Customer Reviews

SMC SMC2835W EZ Connect g 2.4 GHz 54 Mbps Wireless PC Card Adapter

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought two of these cards to upgrade from my old 802.11b cards. These are used on two diferent brands of laptops within twenty feet of the wireless router. I experience several dropped connections per night with many requiring a reboot to reconnect. I am using the most recent drivers, so I think these are just poor units.

I was using this PCMCIA wireless card with an old SONY Vaio laptop with windows 98se installed, and it worked great. (I'm also using the SMC 2804WBR router as a WAP). Now I upgraded to Compaq Presario 2199US with AMD Athalon and WIndows XP (SP1a) and the board looses the connection every 30 seconds or so at a distance of 60 feet. I've tried installing the latest drivers, searchig the web for answers, but no luck yet. I have found the SMC router to work great and it was cheap, however, their tech support, manuals, web site, and documentation all stink. Personally, I would stay away from this card unless you like wasting alot of time.

I bought two of these cards along with the Barricade router. The cards worked flawlessly for several weeks. Now, they work for a few minutes, and then crap out. They can see the network, but not connect. Interesting that this happens with both cards, and with two different laptops.

Junk.

I am using a HP laptop with XP. The system recognize the SMC card quickly, and it show the signal is "Exellent" though the source is at leat 60 feet away( open space ). Then I tried to download a 5M file from a familiar server, the speech is about 45kb per sec. Then I switched to my previous D-link DWL-650+, the speech is 400kb per sec for the same file. In the last three weeks, I tried dozens of this experiment. The D-link always beats the SMC by 10 times fast. By the way, I am using a Netgear router.

Conclusion, SMC card works. But at the one tenth speech of D-link at downloading big files. If you only browse web, you may notice much less difference.

I've had the same issue as some other reviewers. The card worked great at first, but for a while now it will hold a good connection for 30 seconds or so and then lose it for a while. I decided to try it on a brand new machine with a clean software install and new drivers but had the same issue. You're best bet is to probably go for another card.

Hey, it's not super fast and it's not very powerful but it works like a charm with Linux. There's no need to install extra drivers or use wrapper software. Ubuntu 6.06 recognizes it, SuSE 10.0 recognizes it, and I'd be surprised if I can't find any other Linux distributions that also recognize it.

Bottom line, if you've got a Linux laptop computer, and if you've got a small apartment/townhouse/dorm or a powerful wireless transmitter/router then this card will work for you without hassle.

'Picked mine up used for very little money. Sweet! I rescued a laptop from a trash heap that I can now use to send e-mail and browse the web for free at Starbuck's or Panera Bread and other wireless hotspots like our local library.

'Glad to hear that this card also usually works with Windows OS's; that way they'll keep making more, I hope.

It was easy to install this on my Toshiba Windows XP notebook. The first dozen or so times I used it, the card worked fine. I didn't use it daily- probably about once or twice a week. But recently when I try to use it, my computer freezes up. It won't even connect before it freezes. My computer runs great otherwise, so I know that the freezing is because of the card.

I've have experience poor connectivity with this card. The connection keeps dropping, especially when WEP is enabled. (I have the latest version of the drivers). (I haven't tried this card with any 802.11g routers, only 802.11b).

I recently purchased 2 of these and a SMC Barricade G router for home and work. While the Barricade router works great. These cards are junk.

On a Dell Inspiron 8200, the card crashes the machine on reboot if the card is plugged into the PC Card Slot. Then after about 4 weeks of intermittent use, it refused to connect to any network.

On an older Compaq Laptop, the card worked fine for about 3 weeks of constant use. Then it refused to connect to any network.

After this experience with these SMC cards, I purchased 2 Proxim Orinoco silver b/g cards. After 6 weeks I have not had a single problem with the Orinoco cards.

For your own sake, do not even consider these SMC cards.

Compared to my last wireless PC card (a Linksys model), this one is superb. I get a decent signal all through our house, and I can even see several neighbors WAPs with it! No complaints at all.