Rating: 
Summary: Exceptional performance!
Review: Great card with good range. I've been using it for four months now and have had no problems so far.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent card, but...
Review: Had it six months, I love it, it works great, but the antenna broke today, unfortunately.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the extra $30
Review: I bought this card after reading the favorable reviews here. Installation was, as observed, uneventful. The same couldn't be said for my old SMC2635W. The stronger signal seems to make a real difference when it comes to stability of the connection. Gone are the occasional hiccups during streaming video. There's one annoying thing I've encountered though. The stronger signal manages to get through my laptop's shielding so that whenever there's heavy data transfer, the speakers give out this little scratching noise. Well, at least I can HEAR I'm getting my money's worth!
Rating:
Summary: excellent performance, fragile design
Review: I bought this card for use on the boat at Shilshole Marina in Seattle, to connect to the access points of Broadband Xpress (www.bbxpress.net). After some research, I found that this card (among others) is built on the same chipset as the one bbx sells for $109, and I suspect it actually is exactly the same.
It works great on my IBM Thinkpad T20, with Win XP Pro SP2. I installed the drivers from the SMC website. No problem. The custom utility that comes with the drivers is pretty nice, with signal strength, quality, all the available APs, etc. I always use that instead of the Windows one.
The only drawback is the weakness of the detachable tab antenna. If you plug it in and out a lot, and travel around with your laptop, it WILL break. Mine did. SMC sent me a new one right away for $20. For that money I could have bought an external one, which I'll get anyway at some point.
Rating:
Summary: MUCH Better! "HIGH-PWR" is RIGHT!!
Review: I bought this card to use with a CompUSA brand wireless router on my home network. Both computers on the network are using WinXP Home Edition. I've tried Netgear, a lesser SMC card, and Trendware wireless cards with my Sony PCG-FX290 laptop (1GHz,256MB,40GB) and while they all worked, they were very inconsistant in their signal strength and worked only in select areas of my home. THIS CARD WORKS OUTSIDE MY HOUSE!! Install the drivers first, reboot with the card in the PCMCIA slot. The signal strength may be non-existant until you double click on the signal icon and check the status and configuration. I clicked 'RESTORE DEFAULTS' and rebooted my machine... now it's up and running. About a 10 minute or less setup, strong signal and XP recognized it just fine. XP may ask you during installation if you want to use 'unathorized or unverified' certificates... say OK... and move on. So far... so good. Don't hesitate to buy this card if you want easy setup with an excellent signal right out of the box.
Rating: 
Summary: Too bad to boast
Review: I had Netgear WT511 card, it worked well in the house but not far from outside the house. Then I read a lot about SMC high power card and bought one, you know what I cannot connect even from within house. Then I checked the signal intensity, Netgear has 50% but SMC only has only 30%. What a terrible card!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great Card, fragile antenna
Review: I have bought two of these cards and the range is incredible. It works great in Linux also. In case you need an external antenna, it uses a reverse polarity MMCX connector. The only problem I have had is the little tab antenna will eventually break if you keep taking it off and putting it back on. That is OK, because i have two of these cards and use one only with the tab antenna and the other with my external antennas.
Rating:
Summary: It works great on XP for me!
Review: I installed the software first, did NOT let XP handle the installation/configuration. Then I inserted the card into my notebook and it works great.
Rating:
Summary: It works great on XP for me!
Review: I installed the software first, did NOT let XP handle the installation/configuration. Then I inserted the card into my notebook and it works great.
Rating:
Summary: First Look from Wireless Guy
Review: I spent the summer setting up a 1500-foot radius wireless project. Up until this point we mostly used the Orinoco Classic Gold cards, which have the advantage of internal antenna and external port. However, the Orinoco power is relativelly low (30mw) and the internal antenna can't be disabled. The 200mw Senao cards with external antenna (only) worked even better. The 200mw SMC2532W-B has a removeable antenna AND external connectors -- a very nice design. Software installed easily on Windows 2000 Pro. It uses the same Prism 2.5 chip set as the Senao and similar specs, so I expect performance to be comparable. Initial tests look good.
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