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Siemens SpeedStream 1024 2.4GHz Wireless PCI Network Adapter ( SS1024-1 )

Siemens SpeedStream 1024 2.4GHz Wireless PCI Network Adapter ( SS1024-1 )

List Price:
Your Price: $39.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It's good, but the application is not needed
Review: I am using XP pro to configure this device....the included application was unnecessary and I think caused problems.

I had several issues at once so I am not sure if the application was at fault, but I have been running fine 3 months without it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Windows 95 / support
Review: I bought this PCI card to allow my Windows 95 PC (I have 3 others using Windows 2000) to participate in a wireless LAN. The drivers would not install and the support was absolutely terrible. When I called for support because the driver installation did not recognize the card, they told me that I needed to put it in another slot. I did this,though it seemed a strange request, and when I called back with the same problem they told me that it would not work in my PC because I did not have a questionmark or an exclamation mark on my device driver list!!!!! They would go no further. It was very frustrating. It will probably work but the support is so bad it isn't worth trying.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Windows 95 / support
Review: I bought this PCI card to allow my Windows 95 PC (I have 3 others using Windows 2000) to participate in a wireless LAN. The drivers would not install and the support was absolutely terrible. When I called for support because the driver installation did not recognize the card, they told me that I needed to put it in another slot. I did this,though it seemed a strange request, and when I called back with the same problem they told me that it would not work in my PC because I did not have a questionmark or an exclamation mark on my device driver list!!!!! They would go no further. It was very frustrating. It will probably work but the support is so bad it isn't worth trying.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Rather good product
Review: I had no trouble what so ever to install this card on my XP Pro and Win98SE computers. Drivers were easy to install and were very easy to configure. Though XP Pro driver doesn't let you generate WEP keys by a key phrase, you got to copy the key string itself. The antenna is able to receive from far away, you can even add aluminum foil (several layers folded together) and put it as a shiled behind the antenna so the signal would be reflected to the router (got to play with it a little to get a better reception).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: good performance for the price!
Review: I have wondows XP on my desktop. Installation was easy as per the instructions in mannuial. I have had this up andd running since last night. My router Netgear MR814v2 is 2 walls away from my desktop and I still get ~85% signal strength and > 90% signal quality. I have 128 bit WEP truned on and it is working great.

I think this is the best bargain that you could get for this price range. ...

Just a note on compatibility with MR814v2. If you are planning to use this with Netgear's MR814v2. Make sure you have firmware version 5.01 for the MR814v2. Mine came with version 5.00 and I spent 3 frustrating days figuring out the problem. I finally downloaded latest firmware verrsion 5.01 from Nergear's site for MR814v2 and since then connection is as good as it can be!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: It failed after 4-5 months
Review: I spent many hours tring to connect my computer to the wirless router. I could not figure it out. Electronic cards going bad was the last thing I would suspect but I was not correct. The Card 1024 was my problem and I don't recommend buying one. I know electonics and this card failed me where other have not.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Configuration under Windows XP
Review: I went through a lot of grief and heartache before finally being able to use this card (marginally). I have version 2 of this card. It has the broadcom 4301 chipset. I know linux fans have been complaining about this stuff. Sorry, can't help you. This is for newbies only. So, to go through the steps that I took :

1. Download drivers from the siemens-speedstream site. [...]

2. rename "get.asp" (hey, that's what it says) to "get.zip" and unzip. You should have a folder with a single file : SS1024.exe
or something like that. Run that to unzip to a default folder.

3. Do not install SpeedStream Software ! The default configuration utility is buggy. The SSID and WEP tabs did not exist for me. There is a registry hack for this, but it really sucks. I hosed a chunck of reg trying to do it. Oops. Instead, use Windows Control Panel to Add Hardware and look for the .inf and .sys files in the default folder created in step 2, above.

4. Download the HP Broadcom Wireless Configuration Utility. That's right. HP, formerly HP-Compaq, has a big (16 meg) download which allows you to configure and run Broadcom kit.
[...]

Sorry to all you cc'ers who have to put up with all the extra bandwidth hogs. Perhaps you should just go to HP's main site.

5. Run HPBroadcom.exe You should see a list of irrelevant cards. This should not bother you. The HP Broadcom (actually, it looks like a generic Broadcom) Config Util shows up in the Control Panel. The Colorado College site actually has a good tutorial about it. Broadcom Config has a bunch of tabbed stuff, which includes scanning for in-range SSID's, security !!!, and testing. Pretty cool from an XP techie point of view. (Sorry once again to all you linux geeks).

6. Scan for your favorite node, apply changes, close the utility, then double-click on the task bar icon corresponding to the Broadcom Utility. You should see a list of favored nodes. Pick one and connect.

OK, I actually did not go about this the way that I described it. First, I went through the frustration of downloading Linksys' WMP11 drivers, and hacking the *.inf file to include my vendID and prodID. In the end, I got a Broadcom driver version 3.10.39.7 instead of 3.8.28.0 Really, I don't know what difference it makes. I was kicking myself silly until I discovered that HP Utility. That seemed to solve my original problem (couldn't configure SSID or WEP with Speedstram util).

My advice : do not buy this card, or anything made with a Broadcom chipset. It was not worth the pain. If you really want to support the 802.11b/g community, go with Proxim/Orinoco kit or a Prism 2/2.5/3/GT based card. Broadcom refuses to open up their code (some kinda "legal" issues). They should either make a HAL available, like Atheros, or stop producing software radios which are capable of violating FCC regulations. OK, enough ranting. Point taken. Speedsteam sucks. Broadcom is lame.

Unless, of course, you have a Macintosh running OS 10.3 and Airport 3.1...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Siemens SpeedStream Wireless PCI evaluation
Review: The driver for the SpeedStream could be installed. However during installation the default settings are shown (e.g., channel 11), but you can't change them. I couldn't find the file to edit. When you bringup the SpeedSteam Wireless LAN Utility the icon does not appear in the system tray. I also couldn't use browser to access www.speedstream.com -- "The connection was refused when attempting to contact www.speedstream.com".

I use to have a Microsoft wireless adapter, but it died so I wanted to try out Siemens. Big mistake. I have PC with Windows 2000 Professional. So I just use the 10/100 ethernet instead.

Look elsewhere if you want a wireless connection.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Ad Hoc not working consistently
Review: While I thought this card was a good buy for [$$]..., I am having a lot of difficulty getting it to work with 2 other 1024 adapters, 1 internal and 1 external USB.


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