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Linksys WPC11 Wireless-B Notebook Adapter

Linksys WPC11 Wireless-B Notebook Adapter

List Price: $59.99
Your Price: $41.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great wireless card
Review: I use this access card along with Linksys access point. Both are amazing, the PC card picks the signal with no trouble. It is just great. I believe that Linksys is a very reliable brand. Highly recommended. Go for it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Works...for a while!
Review: I purchased this network card about a year ago. i had it running on Windows XP systems with no problem, before any XP drivers came out. it is simple to use and simple to set-up but after you have it for a while, the internal circuitry starts to go. Windows will begin to have problems with it and you will need to unistall and reinstall it many times. Eventually, as with myself, it just stops working. You recieve a Code 10 error and nothing works in attemps to resolve the issue. Linksys stops supporting the card as soon as a new version comes out and then it goes out of warranty and are stuck. The tech support I spoke with said to me that they don't create any drivers after a new version of the card comes out and that I was out of luck and have to buy a new card.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Easy to setup, use
Review: My setup:
* BEFW11S4 (router) connected to Road Runner cable modem
* WPC11 (PCMIA card) connected to a Dell Inspiron Laptop 1Ghz 512 meg ram
* WUSB11 (USB wireless network adapter) connected to a generic desktop with a 1Ghz AMD Athlon/256 meg ram.

I had no problems setting this up and getting it up and running quickly. I used the quick start guide and never had to consult the CD for the full user's guide. The process (I used Windows 2000) was very simple (and is documented in the quick install guides for the appropriate products):

* First, ensure that you can communicate with the router with wires (see my review on the BEFW11S4) and connect to the internet, etc. (Note: you have to enable wireless communication on the router before it will accept wireless access)
* Next, install the software from the CD (the first time you do this, you should probably not use WEP encryption and use the default SSID of 'linksys'...but you must use the same WEP encryption and SSID as the router uses)
* Reboot, and before the desktop comes up insert the PCMIA card

This worked for me and I had no trouble at all getting communication between the laptop and the router. After this was working, I changed the SSID and enabled WEP encryption. I read a comment somewhere that said they had to uninstall their other network drivers, but I did not. I can take my laptop to work, for example, hook up with an ethernet cable with no problem.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great!!!
Review: Works great. Easy to set up. No problems here.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works when I need it to
Review: I don't see anything wrong with this product. I plug it in to my computer with Window's XP and I'm good. Sure signal strength varies but that's the transmitter's fault. When I manage to get great signal strength I've got no problems. If you're looking for a wireless card this one is the way to go.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Too Hot to Handle
Review: I am using the Linksys WPC11 Wireless PC Card in a Toshiba PentII 400 laptop. My laptop will lockup when using this card. I believe it is due to overheating w/ the card. When I remove the card, I can access Windows again, but my connection is lost and I need to reboot. The laptop has never hung using any other applications or devices.

The card gets extremely hot. I do not know if this is due to the card overheating itself, or my laptop heating up the card. I intend to try this in a newer laptop soon.

As for the performance of the wireless card, it works pretty well. I get a signal in every room of my apartment (its not that big though), and even with a 20% signal, I get good speed to the internet still. The drivers were easy to install and configure on my Windows2000.

I have heard that some other cards have a much better antenna than this one, but this one seems to do the trick for me.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: BEWARE if you use NT!
Review: I purchased this just a couple of weeks ago. Thought the price was good and the reviews made me decide to buy.

That all changed once I tried to install the PC card in my NT laptop. It would not install no matter how many times I tried. The documentation for this product is weak at best. If you simply follow the documentation you see when you open the box it will be wrong for NT. However, they don't tell you that until you call them for support. That brings up phone support.

I literally spent over 7 HOURS with their support reps. And still do not have the card working. After a certain business hour they shift calls from Irvine, CA to a call center in the Philippines that is useless. If you have to call tech support make sure you are talking to someone in Irvine. Though, after a couple of hours on the phone with two guys from Irvine the card still didn't work. They ultimately told me they thought that the card was bad. Amazon.com was wonderful and shipped a new one the same day. However, the new card was no different from the original and still wont work. It has all been returned to Amazon.com for a refund.

The wireless 4-port router was easier to install but still required a 45-minute call to tech support to get up and running.

In short Amazon.com was great but Linksys on NT is worthless. Independent of the OS this is a poorly documented product with tech support people that are trained from a script and not able to solve your problem if it varies from that script. This review is based on multiple calls speaking with several different techs (using the term loosely, as I don't want insult professionaly trained technical support reps) in Irvine and the Philippines.

The hardware itself looked first rate and seemed very durable but I can't speak to any functionality. I am out over 7 hours of my time and very disappointed with the whole Linksys experience.

Stay away if you run NT.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Easy Setup in XP (V3)
Review: After reading many of the reviews here, I made certain I had a V3 before begining. You can't specify V3 when ordering, but Amazon did send V3, it is printed on the outside of the box too. I had it set up and going in less than 10 minutes on an XP laptop, not a hitch. I did have the network set up already, with a Linksys Acces Point and an Orinocco silver card in the laptop. The problem with the Orinocco card was that I could not get it to work with the Encryption (wrong number of bits?). But I got the encryption working right away with the Linksys card.
I give it only 4 stars though because the Throughput (measured with Qcheck) is only 2.5 MB, compare with 4.9 on the Orinocco, even when right next to the acces point. Strangely though, walking to the other end of the house gives weaker signal , but same throughput!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: No problem...works great
Review: I bought the card and the BEFW11S4 Router at the same, had them installed and running in less than 20 minutes. Did not have to make any configuration changes. To put it to the real test I started up the VPN software that I use to connect to my work office and the connection was established with no problems.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: did not work, returned it
Review: Although it installed flawlessly and worked fine with the Linksys base, it made my laptop (Toshiba Tecra 8100, WinXP) freeze at random intervals (at one point, every 15 min or so).


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