Quote
tenjeangosi - 2006-10-04 4:21 AM
Hi,
I am thinking of purchasing either a Wireless or Ethernet Card for my HP 360LX
(and future MP900
(c
)
).. Internet Connectivity aside, which do you recommend? I am leaning more towards an Ethernet card, as it seems like it would be easier to configure, etc.. Besides, I do not plan to do much web-surfing in PIE 2.0
.. And, I could always use Proxy when HPC is connected to PC
..
Thanks
Joseph
Someone with a wide variety or exposure to different ethernet and wifi cards may be able to provide more comprehensive comparisons than me but I'll throw my 2 cents in anyway.
I use both an ethernet card and wifi. I use ethernet at home and wifi when I am away.
I use a Xircom 10/100 Ethernet PCMCIA CE3B-100BTX. It is quite reliable, but probably not the most power efficient card there is. I think the SMC range of cards can do the same job with more efficient power useage. One of these would probably have been my first choice, but 620LX compat PCMCIA cards are already hard enough to get in Australia to begin with, so I'm happy with what I could get.
I get around 2 hours of continuous use time with just battery power and this card. But at home I almost always run the HPC and card from the power supply anyway. I don't have a need to roam around the house with the HPC in different rooms, so ethernet and power supply is an acceptable setup for me.
For WIFI I use a Lucent Orinoco Silver PC24E-H-FC. It's spec'd at 11Mbits/sec which is reasonable and enables WEP encryption. It was easily configurable. The drivers I got from this website, the HPC instantly recognised that a new network card was present and the control panel config was easy to set up and it basically worked first try. It's great for when I go interstate where lugging cables etc just isn't practical.
I get roughly about 2.5 - 3 hours continuous use time with this card on fully charged battery. It's rare that I will WIFI for a continuous 3 hour stretch though. It's more likely that I will use the 620 sporadically all day, only having to charge it at night, which suits me fine.
When I shop for hardware I just want things that will work, no hassles and no stuffing around. I checked out the compat lists on this website, then made sure there were drivers available then did searches for posts from people who used the same or closely similar products. If all these checked out and it provided a good degree of confidence it would work with a 620, then I'd go Ebay hunting. So far it's worked out pretty well.
I love this website.