802.11b access point and can only go about 40 feet with his 11B PC Card. It seems the 802.11g makes a big difference on signal strength. In the PC card configuration I turned on WEP and entered the passcode from my access point. I turned on MAC security in my access point and added the Netgear WG511 MAC address (which I found in the About tab) to the allowed addresses. Then I rebooted the access point. And then told the Netgear Wireless PC card to re-scan. It found the access point and the entire setup including tight security was done.

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The NETGEAR WG511 Wireless-G PC Card makes it simple for you to provide wireless internet access to your notebook computer, letting you surf the web, check email, and chat online without the need for cables.
Easy Setup The WG511 is a PC Card and requires a Pentium class PC with an available 32-bit CardBus slot for installation. It supports Windows Vista and is also compatible with Windows XP, 2000, 98SE, and Me. Setup is as simple as inserting the card into the slot and installing the included software. A built-in stub antenna helps you receive a strong signal for the fastest possible speeds.
Fast and Secure The NETGEAR WG511 supports the 802.11g protocol standard for speeds up to 54 Mbps and a longer range than previous-generation 802.11b adapters. With a good connection, you'll notice the difference right away as you'll be able to stream high-quality music without any hiccups and load videos much faster. Downloading files is up to five times faster than it was with 802.11b. Since 802.11g is also interoperable with 802.11b, you don't have to worry about whether or not you'll get a connection at specific airports and hotspots; the WG111US will automatically detect the network and allow you to connect to it at the highest speed possible.
The adapter supports 40/64-bit and 128-bit WEP encryption for security so you don't have to worry about anyone eavesdropping on your emails or stealing your passwords. The included software makes managing different WEP passwords a breeze as you can set up different profiles for each location you frequent, saving yourself the trouble of having to type in encryption keys each time you connect to a hotspot you've already used.
The NETGEAR WG511 Wireless-G PC Card is backed by a 1-year warranty.
What's in the Box WG511 Wireless-G PC Card, setup CD, installation guide, warranty/support information card.

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