Customer Reviews

Socket Mobile Low Power Wireless LAN CF Card

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Finally, A CF Type I wireless card for my PDA! The card installs easily enough however it does have some flaws. I have to keep the power turned all the way up to get good signal strength, My wireless access point is in the same room that I use the PDA in, so it's not the distance, but even at full drain I have used the card for hours and not exhausted the batteries in my Jornada. The cards only other flaw seems to be that it frequently looses communication with the access point when it is turned off for any period of time, a soft reset will fix the problem which only takes a few seconds, still it could get annoying if you use the PDA often. Those two issues aside I must say this card is great! It is very thin and does not add much to the Jornada's profile. It's infrastructure mode sets up quickly and I had no problems configuring it with my Linksys wireless router, it comes with a utility to test signal strength, connection speed and supports 128 bit encryption This card has truly made my Jornada portable and even with it's minor flaws, the ability to surf the Internet or chat while walking around the house with your handheld really makes having a PDA cool, I'm very happy with Socket's product.

Not only is this card the smallest CF Wi-Fi card I've found on the market, but it really is "Low Power". A friend bought a cheaper, bigger Type II CF Wi-Fi card (D-Link), but the battery on my Casio E125 (same as his) lasts almost 4 times longer with the Socket card. Definitely worth the extra few bucks!

I've used this card for a while now and i'd say that i like it overall. the power usage is great. the drivers have been vastly improved and now you are able to scan for networks. Those of you who are interested in wardriving should look elsewhere. If you want to use netstumbler or pocketwarrior in windows or kismet and airsnort in linux, either go for the linksys wcf12 (prism based) or lucent orinoco based pcmcia card. if you're looking to run just 802.11b and check email, stream music, browse the web, etc, this card will be perfect plus it'll save you some battery power.

Zaurus users, there is an "old" and a "new" version of this card. This is the older version, which is more expensive, but works out of the box with the current Zaurus Spectrum drivers available on myzaurus.com. The new version is the WL6004, which is B00012PS8G, but does not have Zaurus driver support as of 3/6/2004.

Don't buy the cheaper, newer card unless you're convinced the drivers are available at the time you read this.

I use this card with my Compaq iPaq 3650 and with my Toshiba Tablet PC (running Windows XP), and it works great with both.

Comparing it with the D-Link DCF-650W, the Socket card uses less power, has a longer range, is much smaller, and has better software.

If you download the updated drivers/utilities from the Socket website, you get greatly increased functionality. With most cards,such as the D-Link, whenever you connect to a different wireless network, you have to re-enter all the encryption and IP settings. With the Socket utilities, you can set up configurations for several different networks, and it will automatically connect to whichever one is closest. I use it at home (using WEP encryption), at work (using 802.1x), and the local mall (no encryption), all seamlessly.

And if you're wanting to cruise the neighborhood looking for "hotspots", this is still the card to get. Great product.

I bought this for use with a Zaurus SL-5x00. Works perfectly, just download the driver. I've dropped it countless times, no problem. It's a lot less bulky than a lot of other cards.

If you own an AXIM X5, running Pocket PC 2003, then this is the wireless LAN card for you plus it has a low profile to boot. The Socket card can also be used on your laptop along with a generic CF to PCMCIA adapter. I am not sure how efficient it is but I can leave my AXIM on, all settings at minimum power, and connected for at least four hours.

This is a great card. I use it with my iPaq 3950 and it provides excellent connection quality, on par with laptop PCMCIA cards. Also it does not drain my battery and seems to use almost no power when I am getting a strong signal (close to the access point).

The client software and drivers also work nicely with PocketPC 2002. I have heard it's better with PPC 2003 but haven't tried it. I did have some problems making the card work properly under Linux, but that was more than a year ago and I believe there are now community-created Linux drivers ready for this card.

The other great thing about this card is its durability. It is very compact and very sturdy solid and does not protrude very far from the device. I was never concerned about breaking it off, even with the iPaq in my pocket.

One time, I removed the Socket wireless card and stashed it in the coin pocket of my jeans. I forgot it was there, and put the jeans through the washer and dryer (both on maximum hot setting). When I pulled the jeans out of the dryer and realized the card was still in the pocket, my heart sunk. It had gotten very wet and hot. But the plastic was not warped and the labels on the card did not even come off. When I plugged it in the next day, it still worked just fine! Impressive - but don't try this at home!

It's the most expensive CF card with absolutely no customer support. After a while the CF card stopped working - no power light as if the card "burned out". I really can't tell you exactly what went wrong because it's impossible to contact someone at Socket customer support. I followed their web-site instructions but was never contacted. I'll never buy another Socket product again.

It works on WM2003 but only that. It does not have any utility and Socket manual ask you to use WM2003 Zero Config. WLAN tool for PPC2002 cannot be used