Useful WiFi Cards for netbook

[PlutoPants]

Thought it might be useful to start an update on the forum which PCMCIA WiFi cards work well and not-so well with the netbook. Also, which Access point is used successfully. You never get compatability with 'Psion Netbook' written in the specs and it can be a gamble as to what people buy.

I have found these 2 PCMCIA WiFi cards work with my netbook:

Belkin F5D6020 - works just about but range is poor, as is speed. This card's range is poor with laptops as well. It gets very hot as well. Only one link light (I believe it's multicoloured but am colourblind, so it looks the same to me all the time). When the link is dropped, sometimes has a problem re-linking.

Buffalo Airstation WLI-PCM-L11GP - is fast, good range and doesn't get as hot as the above. Has 2 spearate LEDs, with an 'Active' one flickering when web/ LAN activity occurs.

Both these cards have flat, horizontal antennae (sticky-out bits from the slot) which do not really hinder pointer removal. The Buffalo is shorter and has 2 holes in it's antenae casing which can be a teporary holder for your pointer!

So, out of the 2 I have, the (cheaper) Buffalo WIFI card wins hands-down.

I use an Apple Airport Base Station connected to an ADSLnation router/access point using freenetname DSL ISP. These provide easy access also to other desktop machines (Win98, 98SE, MacOS9, OSX).

[fladda]

Originally posted by PlutoPants

So, out of the 2 I have, the (cheaper) Buffalo WIFI card wins hands-down.



Indeed.

Buffalo 802.11b card also works with WEP. Netbook driver only supports WEP with Hermes based (i.e. Orinoco) 802.11b cards AFAIK. Belkin card(s) are Prism2 and 2.5 based (and other), and thus WEP doesn't work with the Netbook driver.

There is a lot of info on Netbook WiFi compatability etc. on Mr. Diems excellent website. See this forum passim for many more details.

Buffalo slimline 802.11b card is difficult to beat on the Netbook. Good (low) power consumption, good antenna, has external antenna socket (same as Orinoco) and (very important) does not block that badly placed Netbook sylus. Cheap too.

Beware that Buffalo also produce a 'standard' Orinoco clone 802.11b PCMCIA card, with a very similar type number. Other card *does* block the Netbook's stylus, in an identical manner to a standard Orinoco.

Compact flash 802.11b cards generally have a lower power consumption than their PCMCIA bretheren. Anybody have experience of using CF WiFi cards in PCMCIA adapters, with a Netbook ?

Wireless is really the killer application for the Netbook. Shame that Opera has so many annoying bugs...

Also about time that the Netbook ethernet drivers were hacked, to allow networking on a Series 7. Let it not be forgotten that the prototype ethernet drivers (before WiFi) worked (after a fashion) on the S7. Don't you just love Marketing ? Not.

Ralph

[ianchapple]

I also have a Buffalo card, connecting to a Draytek router. This combination works extremely well, the only problem being that my wife's iBook can only work with 64bit WEP when connecting to a Draytek router (or is it that a Draytek router can only work with 64bit WEP when connecting to an iBook?).

The biggest problem that we have is getting our Windows XP PC to stay connected; this periodically decides that it's found a new network (which it hasn't!), and then you have to manually reconnect to the home network. This makes large downloads completely impossible, so I do those on my netbook and then copy them to the PC using a CF card reader.

[donkeyontheedge]

Slimline Buffalo card to Buffalo Airstation router. This is actually used a bridge to my home (wired) network and goes out via a broadband modem on a Windows 2000 server PC.

Works very well, never had a problem once it was set-up. Range is excellent, I can surf from anywhere in the house or garden!

John

[diem]

The compatibility chart on my site should be fully up to date - any time I pick up new information I add it in; the problem we will have is that newer cards will start to use newer chipsets (e.g. Prism 2.5 & 3) that the netBook's drivers do not support, and eventually no new card will be supported :-(

I do not list access points since I am confident that so long as the access point is using standard 802.11b, it will always be possible to make it talk to a netBook, whichever wireless PC Card is fitted.

[KevinMillican]

Further to an earlier email I sent diem, I have confirmed that the Belkin card will work on infrastructure mode but is incompatible with peer-to-peer (adhoc) mode.

The Orinoco Silver card works fine in both modes.

[netBookBabe]

Does anyone know whether a Cisco Aironet 340 should be expected to work with my netBook at a WiFi hotspot? I know it's on yan's list, but tried to use mine at Starbucks last week without success.

Kevin - good to see you here on the forum! :cool:

Julie

[amitchell]

Originally posted by netBookBabe
Does anyone know whether a Cisco Aironet 340 should be expected to work with my netBook at a WiFi hotspot? I know it's on yan's list, but tried to use mine at Starbucks last week without success.

Kevin - good to see you here on the forum! :cool:

Julie

Julie,

Does this mean that you've finally started to try out wi-fi? ;)

[netBookBabe]

Originally posted by amitchell
Does this mean that you've finally started to try out wi-fi? ;) Hi Austin, well, I haven't got very far yet - still not got the home network set up, it keeps getting put on the back burner, but I'm hoping to get to it soon now!

I thought I would just give that card a go when I happened to be in Starbucks, but I didn't have a lot of time, and maybe had some settings wrong. :rolleyes:

Julie

[KevinMillican]

Originally posted by netBookBabe
Does anyone know whether a Cisco Aironet 340 should be expected to work with my netBook at a WiFi hotspot? I know it's on yan's list, but tried to use mine at Starbucks last week without success.


I would expect it to work - probably just a settings issue; eg. do you know the required SSID for Starbucks ?, does your MAC address have to be registered etc.

[diem]

Hi folks,

The SSID for Starbucks WiFi trial is 't-mobile' (maybe no hyphen? can't remember exactly), and no matter what URL you attempt to access, if your MAC address is not recognised you are redirected to a once-only registration page. Submit that and you get the URL you were after.

Julie - what responses (if any) did you get? Were there any (flickering) lights on the Cisco card? Did netstatRF show a successful connection?

[Craggy]

Originally posted by ianchapple

The biggest problem that we have is getting our Windows XP PC to stay connected; this periodically decides that it's found a new network (which it hasn't!),

My wife's parents have been living with us for 6 months, and we have had exactly the same problem. It only seemed to occur AFTER I installed service pack 1 for them (using the WiFi access point that worked at that time!!)