b standard

This is a nice little wireless card for a notebook computer. It installs quickly and easily, and worked perfectly the first time. It hooked up with my 802.11b home network beautifully, and I've used it successfully at several (b) wi-fi hotspots.

The drawbacks are all in the software. I thought the software interface was kind of clunky, and I had a lot of trouble getting it to successfully use WEP encryption on my home network, although my Linksys wireless (USB) unit worked perfectly with the encryption.

Overall, though, delivering wireless this quickly and easily (and portably) is a great effort. I'm very pleased. Plus, the 54g is lightning fast if you can find a 54g hotspot to connect to. But I'm guessing it won't be long until that's the norm, so this card is a choice that offers a lot of versatility going forward. Four stars for the ease and reliability...only wish the software was a little better.

if you want to get on board with wifi, this is a great way to do it. as another reviewer mentioned, it doesn't come w/ an external antenna (btw, it also doesn't say that it does, go back and read the description) but has a jack for an external antenna if you wish to purchase one separately (in case you want to connect to networks that are very far away). the card works great, very reliable. word of advice, like any piece of hardware you install, check the manufacturers website for updated drivers and client manager software as the version in the box tends to be a little old (though fully functional).

Contrary to the description on this web page (as of 5/23/2003 1400EDT) this product includes only the Buffalo AirStation WLI-CB-G54A variant of the wireless LAN CardBus card with an external antenna interface. No Indoor Omni Antenna is included in the package, only the CardBus card itself. The description on the confirming email I received from TechDepot has the exact same wording, but a call to TechDepot customer support confirmed that the description is, apparently, incorrect. The wording on the Packing List uses the description AirStation 54Mbps WLS CBUS Card w/Ext Ant I/F (I/F=Interface I assume).

So, I rate the product only a three. I have used the WLI-CB-G54 (not the 'A' model) and have been very satisfied with it. I downgrade it here only because of the product description is incorrect. I expected to get the card and the indoor omni antenna.