Cisco-Linksys WPC54A Wireless 802.11a PC Card

by Cisco

Product Details

Product Manual [3.84mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.8 inches ; 15.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000066JQT
• Average Customer Review: 1.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,934 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 24, 2002

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description Put the "mobile" back into mobile computing! Whether you're at your desk or in the boardroom, the Linksys wireless PC card allows you to share printers, files, and other resources anywhere within your LAN infrastructure, increasingyour productivity and keeping you in touch.

The Linksys wireless PC card now has a new higher-powered antenna that provides greater ranges than ever. The increased sensitivity helps filter out interference and "noise" to keep your signal clear. Improved error correction in the chipset keeps you operating at higher transmission rates for longer distances. And, since you only need one Type II or III PCMCIA CardBus slot, you're free to use your other slots for additional accessories.

Ready to run in Type II or III PCMCIA CardBus-equipped notebook PCs running Windows 98, 2000, Me, and XP, the Linksys network PC card is truly a must-have for all notebook PC users.

Using the 802.11a networking standard, the Linksys wireless PC card can reach maximum data transfer rates of 72 Mbps (turbo mode), when used with the Linksys WAP54A Wireless 802.11a access point, and up to 54 Mbps when used in a peer-to-peer network or with other 802.11a products. The WPC54A features 152-bit WEP encryption, for higher security than 802.11b products.

Note that 802.11a wireless products do not function with 802.11b wireless products.

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 the home, wireless networking is available in hotspots at coffee shops, businesses, and airports--great when you're on the road and need to get some work done. For convenience, wireless networking is the answer. Which 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 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

NETWORK CARD WIRELESS-G UP TO UP TO 54MBPS 128BIT WEP ENCRYP

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Windows XP Users Beware, October 3, 2002

By 

T. Mok "tmok2000" (NJ, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys WPC54A Wireless 802.11a PC Card (Personal Computers)

I am quite disappointed with this product. First of all, did anyone mention that "Turbo Mode" doesn't work if you are running Windows XP? The only place where I see this mentioned is in the Troubleshooting section of the Installation Guide. Second, 152-bit WEP encryption is not available. The highest value available from the drop-down is 128 bit. Both of these problems are present even after I updated to the latest driver. To me, this is false advertising. There are many other minor problems as well. The installation guide warns against using the Setup program supplied on the CD-ROM if you are running XP. We supposed to just use Windows XP to search for the driver from the CD. This gives me an impression that the product was not ready and was rushed out of the door. Second, the supposedly more detailed User Guide on the CD-ROM is nothing more than a re-phrase of the Quick Installation Guide. Why bother? Finally, who in their right mind will ship their Access Point with MAC Filtering turned ON? It wasted me an hour to figure out this was the reason why the connection wasn't working. Once you know about all the little problems that I mentioned here, the entire setup should take no more than 10 minutes for a technical person. Instead, it took me almost two hours, and I consider myself very technical. I am giving two stars instead of one because once I finally set it up, it works pretty well througout my small two-story house. I get a reported 54Mbps if the laptop is right next to the Access Point. Other than that, don't even think about 54Mbps. From the next room, I get between 12Mbps and 48Mbps. From a different floor, I get between 6Mbps and 24Mbps. Keep in mind that these are just the reported speeds. The true speeds are roughly half of these numbers, as have been well documented in PC Magazine testing. In any case, I'll take these numbers any days for the benefit of having wireless freedom.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Win2k OS issue & heat factor, August 4, 2002

By 

Christian Baude "BoomBoom" (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys WPC54A Wireless 802.11a PC Card (Personal Computers)

Unit runs hot, and doe not work under Win2k. Unit hangs within 1-15 minutes. Pulling card out of slot resolves the issue, reinserting resets cards, but hangs again within 1-15 minutes.

Tech support (in Philippines) cannot help. Issue under review by Linksys.

Update: Linksys would not fix. Warranttee not worth the paper it's printed on. The unit is in the garbage, as my new laptop has built is WiFi THAT WORKS!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars WPC54A Does not work..., January 5, 2003

By 

Michael S. Chambers (Lompoc, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys WPC54A Wireless 802.11a PC Card (Personal Computers)

I bought this WPC54A adapter for use with my Linksys WRT51AB access point under Windows XP but was completely unable to get it to work. It always locked up my Gateway Solo 9550 laptop within 10 seconds of plugging it in. I tried the later drivers as per tech support and after that my laptop froze immediately every time upon inserting the card. Tech support suggests that this may be an IRQ conflict, but there is no way to change the IRQ. I returned the card to CompUSA and got a Netgear HA501A card and it worked right out of the box (except turbo mode, apparently it doesn't work well with Windows XP, which by the way, is mentioned nowhere on the box). Bottom line, do your research before you buy and you will see that Linksys has some serious issues to work out with the WPC54A wireless card. Good Luck...