garyj - 19/1/03 at 18:43
Not only am I new to all this Wi-Fi stuff, I
also know very little about PCs. (My main/desktop
computer runs RISC OS4) So please bear with me.
I've been trying to price up PCMCIA wireless cards
for a laptop. (802.11 11Mb) but there seems to
be a huge difference in price. I've seen some at
£40 and some Xircom ones at about £120.
Why so much difference in price?
hantsbrush - 20/1/03 at 21:24
I don't want to seem to be telling someone the
obvious but it looks like you've got price
differentials between a complete card including the
PCMCIA part - usually the two together cost between
£80 - £100 and just the carrier bit or the
actual PCI card that allows the PCMCIA to be
inserted.
It does make them somewhat expensive. The cheapest
way is to use a USB card and they also have
some flexibility in siting them for best performance.
If you're only going to
use the card ina notebook then a £40 - £60
card should do the trick. After all they all
have to subscribe to the standard - I've got a
mixed setup of usb and PCI/PCMCIA cards and all
works (fairly) well.
Hope this helps.
Danny56 - 30/1/03 at 00:10
I am new to the Forum i think this is a
good idea i think Wi-Fi will be the next great
communication tool i would like any one opinion on
the Sprintpcs Air Cards.
nkendrick - 1/2/03 at 21:55
It's like anything commercial--you pays your money you
makes your choice. More expensive cards should be
of better quality but you're possibly also paying
more for the brand name.
I have two Sitecom PC Card Wi-fi cards picked up
at PC World (Portsmouth) for £29.99 each and
they work fine.
NK 
Law - 10/2/03 at 04:14
Go get a Agere Silver WI Fi card. The won't
steer you wrong and are XP native. It took
7 secs for it to detect, load drivers and jump
on my network.
-L
matthead - 15/2/03 at 06:16
WI-FI Cards are pretty much like anything else we
go to buy at the shop. The more you pay
the better the quality/support you get for your
money. In principle they all do the same
job.
I use Belkin PCMCIA card and a Sitecom Usb
adapter. I like Belkin as they provide FREE
tech support 24 hours a day by telephone.
Law - 16/2/03 at 05:39
Another thing to think about is the chipset on
the card too. Certain networking tools only work
with certain chip sets.
-L
Danny56 - 21/2/03 at 02:03
Sprintpcs just came to the market with a wireless
pc connection called CF2031 it was reviewed in pc
magazine the card also allows the user to make
calls over the interent the spped is suppose to
reach 144 mbs.
Laptopper - 11/9/03 at 21:30
I struggled with the Orinoco Gold Classic with
winXP and gave up. I may have a bad card
since they get such rave reviews. I bought an
el-cheapo Blitzz brand pcmcia card and it installed
and connected in seconds. The distance exc. is
great but no antenna option. Blitzz $38
DCI - 6/2/04 at 00:51
PCMCIA cards differ greatly in quality. The good
ones specify the transmit power and the receive
sensitivity. A very good card will have a
transmit power of +23 dBm and a receive sensitivity
of -94 dBm. An average card will have a
TX power of +15 dBm and a RX sensitivity of
-80 dBm. This is an average of 10 times the
sensitivity and power.
Ralph www.dci.ca
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