Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy this card
Review: I trust Linksys for all their products except this. I run Windows XP and was getting a Low signal less than 10 feet away. I got this so I can work upstairs but I would get intermittent signals and speeds less than 45kbps(if I was lucky). I returned it and got an Orinoco Gold instead, and it's GREAT, 1.5Mbps anywhere in the house.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT
Review: I OWN TWO OF THESE UNITS. ONE WENT OUT ABOUT A MONTH AGO AND THE OTHER TOOK TWO MONTHS TO QUIT. CALLED THEIR TECH SUPPORT . WAITED ONE HOUR TO TALK TO SOMEONE WHO WAS NO HELP AT ALL. BOTH UNITS SEND BUT DO NOT RECEIVE . WENT TO THER WEB PAGE SOMETIME IT IS UP, BUT MOST OF THE TIME IT IS DOWN. DO NOT BUY THIS CARD IT HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE...
Rating:
Summary: OK at first, then took a major dump
Review: 2 years ago, bought the WPC11 card and the BEFW11S4 router for my home laptop running WinXP. Worked good at first, but then things went downhill fast.I think the driver has issues with WinXP. When you install the driver, WinXP notifies you that the driver has not been certified with WinXP. The Linksys manual tells you to click the "continue anyway" button. (this *should* scare you) As my WinXP changed (via automatic and manually pulled in updates), my card became more and more finicky... to the point it is basically unusable. Current set of problems:
a) dropped connections.. inconsistent on how to solve. Sometimes I boot up and the card can't find the DHCP server and get's an unusable Autoconfiguration IP address.. which you have to reboot (ipconfig /release; ipconfig /renew does not help). Sometimes, I have to completely reinstall the driver. But, then things go ill later that day. Sometimes, the DHCP server is contacted, but no IP address is obtained (though the router says it served one up to the card). Sometimes, when the machine goes into standby or hibernation, the connection is completely hosed, and the card says it can't see any signal whatsoever. SOmetimes you can pull out the card, and reinsert, and an IP will be grabbed.. sometimes not. Sometimes rebooting helps, sometimes not. VERY FRUSTRATING. b) configuration utility does not tell you which networks are available. I use my laptop all over Stanford's campus, which has several different networks (ie EE building has a different network with unique SSID than the CS building, etc). It would be nice to choose from the network of your choice... but, you have to know the SSID (even though the SSID's are broadcasted). This is a pain. c) poor reception. On campus, folks with laptops sitting right next to me will get great reception, while my signal strength teeters from 0-10%.. incurring lots of dropped connections. So, I'd get slow response.. plus when remotely logged into some UNIX boxes.. I'd have to completely reconnect. Now, I have a new Dell Inspirion 5100 with a built in receiver.. and my signal strength in my own home blows away my HP with the Linksys WPC11... and the Dell's antennae is internal, which typically reduces reception. Anyway, my card WPC11 is hitting the garbage can, and I'm spending the extra dough to get a Cisco card. Saving 2 hours a day in reboots, hangs, dropped connections, and driver reinstallations will more than pay for the extra $40 bucks i'll spend on Cisco. (BTW- unless they fired all the Linksys employees and scrapped the Linsys designs, I think it will be a while before teh Linksys/Cisco merger trickles quality into the Linksys product line.
Rating:
Summary: Wireless Nightmare!
Review: My housemate had purchased a Linksys wireless router and this card, so I purchased the same one in the hopes that it would ensure compatibility. In retrospect, this was foolish after having seen the problems she had in setting up the router and her card. I attempted to install the card on my Dell notebook, which runs Windows ME. The Utility Monitor icon never appeared in my system tray, and attempts to open the utility monitor file were futile. My first call to Linksys tech support reached a representative (after 15-20 minutes on hold) who just had me uninstall and reinstall the software twice--to no avail. She then told me that the problem was Windows ME--and that I needed to go to the Windows website to update it. The fact that the reason I needed the adapter was to access the internet seemed to escape her. A couple of days later, after noticing that when uninstalling I received a message that two program files were "locked" and could only be uninstalled after rebooting, I called tech support again. After another 20-minute wait, I explained what I had noticed and asked how to "unlock" the files--which were the same files that control the WLAN utility monitor (which still wasn't opening at all). The tech had no idea what I was talking about. Following several more uninstall-reinstall roundabouts, the tech concluded that the adapter was bad. I know this isn't the case, as I attempted to freshly install my housemate's identical card on my computer, and I had the same problems. It works just fine on her system, so it must be a software glitch. In sum, I am returning the adapter, which isn't worth the cardbox box it arrived in. I bought the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Adapter (MN-520), and installed it in 10 minutes without ANY problems. I was skeptical of Microsoft hardware, but it proved itself and surpassed wireless "leader" Linksys by far. Stay away from Linksys if you have Windows ME.
