From: Paul Khoury (pkhoury_at_earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Dec 20 2002 - 04:38:17 EST
On Thu, 19 Dec 2002 14:25:19 -0500, Edward Mendelson wrote:
>Paul Khoury suggested that we "ask away" on wireless stuff, so here
>goes.
>
>I've been using a Lucent (now Proxim) Orinoco 802.11b in my ThinkPad
>600x, with excellent results - it's a lot more reliable and has a better
>range than the Intel AnyPoint II card I was using before. The Orinoco is
>a PCMCIA card, not CardBus. Questions:
>
>(1) Does the (sometimes) lower power drain of a CardBus card make a
>switch to CardBus worthwhile?
>
Actually, I don't think this is an issue with 802.11b. With exceptions
like the Cisco miniPCI
card (and other miniPCI wireless cards), I don't think there really are
any Cardbus 802.11b cards.
I've seen maybe 2. 802.11a and 802.11g, those ONLY come in Cardbus. I
haven't noticed
too much a difference in battery life with or without my wireless
cards, but then again,
I haven't really timed the system either.
>(2) Is there any CardBus 802.11b card that works as well as the Orinoco?
>(The new Proxim 802.11a/b cards seem expensive, and if I'm going to
>spend the money on a dual-standard card, I'd rather wait for one that
>will work with 802.11g.)
>
>Thanks for any information...
>
Personally, I prefer the Cisco Aironet series. Yup, I know, I should
be using a Cisco
AP, being I upgraded everything else around here to Cisco. Orinoco
AP's and
cards are really good, being they have high recieve sensitivity, but
Cisco is much better, plus
the 350 series outputs 100mW, vs. the paltry 30mW that the Orinoco puts
out (although I haven't
noticed much of a difference in link tests).
The worst card I've used was the Netgear cards, but then, I haven't use
many other vendors.
I have a Symbol for my Pocket PC, and I'd rate it "okay, pretty good"
(there's not that many other
choices out there).
If you go with Cisco, there's 3 parts out there - get a 352 - this one
does RC4 128-bit
encryption. The 351 does only 40 bit, and the 350, nothing (but
sometimes they're still referred to
as 350 cards because of being in the 350 family). I originally paid
about $130 my 352 PCMCIA,
but on eBay and other sources, the max seems to be around $80, and I've
got some much cheaper.
If you have any other questions, ask away.
And one closing though - my AP is the Linksys with the 4 port 10/100
switch. I purchased it
because at the time, it was one of the few that had 100mW output, but
weren't as expensive as Cisco
equipment. Personally, I think they offer the most bang for your buck
(I've used Cisco, Netgear - again,
the worst, Linksys, DLink, and Orinoco AP's).
Paul
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