The Best WiFi Card for NEC MobilePro 900c

Hi everyone,

My name is Gonmin, a newbie in this great forum. At school, some classmates called me 'Crazy Korean,' lol. That might be the best introduction for myself to you.

OK!

I just bought MP900c (CE.NET) from ebay and am very (x3) excited. It is hard to wait for the cutie... So while waiting, I decided to research on the best cases, WiFi cards, and others for my first HPC. (because I've been using PPC and Toshiba Libretto 70ct...)

After spending some time on the research, I've gotton clear answers for a couple of questions (e.g. Rich's hpcnec.com and also this site are incredibly helpful). But I couldn't still figure out which 16-bit PCMCIA WiFi Card the BEST for MP900c is.

My standard for 'Good' is evaluated by three dimensions - good performance, device driver, and design (I know it's weird... but I've seen 3Com X-jack WiFi card before... that looked nice...).

I need the opinions of the gurus of HPC world like you! Please help this poor newbie find the BEST WiFi Card for MP900c.

p.s. Any other advice or information would be greatly appreciated.

Gonmin the Crazy-Korean

Edited by aicoo 2005-06-06 5:20 PM

Hey. Did you take a look at the HCL? http://www.hpcfactor.com/hcl/

You might want to consider adding a 4th dimension to your assessment...that of supported security options.

However, with that said and done, your decision must be based on your use of the card. Do you need a card that will connect through 12 feet of concrete 300 yards away, or just somewhere in the 50+ foot range?

Some cards are configurable to use less power, some even almost turn themselves off when idle while others maintain maximum power output regardless of use.

Everyone has a favorite, possibly each of us for different reasons. I use an Xircom that works easily, no hacking of the drivers or anything needed. Just plug it in and go. But I also had the same results with my old Orinoco Silver card. Both worked fine, have no idea which was better...and didn't care.

Suggest you take a look here: http://www.pocketpcfaq.com/peripherals/pccardwirelesslan.htm and then check here: http://www.hpcfactor.com/hcl/search.asp?mstrcat=7&hclq=&discok=1&submit.x=13&submit.y=7 to verify you found what you want. Afterwards check out your eBay listings and see what you can come up with.

Rich

Edited by Rich Hawley 2005-06-06 5:35 PM

So... I think that the two PC Cards (Xircom CreditCard CWE1120 & Orinoco Silver) have been identified as 'Good' by Rich. Rich's website (hpcnec.com) also identifies Netgear MA401 as 'Good.'

I might have to go with one of them. But I cannot still give up finding 'Good' WiFi PC Card with X-jack Antenna, lol. (the card doesn't have to be pulled out anytime... COOOOOL).

I've found one - 3Com Wireless LAN Card (3CRWE62092B). With this one, Pocket PC driver is provided, but I'm not sure it works in CE.NET, especially MP900c.

There is very interesting information for me on the webpage that Rich mentioned above (http://www.pocketpcfaq.com/peripherals/pccardwirelesslan.htm). In that page, the second row of the table is about the 3Com xjack card. It says it works with Pocket PC and CE "EXCEPT 400 MHz CPUs..." Interesting... MP900c has 400MHz CPU...

Has anyone used this card? Please let me know whether this card works with MP900c.

Edited by aicoo 2005-06-07 1:28 AM

Oh... one more!

Isn't there 'Good' alternatives to WiFi PC Card? How about WiFi CF Card? Does it work as well as PC Card? I've failed with CF Card before... so have a bad conception about WiFi CF Card. But... compact design... GOOOOOOD~

Gonmin 'the Crazy-Korean'

If you are looking for a compact PCMCIA WIFI card you need the Aironet 340 by Cisco. It has an internal antenna, and fits totally inside your unit. The distance is not the best though. If you want a great card, as C:Amie says "go for the Aironet 350!!!"

Edited by Yoldering 2005-06-07 1:51 AM

Thanks, Scott!

