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Compaq Wireless LAN PC Card

Compaq Wireless LAN PC Card

List Price: $199.99
Your Price: $199.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Compaq Wireless LAN is quite a solid performer
Review: After having used 1 MB wireless cards, Compaq is my first 11 MB one and I find its speed and performance quite exhilarating. However, its purported 150-ft range is overrated when one of the end points is moving or when the building has a metallic structure, like mine at work. Although transmission errors are transparent and not reported to the user, a significant (10/1) decrease in transmission speed becomes noticeably frustrating. Its price makes it affordable --if the wireless network access point is already available. The new home user, however, should consider the combined price of the minimum configuration required to make the network functional: (a) two PC cards, (b) one PC card and one network access point, etc. For my home LAN (one stationary computer connected to the Internet and one handheld PC), I found it much cheaper to buy two wireless PC cards than a card and a network access point. The handheld PC takes one of the wireless cards and the stationary PC has the other wireless card. Regular operating systems (e.g., Windows 2000, Linux) or shareware programs allow for appropriate IP forwarding and connectivity. The dual COMPAQ wireless card solution is relatively inexpensive when building a simple home LAN. The COMPAQ range is reasonable (throughout the house and yard).

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Compaq Wireless LAN is quite a solid performer
Review: Can anyone recommend a cheaper alternative for a home wireless LAN? The NICs (PCMCIA, PIC, etc.) are reasonably priced but the cost of the base unit is too high for the very low volume of devices that I want to use (ie., 2-3).

Note that I need suppported products for NT v4.0 and Windows2000.

Peter

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Any cheaper alternatives for a home wireless LAN
Review: Can anyone recommend a cheaper alternative for a home wireless LAN? The NICs (PCMCIA, PIC, etc.) are reasonably priced but the cost of the base unit is too high for the very low volume of devices that I want to use (ie., 2-3).

Note that I need suppported products for NT v4.0 and Windows2000.

Peter

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Card
Review: Excellent wireless connection. It gets connected in places where my previous cards dont. A good buy

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Card
Review: Gear/Config:
Compaq WL100 pc card plugged into a Compaq PC Card Expansion Pack (w/ built-in external battery), which in turn, is connected to my Ipaq H3955 (BTW: I absolutely love this PDA!). O/S is Windows CE 3.0 (Pocket PC 2002). Also applied the "End User Update v3.0", which can be found on HP.Com as service pack SP22546.

Installation:
Piece of cake -- took me only 10 minutes to complete on the first try. Even though I was not able to locate network drivers specific to the Win CE 3.0 Pocket PC 2002, using the Win CE 3.0 Pocket PC 2000 driver worked like a charm. The installation file & instructions can be found on HP.Com as service pack SP16044.

Pros:
* Built-in antenna is much more sensitive than the Linksys and D-Link pc cards I've used in the past. The WL100's performance, range, and reliability is about on par w/ the Orinoco Silver pc card, which I've also had very good experiences with.
* Built-in antenna exhibits nice styling (i.e. arched tip is visually more appealling than the typical rectangular antennas).
* Works equally well in my Gateway Solo 1450 laptop, but I have it dedicated to my Ipaq.

Cons:
* Lacks a jack for use w/ optional external antenna (which would come in handy when I go outside to the far corner of my back yard). ....

Overall:
Definitely a keeper.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Solid product that's nicely priced
Review: Gear/Config:
Compaq WL100 pc card plugged into a Compaq PC Card Expansion Pack (w/ built-in external battery), which in turn, is connected to my Ipaq H3955 (BTW: I absolutely love this PDA!). O/S is Windows CE 3.0 (Pocket PC 2002). Also applied the "End User Update v3.0", which can be found on HP.Com as service pack SP22546.

Installation:
Piece of cake -- took me only 10 minutes to complete on the first try. Even though I was not able to locate network drivers specific to the Win CE 3.0 Pocket PC 2002, using the Win CE 3.0 Pocket PC 2000 driver worked like a charm. The installation file & instructions can be found on HP.Com as service pack SP16044.

