Customer Reviews

Orinoco Gold 802.11b Wireless PC Card

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I purchased this card after failing to get Linksys' WPC11 to work with my Toshiba laptop (a common problem according to numerous users on Toshiba's tech support online forum).

Installation is trivial with Windows XP: just plug the card in and watch as WinXP recognizes the card and installs the driver. I've never even used the CD that came with it.

Want to upgrade the driver and firmware? No problem again, just use Windows Update.

My office-mate has a WPC11 for his Dell laptop and so we can easily compare signal strength. I am able to connect to the wireless network in the next building, and both my building and the other are brick. He's never once recieved a signal from that network. On the network in my building I always have a stronger signal than he does.

The bottom line - this is a great card that is well worth the extra money.

... WinXP already had all the drivers needed. Another 5 minutes to change my ESSID, enable WEP, and set my WEP 128-bit key, and I was securely connected to my network. I know performance while using WEP "should" suffer, but I didn't see any difference - still connected at 11 mbps, and surfing the web at 4.5 mbps via my ATTBI cable. And it didn't change much when I started walking around my house (2 story 2800 sq.ft.). The worst signal I had was in my garage sitting in my car with doors closed - 85%. Can't even compare with WPC11 I had, where my signal and link quality would drop to 15-30% every time I had a wall between laptop and AP. So, don't cut corners and try to save a few bucks by going with cheaper brands - spend extra $20 and you'll be happy you did.

I bought one for my Powerbook G3 (bronze keyboard) and it slid right into the PCMCIA slot on the left side. Set up my wireless network with a Netgear wireless router (M314) and I was on the 'Net in fifteen minutes. Easy install. (I believe Orinoco manufactured the first Apple Airports cards, too).

ORiNOCO PC GOLD CARD. I installed this and updated the driver on windowsupdate.mircosoft.com instantly. I am running both Windows XP and Red Hat 8 and it works great on both platforms. Very cool!
What can I say, I love it!

A breeze to install at least with XP and an SMC router. I have my router set up in the basement and I have great to good range all the way up to the third floor attic and out on my back deck. (ahh the convenience). Completely what I expected.

I bought this Orinoco Gold card with a Linksys router.
I instantly enabled 128 bit encryption, disabled broadcast SSID
(switched SSID) and also enabled MAC filering.
This all took less then 10 minutes. The card installed fine
and there was an update from windowsupdate that also updated the firware. Works great!

This card was recommended to me by a friend who has written a book on how to set up a wireless network. The card, he said, is manufactured with superior components. I was tempted to buy other wireless PC cards that purport to do the same thing but cost $... instead of $..., but in this case I took my friend's advice -- and I'm very glad I did. The card works very well. I've used it in a two-year-old ThinkPad running Windows 2000, an ancient ThinkPad 760EL running Windows 95, and a new Gateway running Windows XP. No problems with any of them.

To those of you laptop users who are searching for a way to get into the world of wireless networking, here is by far the greatest card for the money I have ever seen.

First of all, let me say that I owned the DLink 22Mbps card before I purchased this one after becoming disgusted with how the card refused to work. I purchased this card after hearing Tech Support at work say that it is a decent card. After a somewhat difficult configuration period (the one criticism I have for the card is that the software installation and configuration was a bit more tricky than implied by the instructions) I got the card to work marvelously. It grabs and holds signals incredibly well. I've sat in the hallway outside of my lab and left the card on observation to see how many antennas it was detecting, and found it was picking up the antennas at the opposite end of the corridor, easily 500 feet away.

The only complaints I have with the card are the instructions (I already mentioned) and the fact that it has difficulty dealing with concrete walls, but I suspect any card would have problems with the 4" cinderblock walls with 2" of plaster on either side that exist in my building. Don't waste your time, money, and energy on a cheaper card - spend a little more money and get a card you can depend on.

By far the best wireless card I've seen in use. I get signals well outside the range of any of my friends and colleagues. Driver support in virtually any OS and its also supported by NetStumbler for wardriving or general network detection. I'd recommend scrapping the software it comes with, and just using the WiFi capabilities of your OS, if they offer them. Also has support for an external antenna, to further extend your effective signal reception. I don't see myself using any WiFi cards aside from the Orinoco series.

I recently purchased Dell Inspiron 5100 notebook and LinkSys wireless access point router BEFW11S4 with intention to build a simple network of two computers (one wireless and one direct line). Connected the router with my desktop computer first, followed setup instructions (router manual) and got connected to the Internet in no time (have Motorola cable modem SB4200). After that, I connected the Inspiron (direct cable to the router), run network Wizard in Win XP and established connection between both computers and Internet. As the last step, I installed the Orinoco software, disconnected Inspiron and router and inserted Orinoco Gold card into Inspiron. Again, using Network Connection option in XP, computer practically connected itself to the network and I was able to share both Internet connection and files/printer accross the house. Haven't tried 128 bit encryption yet. After more then a month, network works just fine with the all above components. This card is great.