Rating: Summary: You can't beat the 'ease of use'. Review: I'm a mid range 'techie' - I like 'plug in and use'. This is precisely what you get with this product - especially if you use Windows XP. I've not had a single problem.
Rating: Summary: LinkSYS USB unit far better Review: I bought LinkSys WAP and both PCMCIA and USB NICs. The USB device appears to have twice the range and far more reliability than this PCMCIA device. If you have both a PCMCIA slot and an available USB port, you're much better off using the latter.By the way, I bought two of the PCMCIA devices and both exhibit identical behavior. Go with the USB...
Rating: Summary: good results with wap11 ver.2.2 and wpc11 ver 3.0 Review: I don't know what the negative reviews are all about. i had no clue how to set up a wireless on my winxp laptop (or wireless on any other machine for that matter). i've had a cable modem and linksys 4 port cable modem router switch for some time sharing my connection with three computers; i added this fujitsu c series lifebook with a wpc11 ver 3.0 and and a wap11 ver 2.2 wireless access point this evening. i'm listening to streaming radio and have trialed two diff. stations without a buffering/disconnect for the last 1 hr and 45 min. the "status" says poor sometimes and good sometimes, i'm downstairs approx 75' from the access point and have walked outdoors approx 300' and i'm still listening without interruption. i hooked up the wap11 hardware, no software to deal with on the wap11, then i put the cd for the wpc11 in the cdrom drive and put the pc card in and followed the wpc11 directions to click on "continue" when it came to a screen about compatibility mode and then clicked connect. I did make sure the internet connection firewall in xp was disabled first. susan
Rating: Summary: Linksys Wireless PCMCIA Card, good card, awful support Review: I bought this card and the Linksys Wireless Router w/ 4 Port Switch to access my business VPN. Basically, even though the boxes say it supports VPN when you speak to the techs they are clear that the current firmware does not. You will have to downgrade to a version which works but is buggy and that's the best they can do. NOTE THAT IT TOOK 5 CALLS TO GET A CORRECT RESOLUTION FROM LINKSYS FROM THEIR TECHS. WASTED MANY HOURS.
Rating: Summary: Very short range and bad WEP Linux driver Review: Maybe for some people, they have very good review. I for one disagree. This card has very short range. It is probably the driver but even after I upgraded the ROM and used the newest driver, I still only get about 15-20 feet of range. That's not even half of the size of my small townhouse. I know it is the card's problem because I had another Addtronics card that has significantly longer range (20-30 feet). I have the same setup but with the other card, I get longer range. The reason I say it could be the driver is that when I run Linux, it has longer range. The only problem when I run Linux is that the Linux driver only work with Ad-hoc mode not the Infrastructure mode with WEP enabled.
Rating: Summary: WPC11: not as good with Windows XP as under Windows ME Review: I ran the WPC11 since Christmas on a lpaptop with Windows ME. Ran great, with quick installation (through the card was replaced after 2 months when it died ). The signal under ME reached from a router in the basemant to an upstairs room, 2 floors up and about 65 feet away. However, after I upgraded the operating system to to XP (and downloaded all current XP patches and updates), it no longer picks up the signal in that location: signal strentgth is not as good under XP. Linksys tech support claims it is an XP issue, as the protocols used by XP for wireless are not as good AND XP is more suspectible to interference form other wireless devices - such as portable phones - which I do have in the room in question. So - if it works under ME, be careful about upgradingt o XP.
