Wireless Nic Opinion

[gareva1]

I am purchasing a Proxim 802.11 Wireless NIC, and want to know if anyone here has had experience with this brand of card, and how well they handle; I live on a college campus that runs a wireless LAN with Cisco/Aironet Access Points; does anyone see any troubles with hitting this network in my future? The card was $50, which definately is signifigantly lower than all other cards, which leads me to think it may not be a very good card, or may give me some serious compatibility issues...

Many Thanks,
Gil

[mfreeman]

It depends on which model of the Proxim NIC you are using. In general, the Proxim Harmony NICs are very good (and very expensive) - review: http://www.networkcomputing.com/1225/1225sp1.html

Also, the Harmony NIC is the only Wi-Fi Certified Proxim NIC:
http://www.wirelessethernet.org/certified_products.asp

The $50 NIC may be one of the products they are discontining ( or have discountinued). Thus, support may be limited if you have any problems. Of course, they will suggest you upgrade to a more expensive replacement NIC.

I've have very good results with the Cisco/Aironet 350 Series Wireless Lan Adapter. It works straight out of the box with the Cisco/Aironet Access Points. But there fairly pricey also, around $200.

Give the card a try, since you already purchased it. Without knowing the model, I can't say for sure that it's a bad card to use.

mtf

[gareva1]

just for sake of knowledge, the nic is a Proxim RangeLAN-DS 8433-05 802.11b Wireless PC Card
w/Integrated Antenna; how about this one?

[mfreeman]

I know some people that use this card. Installation and firmware upgrade can be a pain, but in terms of performance, they work fairly well. So, again, give it a try. You maybe pleasantly suprised.

[gareva1]

I got it in this morning; I absolutely love it; It didn't take long to configure, the only trouble I had with it was setting it to search for SSIDs rather than specifying one, but if you leave the SSID blank, it does it fine; I get really good range out of it, and it gives me a signal strength meter which I really like (the cisco 340 doesnt have this). This is definately a card I would recommend to anyone.

[MoleStrangler]

I have used Proxim kit for years and (>1994) and they have many years of developing radio drivers (with our help sometimes).

I have found their roaming code to be very good.