Rating:
Summary: Signal strength fair -- when it works
Review: I've had a WPC11 ver. 3 for nearly a year. I'm fed up and switching to a new company. Linksys has been my network hardware manufacturer of choice for over 6 years, and this product has dropped them right off my list. First of all, the installation is finicky. I tried several combinations of Wireless Zero service configuration, the Linksys supplied wireless connection manager utility, and drivers supplied by MS & Linksys. The best installation permutation I found for WinXP Professional was: Wireless Zero service running, Linksys connection software NOT installed, latest drivers from Linksys website. (However, even this was far from an ideal situation, as you'll see below.) At first things seemed okay. I had to fiddle with the placement of my access point in order to get a signal on the other end of the apartment, but once my monitor was not interrupting the signal path, I was cruising along. I started to notice a few dropped connections when I was in the middle of playing online games. I quickly discovered that the fastest way to restore the connection was to remove the card, let it sit for a while to cool down and discharge any residual voltage, then replace it. This method worked well for several months. I also fiddled with several installation methods while trying to debug the dropped connections, finally settling for Wireless Zero OFF, Linksys software installed, latest drivers from Linksys website, as suggested by a post from a forum I found through Google. I then moved and didn't use the card for a few months beyond ensuring that my access point was in a good place to reach throughout the house. (It's in an outside corner on the bottom floor. I get a Low-Very Low signal in the opposite corner on the top floor.) When I started using my laptop again in earnest, good lord was I in for a surprise. Not only did dropped connections become more frequent, I also experienced the following random additional problems, steadily increasing in frequency and magnitude over time:
* Inability to detect access point
* Inability to contact DHCP server (not experienced by any other machine on my network)
* Code 10 - Device Could Not Start error when inserting card
* Complete computer freeze requiring hard reboot Sometimes I could resolve these issues by inserting and removing the card a number of times. Sometimes if I restarted the computer they would resolve themselves. Sometimes disabling and re-enabling the network adaptor would fix the problem. Sometimes uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers would be the ticket. Most often, some arcane combination of these would work after each individually had not. On occasion, letting it sit for a couple hours was the only way to fix the problem. At this point I switched to the installation configuration Wireless Zero ON, Linksys software NOT installed, latest drivers from Linksys website, as suggested by a short statement buried in a text file deep in the directory structure on the Linksys install CD and by Linksys support. So I started contacting Linksys support. What I remember most about my experiences talking with them are long hold times and ridiculous suggestions. One guy tried to tell me "the card doesn't talk to the computer, the computer talks to the card -- therefore you need to contact your computer manufacturer to determine why your computer freezes only when the Linksys card is inserted in the PC card slot." The last woman I talked to told me not to use Windows' "Safely Remove Devices" icon to remove the card -- instead, I should disable the device in Device Manager. Also, I should never insert the card while the computer is on. In other words, she flat out told me, "Our product does not work within the specifications of the operating system and hardware for which it's designed." Based on this last juicy tidbit from Linksys support, I've switched to a Proxim Orinoco a/b combo card. I've only received it today, so the quality remains to be seen. However, the installation process went exactly as the manual suggested it would, and the signal strength in the corner of the house opposite the access point now gets Good-Low signal. These two indicators are already a gigantic improvement over the Linksys WPC11.
Rating: 
Summary: I have loved my wireless card!
