Cisco-Linksys WMP11 Wireless-B PCI Card

by Cisco

Product Details

Product Manual [788kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches ; 3.5 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005QFYE
• Item model number: WMP11
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Put your desktop computer wherever you wish. The Linksys Instant Wireless PCI card lets you share printers, files, and more within your wireless LAN infrastructure, increasing your productivity and keeping you connected.

The Instant Wireless PCI card gives you the freedom to work your way, wherever you want. A high-powered built-in Diversity antenna means that you're covered at distances of up to 457 meters.

The card is ready to run in any PCI-equipped desktop PC and is compatible with virtually all major operating systems.

See a comparison diagram of the different wireless technologies.

Wireless networks are rapidly becoming more popular and coming down in price. Since they don't require cables, you can use the devices anywhere in an office or home, even out on the patio. There's no need to roll out an Ethernet network cable to each room of a house; you can network anywhere -- without wires. Outside of the home, wireless networking is available in hotspots at coffee shops, businesses, airports -- great when you're on the road and need to get some work done. For convenience, wireless networking is the answer. What Wireless Standard is Right for Me? Now that you've decided to create a wireless network, the next step is to figure out which wireless standard to use. Basically, a standard is a set of specifications for a device. All devices that follow a specific standard share operating characteristics, such as the radio frequency used and maximum data transfer speed. For wireless networking, there are three standards to choose from at this time: 802.11b 802.11a 802.11g 802.11a/g To learn about the differences between the standards and select the right one for your network, click here for an easy-to-understand chart.

Product Description

The Linksys WMP11 Instant Wireless PCI Card sets you free to work your way, from wherever you want. Put your desktop computer anywhere you like. The Instant Wireless PCI Card lets you share printers, files, and more within your wireless LAN infrastructure, increasing productivity and keeping you on the network. Fully compatible with IEEE 802.11b standard, and interoperable with DSSS 2.4GHz compliant equipment Capable of up to 128-bit WEP encryption Free Technical Support - 24/7 for North America One Year Limited Warranty System Requirements - Pentium 90+ class processor 16MB+ RAM PCI local bus 2.1 compliant Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 114 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Antenna should have been separated from the card, January 21, 2002

By 

The Bookie "swimmer79" (Mesa, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys WMP11 Wireless-B PCI Card (Personal Computers)

I bought this card last December. Opened my desktop PC, installed the driver, put the card in one of the PCI slots, had the desktop connected to the network in less than 20 minutes. Then I spent the next 7 hours trying to get good, reliable wireless connection.

The major complaint I have with the card is that the Linksys should have separated the antenna from the card and allowed users to put the antenna somewhere else via a cable. With the antenna mounted on the back of the card directly, it is completed shielded by the PC's metal case, which makes the wireless transmission and reception poor. With all the cables and connectors in the back of a PC, it also makes it hard to adjust the antenna at all (I had to move the wireless card up and down the slots to find the optimal location). My wireless AP was only about 60 ft away and I was only getting 20 - 30% signal strength and link quality. From time to time it would lose the connection completely. Linksys should really have thought through this antenna issue. After all the hard work and time spent, I finally got the optimal antenna position. I am now getting 40 - 60% of signal strength and link quality. It now runs reliably at 11 mbps speed.

The second problem I had was that this card interfered with my daughter's favorite music player Winamp. Whenever she played music using Wimapm, the wireless card would lose connection and stop working completely. This problem was fixed after I downloaded the latest driver and firmware for the card. Not sure if this is related to the Creative sound card interference problem reported by another review. My desktop does have a Creative sound card.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Wireless with a little work, November 1, 2002

By 

Jason M. Wisnieski "atteSmythe" (Garfield Hts., OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys WMP11 Wireless-B PCI Card (Personal Computers)

I own the Linksys WMP-11 PCI card and a Linksys Wireless 4-port Cable/DSL router. I had a 10/100 ethernet card in my machine and was running off of the router for a good long time, so I knew the router settings were correct before I went to install my wireless card.

When the day came, I disconnected the wired network, installed the wireless software, and put the card in my machine. I powered back up, and although I had 100% signal strength and 100% signal quality, the link was terrible - I could only download a few KB of data before losing a link, and I couldn't even connect to my router's configuration page.

I made a quick call to Technical Support and they suggested that I upgrade my drivers and firmware in both products. I was skeptical, but I did anyway, and it worked just fine. Since then, I've moved my router to the basement, two floors below my computer, with floors and walls in the way, and you'd never even know. I run with good signal strength and quality, and I never notice loss of connection or errors on downloads. I've been very, very pleased with this purchase!

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Update Firmware and Drivers, January 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys WMP11 Wireless-B PCI Card (Personal Computers)

Installed fine but was getting very poor throughput rates. Downloaded the new firmware (12/13/01) and everthing worked great. Also updated the software and drivers.

I would recommend downloading the updates and installing from there and not the CD because upgrading required me to shutdown, remove the card, reboot, unistall, reboot, install new drivers, shutdown, install card "a real pain".

Firmware
ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/network/wmp11upgrade.exe

Driver

ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/network/wmp11.zip

PS
I have a creative labs sound card and have no problems. Perhaps the driver upgrade is the issue.