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Rating: 
Summary: Easy set up, Great connection
Review: A while back we baught a refurbished computer, which needed internet. We had my Apple laptop connected to our 'SMC Barricade 4-Port 11 Mbps Wireless Broadband Router' basestation by AirPort Xtreme card. Now my task was to connect the basestation to our other computer.Installing Card: The hardest part was getting the case open! After that I screwed in the new card in a few seconds, put the case back on, and was ready to go. Installing Software: I put the CD in, clicked a few times, and I was done. All I did is follow the on-screen instructions. After about 2 or 3 minutes I was getting a signal from the basestation. This card is great! Extremely easy to install, and the connection is way faster than on my laptop. We have a steady, fast connection across the house and through a bunch of walls. A great card at a great value.
Rating:
Summary: Easy set up, Great connection
Review: A while back we baught a refurbished computer, which needed internet. We had my Apple laptop connected to our 'SMC Barricade 4-Port 11 Mbps Wireless Broadband Router' basestation by AirPort Xtreme card. Now my task was to connect the basestation to our other computer. Installing Card: The hardest part was getting the case open! After that I screwed in the new card in a few seconds, put the case back on, and was ready to go. Installing Software: I put the CD in, clicked a few times, and I was done. All I did is follow the on-screen instructions. After about 2 or 3 minutes I was getting a signal from the basestation. This card is great! Extremely easy to install, and the connection is way faster than on my laptop. We have a steady, fast connection across the house and through a bunch of walls. A great card at a great value.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay But Not Okay
Review: I bought this adapter to get a wireless connection for an old Windows XP Gateway desktop in my basement, thinking that the nice external antenna would help my odds. PRO: The card installed perfectly, connection comes up as "excellent" every time and I was into my network and Internet connection within 5 minutes. SMC has 24/7 toll-free tech support. CON:
The drivers are not certified for Windows XP and the so-called setup utility crashes itself. It's in the "Add/Remove Programs" area but won't uninstall. Don't try to use the utility if using XP... allow XP to manage the network settings and you'll be fine. SMC even recommends it after calling them. The useless utility is there and I leave it alone and use XP to manage settings. Bottom Line: Decent wireless adapter if you're running "b" and it does great with my D-Link 614+ router but don't pay much for this adapter. It's worth $25-$30 but not the $58 that I paid for it.
Rating:
Summary: Okay But Not Okay
Review: I bought this adapter to get a wireless connection for an old Windows XP Gateway desktop in my basement, thinking that the nice external antenna would help my odds. PRO: The card installed perfectly, connection comes up as "excellent" every time and I was into my network and Internet connection within 5 minutes. SMC has 24/7 toll-free tech support. CON:
The drivers are not certified for Windows XP and the so-called setup utility crashes itself. It's in the "Add/Remove Programs" area but won't uninstall. Don't try to use the utility if using XP... allow XP to manage the network settings and you'll be fine. SMC even recommends it after calling them. The useless utility is there and I leave it alone and use XP to manage settings. Bottom Line: Decent wireless adapter if you're running "b" and it does great with my D-Link 614+ router but don't pay much for this adapter. It's worth $25-$30 but not the $58 that I paid for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't work under BSD/Linux, config utility crashes Win2k
Review: I bought this card for a FreeBSD box in my test lab at home because it is one of the few wireless PCI cards on the hardware compatibility list. So my surprise was complete when it arrived and I found that SMC had, like many other annoying vendors, changed the chipset and not mentioned that anywhere or changed the product number. So it didn't work in FBSD.... I decided to repartition that test boxes hard drive and install Win2k so as to get *some* use from this card while waiting for the BSD driver wizards to put something out. The card installs fine but then when I launch the configuration utility the box freezes completely and I have to manually power it off, then boot into safe mode and take the utility out of startup to avoid a cycle of freezes. SMC's web site was useless as there is no updated config utility; I couldn't even find the version that came with the card, leaving me to wonder what I would do if I lost the CD. I guess WinXP people could still use this card but I'm not upgrading my OS just so I can use this card. My win2k box is service pack 4 with a million hotfixes, and there was no anti-virus or any other weird software on the box at the time (it was a test box!). This product is useless and I feel very much deceived by the chipset switch-a-roo. I will never buy SMC again.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't work under BSD/Linux, config utility crashes Win2k
Review: I bought this card for a FreeBSD box in my test lab at home because it is one of the few wireless PCI cards on the hardware compatibility list. So my surprise was complete when it arrived and I found that SMC had, like many other annoying vendors, changed the chipset and not mentioned that anywhere or changed the product number. So it didn't work in FBSD.... I decided to repartition that test boxes hard drive and install Win2k so as to get *some* use from this card while waiting for the BSD driver wizards to put something out. The card installs fine but then when I launch the configuration utility the box freezes completely and I have to manually power it off, then boot into safe mode and take the utility out of startup to avoid a cycle of freezes. SMC's web site was useless as there is no updated config utility; I couldn't even find the version that came with the card, leaving me to wonder what I would do if I lost the CD. I guess WinXP people could still use this card but I'm not upgrading my OS just so I can use this card. My win2k box is service pack 4 with a million hotfixes, and there was no anti-virus or any other weird software on the box at the time (it was a test box!). This product is useless and I feel very much deceived by the chipset switch-a-roo. I will never buy SMC again.
Rating: 
Summary: Need to get the new firmware and patches
Review: I got this PCI card because I got the SMC wireless router at the same time. I figured that the same brand name would make the WLAN work seamlessly. The installation of the card was very easy on my Dell Dimension 4550. After installation, the only problem I had with the card was the connectively problem that the previous reviewer spoke about. Then I went to the SMC website to download the fireware and patches for the WLAN monitoring software, it worked flawlessly. Conclusion: With any hardware/software you buy, it's a good idea to install it and check to see if there are updates and security patches available.
Rating:
Summary: Need to get the new firmware and patches
Review: I got this PCI card because I got the SMC wireless router at the same time. I figured that the same brand name would make the WLAN work seamlessly. The installation of the card was very easy on my Dell Dimension 4550. After installation, the only problem I had with the card was the connectively problem that the previous reviewer spoke about. Then I went to the SMC website to download the fireware and patches for the WLAN monitoring software, it worked flawlessly. Conclusion: With any hardware/software you buy, it's a good idea to install it and check to see if there are updates and security patches available.
Rating:
Summary: skip it
Review: Set it up along with smc router. No connection from 15 feet away, one floor down. Got a connection with the netgear fm114p , though link quality was poor and barely adaquate speeds. Check for pci cards with external antenna that can be positioned away from the body of the pc or pci cards with removable antenna, so that it can be upgraded with a higher gain antenna.
Rating:
Summary: Installed and working perfectly
Review: The installation was as simple as any PCI card. The Win95 system recognized the card at boot up and driver installation went flawlessly. The documentation walked me through the various settings (channel, type of network, etc.) well. Within 15 minutes I was getting a great connection to my D-Link 713P access point - 80% at 30 ft through walls, a bookcase, and with the 2602W buried in a sea of cables. This was my first try at networking. It couldn't have gone better. I highly recommend the SMC 2602W.
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