This card looks pretty sweet on paper and costs less than the CiscoCard. If anyone has any experience with it I am very eager to hear about it. -NateRiffe
I tried out the wl100 (pcmcia version) on a loaner CompaqIpaq by walking around my node with the diagnostic tools. The card doesn't appear to have the range of the CiscoAironet or the LucentWirelessCard, but it may be an artifact of the PDA itself. It would be interesting to test this out in an actual laptop or ipaq with linux installed. --MattWestervelt
These cards are horrid wastes of time and money. If they are free they are too expensive... run away! -- RyJones
The card seem to work fine for me I tried the WL100/WL200 as true Access Points as well - SF Yes, I got this to work too. I did have a lot of problems with the card, though and in the end used an old P160 box with a custom built 2.4.18 Linux kernel. This eliminated hardware conflicts between the PCI<->PCMCIA bridge and other cards in a more sophisticated machine. (Adrian - adrian at mcmen dot demon dot co dot uk). Being able to run in host ap mode made the struggle worthwhile.
I tried the WL100 and WL acess point(forgot #). My device would not recognize the card aven after a firmware upgrade. Documentation says is was compatible. Compaq was much, much less than helpful at resolving the issue. 3COM airconnect v2.0 and SMC make reliable , easy to set up products with good range. Stay away from the Wl100!!!! Kstraker@jobscope.com
In:http://www.core.org.au/mystuff/WL200AccessPoints.html we can read:"A few good things about the WL100/200 cards are the use of the Prism2 chipsets, the comparatively high output power (100mW, which is the max allowed by the Australian Communications Authority for that class of device) and finally the standard reverse thread SMA antenna connector which should allow the attachment of better antennae should the need arise (I’ll leave that as a future exercise) Note: The current WL110/210 cards are no longer based on the Prism2 but rather on the Orinocco chipset. They also seem to have reduced output power (to 30mW)"
The guys at http://www.wireless.org.au/ managed to get a 14km link using two WL200 cards with ~18db parabolic grid antennas. The support from Compaq is absolutely horrible though. I had a great deal of trouble upgrading my firmware to 0.8.3 and I can't find an XP driver for the WL200's PCMCIA bridge. Other than that, the cards seem to work alright.
These cards are UNRELIABLE. We bought maybe ten of these when they were new (Spring 2001?). We've never had more than seven or eight of them in use simultaneously, there are always a few cards that are on their way to or from Compaq for repairs. Hah, it would be cheaper for Compaq to buy ten quality non-Compaq cards for us than constantly replace these! The cards are used in Compaq iPaqs and a few Toshiba laptops. For comparison, our three Airport-equipped Apple laptops have worked without a hitch. --Martin
