Thinkpads Forum

I want to buy a wirless PC card. I was looking at old threads and noticed that these two cards are greatly appreciated:

1. Orinico Classic Gold PC Card
2. IBM High Rate Wireless Lan PC Card (P/N:09N9904)

Both these seem to be rare (and expensive), so I was wondering if you guys have suggestions for me.

Also apart from the 3Com XJACK 11A/B/G PC card, is there any other wireless card that fit flush in laptops? I don't need a flush fitting card (not really particular about it) but if there are options I'd like to know ...

ORiNOCO card is for ~$24 on ebay.

I used Linksys (don't remember the model but it was latest in 802.11g) on my old A31p, it did very good job for me.

rye, there are various versions of Orinoco - the best ones are supposed to be the older ones, before the company got taken over my Proxim (I think). If you see ebay, the ones with a Lucent label seem to selling for more ... I want to buy that IBM card if possible, but there is only one on ebay and it is a staggering $125!! ebay is a strange marketpalce

Sorry I was not familiar with internal details.

I just saw that IBM card you were talking about, on ebay. That is something!

However looking deeper into lenovo site and ebay auction it says it's meant for "Microsoft Windows 2000 • Microsoft Windows 95 • Microsoft Windows 98 • Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition • Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition • Microsoft Windows NT" operating systems.

Just make sure you have one of these before making a decision of buying.

Well, if it works with those, I'd guess it should work with XP - there are drivers for it on IBM/Lenov site (which is not surprising, considering they still have driver for much older machines!)

Gator

I'm assuming you know that the Hi Rate 128 cards were only "b". Also, there seems to be a wide variety of companies that OEMed that card, most notably Dell. The Orinocos may have a version in A/B, but I'm not certain of that. XP seems to recognize them without having to add drivers.

I have a Dell and 2 of the Hi Rate 128 cards of which I only intend to use one in my revamped 600E, so if you want, we can talk about other. I picke the thing up with the intention of trying to play with external antennas since they have the connector on the end, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

If you want a fantastic high-power card for use with an external antena, go for the Engenius/Senao EL-2511CD+ EXT2 (or NL-2511CD+ EXT2 it's the same thing). They are 802.11b only, but work amazing. (They are not quite flush with the edge, but stick out just a tad.) I think they go for about $50. (Be careful though, cuz there are sellers trying to pass off the 80mW version from the 200mW version... you'd want the 200...)

http://www.engeniustech.com/datacom/pro ... aspx?id=40

Depending on what antena you buy for it (and obviously the output power/antena of the router), you can pick up a stable signal from miles away...

And it uses the older (and better) Prism 2.5 chipset... (for all you Kismet-using people...)!

efrant, thanks for the great tip.

He could also get an internal Senao mini-pci card as well.

ryengineer wrote:ORiNOCO card is for ~$24 on ebay.

LOL @ that auction, because (IIRC) he probably just flashed a silver with gold f/w. "Mislabeled" my a**. That's a common practice.