Review: A good friend of mine encouraged me to buy a wireless card for my new laptop, so I shopped around and chose this one. I spent $10 more than my friend had, but I get a signal in many places where he can't, so I definitely think it was worth the cost! The drivers weren't as easy to install as I hoped, but overall it has been very beneficial.
Rating:
Summary: Works well
Review: I had no problems installing the drivers and bringing this card up under Windows 98SE, and had good connectivity with a Linksys wireless router. Some minor complaints: The status LEDs on the card are very dim, especially outdoors; the Link LED gives no indication that activity is happening on the link; and the drivers don't bring the link up at boot time until you've logged on. This means network drives configured to reconnect at login fail with an error. I have no VPN problems with the V4 card -- I'm composing this review through the standard Windows PPTP VPN for about an hour.
Rating: 
Summary: WPC11 ver. 4 TOTALLY different from ver. 3
Review: Be very, very careful when buying this card! It is totally different hardware from the WPC11 ver. 3. I thought I was buying the ver. 3 card, which has both linux and wince drivers posted on Linksys website! The ver 4. card is a cardbus (32bit) card with a RealTek chipset inside of it, while the ver. 3 card has the prism 2 chipset and is only a 16 bit card. I think it is very shady and very strange the linksys would market totally different hardware with the same name (WPC11). I very much dislike this buisness practice, hence the two stars. The product works fine in windows, and seems to perform well, but getting it working in wince and linux (which is why I bought it) is next to impossible. Thanks to amazon's wonderful customer service, I can return these for a refund since I thought I was getting the version 3. Thanks amazon! No thanks linksys! BTW, as of right now, amazon still lists this as a '16-bit' card. This is not true, it is the 32-bit, cardbus, version 4 of the WPC11 (at least that's what I got).
Rating:
Summary: Beware of WPC11 ver 4 PC cards!!
Review: I purchased a Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless router and a WPC11 PC card. In short: No problems setting up the router with the default configuration using the CD based setup program. With no security features (WEP, MAC address filters, etc.), I was able to get two wired PC's sharing the same cable modem with VPN connections. Installing the WPC11 PC card worked without so much as a system reboot! So far, I'm impressed... Until I tried the VPN connection over the wireless connection. Within less then 15 seconds after establishing a VPN connection, the connection was lost! However, the same VPN connection worked when the same laptop was hard wired in the same router! I checked the Linksys web site for the latest drivers, and to my surprise, the driver that came with the card was (5.158.1001.2003 Driver date 10/10/2003) was more up the date than the one on their web site (Driver Date: 4/21/2003)! Trying to debug the problem was made more difficult by the simplistic router log files that did not have as much as a time stamp or a way of clearing the file. Nothing on the Linksys support page helped... I then noticed in the stack of useless paperwork that came with the products, a flier that stated: "The Wireless-B Notebook Adapter, WPC11 ver.4, is a high-performance CardBus product. Therefore it will not work with Windows NT. It will also not work in the following Linksys wireless-ready products: - BEFCMUH4, Cable Gateway
- BEFDSR41W, ADSL Gateway
- BEFIR41W, EtherFast Cable/DSL Wireless-Ready Router with 4-port Switch
- BEFSR41W-RN, EtherFast Ricochet Router
- PPS1UW, EitherFast Wirless-Ready USB PrintServer If you need product support for the WPC11 ver. 4, or you want to exchange it for a WPC11 ver.3 which will work with the devices listed above and Win NT, then call Linksys Technical Suport" I called, and they quickly informed me that this card has some known issue with VPN connections, and I can either try a beta version driver, or exchange the card for a vers. 3! How can you trust a company that is willing to ship products with known issues like this one? I promptly returned all Linksys products.
Rating:
Summary: Why Amazon Delivery Sucks for Linksys Wireless Adaptors
Review: I ordered a Linksys Wireless Router and the Linksys Wireless Adaptor Card on Nov 9. The router arrived in < 5 days. The Wireless Adaptor Card has not arrived. It is the 18th of Nov 8 p.m. w/ an Amazon promise date for the 19th of Nov. What good is a Wireless Router without the wireless card ???? My first and last purchase from Amazon... they said in stock!
| 
