Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys WCF12 Wireless-B Network CompactFlash Card (Type I)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

Bought this to use in my Dell Axim X5 device, and it works perfectly! The install was very smooth. The configuration utility was simple to master and handled both my 128 bit WEP and my non-standard SSID like a champ.

I routinely use it between two different wireless networks and can switch between their configurations with a couple of taps on the Axim's screen. Link and signal quality have been excellent even sitting in my car a couple of hundred feet away from the SMC2655W AP located in my home.

The only trouble I've had is with physically inserting the card in the Dell Axim device -- it takes quite a bit of alternating force and finesse to get it started into the CF slot. This thing is just a smidge wider than other CF cards which insert into the device with no resistance.

I purchased this card to work with my Zaurus SL-5500 and had a difficult time setting it up. There was a user that gave some advice in a review of the product and made it sound so easy. Well, his method did not work for me. Here is the method that did work.

Hard reboot the system. When the reboot is finished, install the terminal ipk file. Once that is installed, use vi to edit the /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.conf file. Add an entry that says:

device "prism2_cs"
class "wlan-ng" module "prism2_cs"

at the top of the file. At the end of the file, ad an entry that says this:

card "Linksys WCF12 11Mbps 802.11b WLAN Card"
version "Linksys", "Wireless CompactFlash Card"
bind "prism2_cs"

Once you have done this, reboot the Zaurus and once it has restarted, insert the WCF12 card. The link light should flash and the ifconfig eth0 should return useful information.

Other than the difficulty that I had setting up the card and getting it to work the first time, I've not had any problems with the WCF12. It's a great card but it's hard to get it setup on the Zaurus if you don't know much about Linux.

Well I just got this card in the mail today and it is performing flawlessly. I have an iPaq 3640 which has the PCMCIA jacket. I am actually writting this review and listening to streaming music on my iPaq right now. For those of you wondering, I am using a PCMCIA to CF adaptor.

When I turn my iPaq on it it takes about 2 seconds to link up to my wireless router. The drivers are very good. A small icon shows up in the bottom right corner of the iPaq on the "today" screen. From there you can change the speed of your conection, encryption, and a bunch of other network settings. You can also keep an eye on how good of a conection you have. At 11mb I only get down to a 60% conection quality at the bottom, inside of my house. That is going through brick walls and all.

My advice is to buy a wireless network and get this card for your PDA to greatly increase its usefulness, functionality, and gadgetyness.

Network consists of a Netgear WAB102 802.11a and 802.11b dual band access point, Linksys WET11, Netgear WAB501 Cardbus for Compaq laptop, and a Dell Axim PDA using the WCF12. Had no problems installing it and immediately was surfing the net from the PDA. Network should be configured for DHCP for easy installation. Have had one problem that I don't think is with Linksys, Netgear access point stopped working on the 802.11a channel while 802.11b still worked. Cycled power and all was fine again. WCF12 was scanning away as it should be trying to make a connection. Have since upgraded the firmware in the access point so will see what happens... Also no problem inserting the CF card in the Dell Axim as a previous reviewer did. May be a manufacturing tolerance problem which I lucked out on.

Clicked it right into my Dell Axim, running a LinkSys wireless router. Installed software on my Pocket PC, recognized the wireless network and I was surfing the internet!
Works great, it eats the battery pretty fast, but not too bad if you check "Auto Power Save" in the options. Besides most of the time, I use it to sync my device with my office computer upstairs without going upstairs, then disable it. By the way, I used to have a wcf-11, this new model wcf-12 is A LOT smaller!! Perfect, I hate huge CF devices sticking out of my Pocket PC

Here's how I got my wcf12 working with the prism2 driver that comes with the Zaurus:
From the terminal type: cardctl ident
if the card says
card "Linksys WCF12 11Mbps 802.11b WLAN Card"
manfid 0x028a, 0x0673
then use vi to add the following entry to /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.conf:
card "Linksys WCF12 11Mbps 802.11b WLAN Card"
manfid 0x028a, 0x0673
bind "prism2_cs"

Save and reboot using settings, shutdown. The boot script should say the card is accepted.... Then go to the Network and Wireless Lan configurations to continue. Install and run http://www.kismetwireless.net to test the card and look for wireless networks.