Rating: Summary: Works with Linux, how bad could it be? Review: I bought this card because the Prism2 chipset is supported by an open source project that would allow me to use it with my HP Laptop running RedHat Linux 7.3. The most difficult part about getting this card up and running on my Linux laptop was a lack of thorough information on the steps needed to get the card running (not a typical open source situation. I plan on writing a THOROUGH tutorial and posting it soon). I downloaded and compiled the drivers as per the most thorough tutorial I was able to find online and couldn't get the card to link to the AP. After some playing around with config files I discovered that the tutorial forgot to mention the absolutely important edits to a few config files (not just the wlan-ng.conf files) that would get this puppy flyin'. SO, once I got those edited I picked up a fairly strong signal (about 80%) to the AP which is a few hundred feet away in the middle of the shop in the back of our building (and behind two walls with a server room also sitting between me and the AP). The only issues I've had since getting it installed is the AP has dropped off a few times and it had to be power cycled (nothing to do with the WPC11 card). And I have had other AP's cause interference when they were within say 10 feet of me and between me and the AP in the middle of the shop, even though their SSID wasn't the one I was looking to connect to and I'd hardcoded the SSID into the .conf file. That's probably just an 802.11b problem. As for a Win2k install. Not a problem. Strong signal from the same AP (My laptop dual-boots Win2k, RH Linux 7.3) from the time I entered the SSID. So, my opinion is this... anything I can get to run in Linux that the manufacturer doesn't ship drivers for is a bonus. Anything I can get to work as well as this card does in Linux I will surely recommend. I was so impressed with the way this card works I've ordered a Linksys WCF11 card with the Sharp Zaurus I just ordered. I'm confident that I'll have similar luck with getting the WCF11 card working happily in the Zaurus (which is also Linux based) because of my luck with the WPC11 card. Part of the reason I might not have had a problem was that when I bought my card I made sure it was version 3 (a little online research told me that was the most current card) AND I downloaded the updates from linksys.com before I attempted to install the card in W2k. The only odd thing I noticed was that my LEDs are quite dim so they really don't give me effective feedback. If I hadn't gotten the card working so well I would've returned it as defective for the LED problem... but, since it works well (and I have tools to monitor the card anyway) I don't worry about the LEDs. So.. I give the card only 4 stars because Linksys doesn't bother to provide drivers for Linux with the card. They do provide a link to the opensource wlan project ( [URL] ) but, none on the linksys site or install CD
Rating: Summary: Simple and easy on both Win98 and WinMe Review: Took it out of the box and installed the software and drivers rebooted the computer as told and was connected to the Network. NO hassles or problems. First install was on Win98 and then I installed it on WinMe OS. Worked just the same and had no problems at all. This is very easy to use and others who have had problems must simply be doing something wrong.
Rating: Summary: READ THIS before you buy to use with Linksys wireless AP's Review: For all I know, the current version (v3.0) of the Linksys WPC11 may be a very good card. Reviews of the card are generally favorable and I had no problems installing it on my Sony laptop running WinXP. However, the card will not connect to the Linksys wireless access point on my network. It turns out that there is a known compatibility issue between the WPC11 v3.0 and the Linksys Wireless Access Point WAP11 v2.2. After spending hours trying to get them to work together, updating firmware and drivers, I gave up and called Linksys' technical support. The technician said that there was indeed a problem using those two particular Linksys products together. He said that a beta firmware upgrade (1.010) was available for the access point which MIGHT resolve the issue, with the caveat that it worked only about 50% of the time. His best advice was to either use an earlier version (v2.5) of the WPC11, or use a card from another company (which was the solution I used). Once again, there is a compatibility issue with version 3.0 of the Linksys WPC11 and the Linksys WAP11 v2.2. Until Linksys has a definitive fix for the problem or you know for certain that you are not using a Linksys WAP11 v2.2, do not purchase this card to use with your wireless network.
Rating: Summary: Not Compatible with Linksys AP ! Review: I set up wireless LAN's for customers all over the place. This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Bought 6 WPC11 v.3 cards (the first of several to be purchased for a particular customer) and 11 WAP11 v.2.2. In testing over the last day and .5 I have not been able to make them talk. Finally, I called Linksys tech support. They told me that the AP and the card are not compatible! They say they have a firmware fix that will correct the problem. The firmware on BOTH devices will have to be updated before it MAY work. What am I going to do with the customer I have waiting on this install to be done?? I will tell you. I installed the D-Link DWL900AP and it works beautifully with the WPC11's. Go figure, Linksys's own AP is not compatible with it's card, but it't competator's is! Just go with the D-Link AP's!
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