pc cards

I bought this along with the Linksys WRT54G wireless router. I have a Sony Vaio laptop with Windows XP. The setup was easy using the included instructions and Windows Zero Wireless Configuration. New drivers (ver3.20.21.0) are available from Linksys. The range is excellent in my house, at about 100feet through 1 wall the signal strength is good at 48Kbps. Using it outside I can connect at 11Kbps at about 200 ft from the house. The provided instructions are horrible for configuring security other than WEP 128 for WIndows XP.

Linksys supports the newer more secure WPA protocol and I highly recommend using it since WEP 128 is almost useless to prevent specific attacks against your network. You should use WPA-PSK (Pre-Shared Key) with TKIP encryption on the router and on the properties of the wireless card. Though Linksys has supported WPA since May you won't find anything about how to configure it on the card and router in their knowledge base. The Key can be any letter, number and a few symbols from 8-63 characters long. You can also set the Group Key renewal 0-99,999 sec. I set it to 0. Under the IEEE 802.1x authentication set the EAP type to PEAP and uncheck boxes for "Authenticate as computer when information is available" and "Authenticate as guest..." unless you use these features. Also, change the SSID and don't broadcast it and use MAC filtering to lockdown your network.

I'm using this card with the associated Linksys WRT54G wireless router and a Sony Vaio PCG-GR250 laptop running WinXP SP1. The range is good/low at 35Mbps at 120ft with 2 walls. The installation took 3 minutes using Windows Zero Wireless configuration. The instructions seem to be updated by Linksys judging from previous posts on this card though it still needs work. Pass phrase is not supported by XP and if you manually input the 26 hexidecimal WEP 128 key what is not stated is that the key can have letters from A-F, numbers 0-9 and some symbols. A new driver is available from Linksys than the one that was shipped with mine and install is painless.

I did have a small problem with the signal cutting out every 3 minutes. This problem is because of IEE 802.1x authentication being enabled by XP and not the fault of the card. Every time I changed the SSID XP defaulted to enabling the 802.1x authentication. To change the authentication: Control Panel>Network Connections>rt click Wireless Network Connection select Properties. In the new window, tab to Wireless Network. Under the Preferred networks pane select your wireless network and hit the Properties radio button. In this new window, tab to Authentication. The "Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network" box should be unchecked.

IEE 802.1x authentication is for port controlled server authentication and is not needed in most home networks.

For security, under your network Properties window you should have WEP 128 enabled and the Network Authentication should be "Open". Also, change your SSID to something obscure and do not broadcast it.

Well this is a definite improvement in speed over the old 802.11 cards. It was a cinch to set up and seems to hold a better and stronger connection. Definitely a good deal!