Avaya Silver or Gold?

[MartinG]

Hello all,

I'm looking to get a WiFi card for my nB and it looks as though the choice may be down to between a new Avaya Silver or Avaya Gold card. Slightly bizarrely, it looks as though the Gold card can be picked up slightly more cheaply than the Silver version but I have some concerns about the encryption capability. Does anyone know if the Gold card can be switched (by the nB) to use the 64bit WEP encryption that the nB will definitely support (as opposed to the 128bit that it may or may not)?

Also, these cards seem like the choice to go for as the nB supports everything in them (and you can use NetStatRF) but can anyone suggest alternatives based on on the Hermes chipset that are cheaper + a source?

Thanks,
Martin

[diem]

Avaya Gold will do 64 bit as well as 128 bit - deffo the best choice IMHO.

You don't quote your prices, but best source for Lucent chipset cards is eBay - I got an Enterasys Roamabout (rebadged Silver) for £30 five or so months ago.

[jezza]

I use a slimline Buffalo Wifi card (I don't have it with me now to quote the model no but it is in Yan's list) which is an Avaya/Lucent/Orinoco Gold card OEM - even the advanced power management on the card seems to work with the psion, and it doesn't block the stylus hole. I bought mine new from Dabs.com for 49,99. Works like a dream.

[MartinG]

Thanks Guys. :)

I've been watching eBay for the past few weeks but the supply of Hermes chipset based cards seems to have become a trickle. Result seems to have been that those that do come up go for silly prices (I've seen 2nd hand Lucent Gold cards going for £75+). Ridiculous when you consider that Expansys are selling the Avaya Gold card for £66.60 (but perversely they're selling the Silver card version at £78.24. Go figure!).

In any case, Dabs have lowered the price of the Buffalo slimline card (WLI-PCM-L11GP) to £41.12 (+ P&P of course) and - thanks to Jezza's recommendation - it's become a no-brainer. Card ordered...

Cheers,
Martin

[MartinG]

Just a note to say that the card arrived and appears to work perfectly with my netBook. I can't confirm absolutely as I haven't set WiFi up at home yet and so I need to go looking for a public access point. However, the Psion is talking to the card just fine and NetStatRF seems to be happy with it...

Got to be a good price for a Lucent Hermes card that doesn't obstruct the stylus silo. :)

Cheers,
Martin

[koihin]

Hi,

I purchased the Compaq WL110 Wi Card which is supposed to be a rebranded Avaya Gold. However, using NetStatRF, I could not see a signal from the card, connection status shows: Radio Not Active.

I am using the Malaybooks which contains the driver for Lucent/orinoco. Can any suggest any diagnostics I can do? Sometime next week I will be in an office where they have wi-fi set up so that I can test the card.

Thanks,

KH

p.s. would like to add the card was detected fine from my Windows 2000 Laptop.

[fladda]

At the risk of stating the really obvious, the Orinoco 802.11b card is only powered up when you need to access the Internet. Many previous posters have expected the green LEDs to illuminate by just inserting the card into the Netbook. This is NOT the case.

LED on card will only light up when you anwer 'OK' to the "Connect to Internet" diologue box. This is the way you want the Netbook to work , to conserve battery life etc. etc. etc.

FWIW there is a handy reseller of Orinoco cards in Malaysia. I've purchased several Lucent Silver cards from this seller for around GBP 15.00 each.

Ralph

[koihin]

To Ralph:

You are quite right. Its a case of me not RTFM.

Thanks for pointing out the fact!

KH

p.s. could you name the reseller? 15 GBP is an incredible deal.

[koihin]

I would like to report complete success using the Compaq WL-110, which as previously mentioned is a rebranded Avaya Gold Wlan, with the lucent settings in my Mbook.

The Compaq WL-110 street-price is about 80 USD in Singapore, you could probably get it cheaper if you hunt for it.

KH

[scropp]

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick note to let you all know that the buffalo card mentioned above has now come down in price at DABS, and that it appears to be working quite well on a 741 vintage 7Book.

In fact, that Is what im posting this message with :D

Setting it up was not without its problems.

Ive had 1 tripple beep reset already, I cannot get the card to work with my CF disk in at the same time, and I had to turn off WEP to get it to connect propperly (might have entered the key wrong, but I was more interested in getting it working so I just turned it off for the moment)

That said, Im up and running after 20 minutes, so I think i can say its successful.

Oh, opera is a but unstable. This is my second attempt to post here,. the first time it crashed when I tried to zoom the window (thought it might be nice to know what I had typed)

Next test is going to be to unplug the 7book and take it away from the pc its talking to

[scropp]

Just a quick follow up to my last post (this time on a machine that can show me the whole box Im typing into)

I have been for a walk round the house and it all seems to be working fine, so I decided to try with the CF card in again...

second tripple beep reset :(

Oh well, Ive got all easter to test its capabilities...

[fladda]

Originally posted by koihin

p.s. could you name the reseller? 15 GBP is an incredible deal.

Trades on Ebay using the name wodehouse9. Can email him at
tancheeyang AT hotmail.com. Replace " AT " with "@".

We've purchased quite a few Orinoco cards from him in the past. Recommended.

Ralph

[fladda]

How old is your Series 7 ?

Sounds like the Orinoco card and compact flash combincation might be exceeding the max power available ?? Earlier Series 7s had very little power available from the PCMCIA port.

ralph

[scropp]

Hi Ralph,

Its one of the originals (hence 741 vintage)

Im sure you're right about the power consumption buisness. Its a nusance, but its vastly better than not working at all!

Stephen

[scropp]

Ok, so I meant 751 vintage. oops :)

Its one of the early ones, and this is not the first time Ive known it to show itself to be underpowered :(

[Turbo]

I just picked up a Buffalo card from Provantage in the US. I wanted to thank whoever posted about this card first!

I was previously using a Cisco 340, and it drained the battery very quickly, just a couple of hours of actual use.

The buffalo card is much better! It doesn't stick out of the netbook nearly as far, it seems to get better signal/speed, and it doesn't block the stylus slot like my old Orinico silver card does.

But best of all it seems to draw MUCH less power, as my battery lasts much longer! I think I saw somewhare 500+ma for the cisco card versus 285ma for the buffalo.

It took me a little while to tweak the "Device Options" so I figured I'd post my settings here:

Advanced Tab
AP density high
Transmit rate 5.5mbps

Power management tab
Card power management checked
Receive all multicasts checked
Maximum sleep duration 100ms

- Mike