I bought the Linksys WCF12 WiFi card for my Sharp Zaurus SL5500. It's worked flawlessly so far in my wireless network (with SMC Barricade 7004VWBR Access Point/Router).

Keeping the Sharp Zaurus with LinkSys WiFi card by my bedside, I am able to browse Roger Ebert's movie reviews from bed!

There are two reasons I am rating it a 4 and not a 5:
1. My first Linksys WCF12 card was defective and did not connect to the internet. I exchanged it for a new one and have been a happy camper since.

2. This card is a bit power-hungry in my Sharp Zaurus.

A note about getting the Linksys WCF12 card to work with the Zaurus. Another reviewer (see firecrafter695's review , Jan 15, 2003) gave details about getting it to work by editing the "wlancfg.conf" file found in the "/etc/pcmcia" directory, and adding the necessary lines. This should get the card working in most cases.

However, apparently, there are chipset differences between batches of WCF12 cards (or so we are told, reading the postings in the Zaurus community website forums). So, you may also need to do the following in addition to editing the "wlancfg.conf" file:

1. Create a new file called "wireless.conf" in the "/etc/pcmcia" directory and add the following exact lines:

device "prism2_cs"
class "wlan-ng" module "prism2_cs"

card "Linksys WCF12 11Mbps 802.11b WLAN Card"
version "Linksys", "Wireless CompactFlash Card"
bind "prism2_cs"

2. Copy the file "sq_wlancfg.conf" from the "/etc" directory to a new file called "wireless.opt" in the "/etc/pcmcia" directory.

(NOTE: Do not overwrite "wireless.opts". It is an existing file and not to be confused with "wireless.opt").

This should get the Linksys WCF12 WiFi card working with the Zaurus after rebooting.

This card DOES support the HP Jornada, if you download the updated driver from the Linksys website (dated 9/16/02). I had the same problem as the reviewers below, but fixed the problem after doing this. And now it works great! The only problem I have now is that the network activity seems to prevent my PDA from auto-shutting off.

Given the track record of Linux and wireless devices, I thought that it would probably be a major feat to even get it to recognize this card. However I literally: took it out of the box, plugged it in the CF Slot, turned 5600 on, and blamo...worked right out of the box. Haven't had a single solitary problem with the card thus far, reception range is pretty good, power consumption is reasonable (not great, but not bad either). I've bought a couple of linksys products so far and I've been very happy with all of them and the WCF-12 didn't disappoint.

Bought this from eBay. Works great with Dell Axim handheld PDA. I had a Netgear Compactflash Wireless card before, but it didn't work with my PDA. I called Netgear customer support, and they said the Netgear card was incompatible with Dell Axim's StrongARM processor. So I got the Linksys WCF12.

I read the reviews here and other websites, but it only got mediocre ratings. I also read in some cases that it didn't work with the Dell Axim. Well, it does after you download the latest driver software from Linksys' website (my driver version that I'm using is 1.0.7). Just follow the quick guide and setup shouldn't take more than 5 - 10 minutes. I think the problems some people may have with setting the CF up was that they didn't follow the instructions step by step: i.e., if you plug in the CF card into your PDA BEFORE setting up the driver, your PDA automatically configures the CF's settings (incorrectly I might add), which prevents it from working.

Very simple to set up. However, like some others mentioned before, the card does get pretty warm when its on. Sucks up battery life too pretty quickly, but that's to be expected from any CF wireless card.

I've been searching quite a few CF wireless cards before I got the Linksys WCF12, including Netgear's version and Linksys' older WCF11 card, but the WCF12 seems to work great with the Dell Axim.