Page 1 of 1

WiFi PC Card - what to get?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:14 am
by bhtooefr
My WPC11 v4 has given up the ghost. After suffering major damage a year ago, I knew this was going to happen... :-? Besides, it's caused some body damage to my ThinkPad, partially because of some of the damage on it (it's caused cracked plastic around the PCMCIA slot, crack in the case keyboard deck).

So, I'm in the market for another card. I don't care about 802.11a or 802.11g, but I'm not opposed to it, either - I'm simply fine with 802.11b speeds, and the networks I'm on are either 802.11b or mixed mode 802.11g.

I'd like a card I don't have to remove when I throw the laptop in the bag, but that's not a necessary feature. That appears to be a feature specific to the 3com XJack cards.

This is what I'm looking at now, but it's discontinued. Froogle's little three result thingy (when searching for 3com xjack on the main Google) found one for $25, with $12 shipping... :shock:

The newer cards are out of my price range, though.

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:31 am
by GomJabbar
If I were in the market for a PC card WiFi card, I would go with 3Com because of the XJACK. I believe I read a good review on it awhile back on one of the forums. You can look on e-bay and pricegrabber.com for deals.

The above card at Pricegrabber.

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:33 am
by bhtooefr
Thanks for the main pricegrabber link - found one for $30.88, instead of $37 (the $37 one was through a pricegrabber storefront...)

I'll keep looking for this card, though...

Edit: Or just review the thing, and get $5 off.

Edit 2: Or get it off eBay for $20.74 shipped, new, from someone with 787 positive feedback - but from Ireland. Do it or not?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 8:08 am
by GomJabbar
bhtooefr wrote:Edit 2: Or get it off eBay for $20.74 shipped, new, from someone with 787 positive feedback - but from Ireland. Do it or not?
Probably OK. Just make sure the price is in US dollars and not GBP. My daugher ordered a case for her mother's IPOD from Hong Kong, thinking she was getting it for $4. It ended up being about $18 with conversion from GBP to US dollars and shipping.

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 8:43 am
by bhtooefr
"Buy It Now price: US $8.99"
"Item location: EXPRESS AIRMAIL FROM IRELAND"
"Shipping costs: US $11.75"

The eBay item is item number 5819307592 (I'm telling the number because there's like five more identical items).

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 8:05 am
by bhtooefr
False alarm...

I was just playing around, and noticed that the thing had somehow been disabled in Device Manager. Don't know how or why, but I'm thinking that it was a botched hibernation.

Enabled it, and it connected right up.

:?