Pros:
* Built-in antenna is much more sensitive than the Linksys and D-Link pc cards I've used in the past. The WL100's performance, range, and reliability is about on par w/ the Orinoco Silver pc card, which I've also had very good experiences with.
* Built-in antenna exhibits nice styling (i.e. arched tip is visually more appealling than the typical rectangular antennas).
* Works equally well in my Gateway Solo 1450 laptop, but I have it dedicated to my Ipaq.

Cons:
* Lacks a jack for use w/ optional external antenna (which would come in handy when I go outside to the far corner of my back yard). ....

Overall:
Definitely a keeper.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Compaq WL-110 Wireless LAN PCMCIA card
Review: I have an iPaq 3835 and a dual PCMCIA expansion pack. I purchased am HNW-100 Wireless LAN PCMCIA card, sometimes referred to as a WL-100, based on information from Compaq's website indicating this would work with my iPaq. Well, it didn't, no matter what I tried.
I got shuffled around to various Compaq support sites trying to get my questions answered without success.

Fortunately the HNW-100 does work in my laptop and allows me to have a peer-to-peer home network between my laptop and my home desktop computer (equipped with a Compaq HNW-200 Wireless LAN USB adapter) so it wasn't wasted money.

I dug and dug and dug and finally found out that the WL-100 is only for the older 3700 series iPaqs. No, I found out I should have bought the WL-110 for my 3800 series iPaq. So I bought one. Well, so far it doesn't work either.

I just got an email from Compaq with a link to an article on Microsoft's website which suggests I now have to buy an Access Point to connect my iPaq to my wireless home network. I set up my home network as a Peer-to-Peer network, which doesn't require the additional expense of an Access Point.

I'm quite disappointed at this point. Compaq touts the wirless connectivity of their iPaqs but is not, in my opinion, very forthcoming with the hard and fast details. I feel like I was tricked into buying this product and I'm very likely to simply return it now for a refund and buy ANYONE ELSES products, no matter how much extra hardware I have to buy. Or maybe I'll just pocket my refunded cash and forget the whole thing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 802.11 B from Compaq
Review: This card is outstanding, not just because it runs like a champ but because the software that comes with it actually gives you reasonable feedback.

Also, if you are finding the access point too pricey (it is really excellent), I would try a company called: buffalotech.com. They make a really neet home wireless kit that is 802.11 compliant. Very cheap and available now. Or, you can wait for Compaq's cool looking home access point. Should be available at Radioshack in the next month or so.

When you use this thing with a wireless access point, the iPaq Pocket PC and MS Exchange, email takes on a whole new realm. The bandwidth is really there. The Palm just cannot do this and logging into a 19.2 connection and running through yet another ISP is not an option for me.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Stable and Seamless! The only Compaq Deive I own.
Review: Well, actually, I won 2 Compaq products. After buying a Compaq laptop 4 years ago and having nothing but problems with it and their support, I swore never to buy anything form them again.

However, I picked up a used compaq wifi card as a test on our wireless network @ work (Cisco 350 Series Access Points) and it worked wonderfully. The software install was a little tricky (getting the correct version etc.), but once up and running it is so reliable that I can't complain.

So then what? Well, I thought I would install it on my Pockey PC 2002 iPaq. Again, awesome stability. I can now take my handheld to Starbucks and get on their wireless network there and check email while having my morning (well, afternoon and evening) coffee.

It isn't as good as the Cisco cards I have tested, but it is one of the best cards I find that is closest to "true wired speed" then most I have used (linksys, xircom).

Hope this helps...email me if you have any questions.

Kevin

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Stable and Seamless! The only Compaq Deive I own.
Review: Well, actually, I won 2 Compaq products. After buying a Compaq laptop 4 years ago and having nothing but problems with it and their support, I swore never to buy anything form them again.

However, I picked up a used compaq wifi card as a test on our wireless network @ work (Cisco 350 Series Access Points) and it worked wonderfully. The software install was a little tricky (getting the correct version etc.), but once up and running it is so reliable that I can't complain.

So then what? Well, I thought I would install it on my Pockey PC 2002 iPaq. Again, awesome stability. I can now take my handheld to Starbucks and get on their wireless network there and check email while having my morning (well, afternoon and evening) coffee.

It isn't as good as the Cisco cards I have tested, but it is one of the best cards I find that is closest to "true wired speed" then most I have used (linksys, xircom).

Hope this helps...email me if you have any questions.

Kevin


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