Oh~ it is a dilemma:

Design vs Performance


Living in HPC World is sometimes tough...

Check your PM. Also I would say you should take a look at the Enterasys Roamabout. works great for me at 6 walls with 25 yards between us

Edited by Yoldering 2005-06-07 2:15 AM

Ok, I did some research on Cisco Aironet 350 Series. They produce a lot of products. However...,

Two cards are my interest:

AIR-LMC350 - this model doesn't have an external antenna. Additional antenna can be attached. (Design!!!)

AIR-PCM350 - this model has an external antenna. (Performance!!!)

The LMC350 (w/o antenna) should have short range... I guess... Does any body know how the 'Without Antenna' model's range is?

Gonmin 'the Crazy-Korean'

best idea is if you buy a card with an internal antenna + an external atenna that you can attach... i'd really like to have one of these but i didn't want to buy from abroad again, after a BT card and a spare battery, i just had enough of it so i got a CF wifi card (brand: senao) and it works great, its range is quite good, for example one of my friends has a cisco 350 (with jornada 720) so we could test it and my card is almost as good as his despite being a CF one. oh another friend of mine has a pcmcia wifi (can't remember the brand) too for another hpc and mine (CF!!) performs the same or slightly better... and what's the most important for me: consumes less power, operating on 3.3 V instead of 5 V and consumes less mA as well.

Of course, a wifi card with an external antenna has the potential of really being able to send and receive rf transmissions longer distances.

My wifi card is good for about 17 miles...

Picked up my wifi card at a garage sale for only $20. Here's a picture of it sitting next to my old Mobilepro 780

http://hpcnec.com/images/wifixl.jpg

Rich

I just bought a 900c and purchased an AmbiCom WL1100C-CF (Compact Flash)

It works great. I recommend placing it in a PCMIAA Adapter card for about 9 dollars. Then you can just use it when you want and save on drawing down power.

Is that a real photo? 17Miles? Where can I find one?

I don't have a 900C, but I have a Smartbook running CE 4.2. It only has CF slot tho so I tried two CF WiFi cards.

The Linksys WCF12 doesn't work with official drivers. I had to use the built-in drivers for Buffalo WiFi. Check if your control panel has an icon "WLI-CF-S11G" and looks like a PPC (ahem) with a WiFi card sticking out on top. If you don't, you'd have to take your chances with other PRISM drivers. Once you get it to work tho, it is a very good card. It has long range and low power consumption, plus a good utility (pretty much the same for all PRISM drivers really) and compatibility with MiniStumbler. Also the Linksys WPC11 Ver 3.0 is the same thing but PCMCIA and looks better, however it is no longer in production (the current version 4 is 32-bit).

The other one is the SanDisk Connect+ 128MB CF WiFi. It combines 128MB of flash memory into the WiFi card, and appears as two devices in the system. The good thing about it is that it uses the Zero Config. It is similar to the one in Windows XP. Basically the configuration interface is provided by your OS, altho it is somewhat weird, it gets the job done. The bad thing is that this card uses more battery than other WiFi cards, and it cannot be turned off. You must physically pull it out in order to stop it from trying to connect, thus wasting power.

Thank everyone for the really good information!!!

Another Question:

Has anyone used 'Engenius Senao 200mW PCMCIA Card w/ MMCX (NL-2511CD+EXT2)?'

According to the manufacturer's spec., this card might be the one I've been looking for (in terms of design, performance, range, security, etc.). It supports CE too, but I'm not sure about CE.NET, though... And it is Prism 2.5... I think this card is a brother model of Senao CF Card that cmonex mentioned above.

http://datacom.engeniustech.com/products_detail.php?name=21&cat=Network%20Interface%20Card

http://www.keenansystems.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=6&osCsid=ba90732788b3c22b333f7ceccf3b8950


My questions are:

1. Does this card support CE.NET?

2. Does this card perform well without attaching an external antenna (just with the internal one)?

Thanks in advance!

Gonmin 'the Crazy-Korean'