Advice sought: PC Cards and Galaxy Antennas...

[Jim Carter]

On Mon, 15 Jul 2002, Davis, Ron wrote:
--- snip ---
>  Also, and please forgive my
> newbie-ness, is there a Wireless Access Point I can simply plug into a spare
> port on my hub so that any wireless equipped devices in the house can
> participate in the existing LAN?

I can't help on the TiVo issue, but I just got an Agere Orinoco AP-200
access point that operates in just that mode.  It cost me US$160.  Other
vendors such as Linksys and NetGear have similar products, but I chose the
Agere AP because I've been fighting a losing battle trying to get a Linksys
WPC11 (Intersil firmware) to interoperate with a Dell "TrueMobile 1150"
mini-PCI (Agere firmware) in Ad-Hoc mode, and I decided not to tempt fate
by getting Intersil firmware in my new AP, even though it probably would
have worked fine.

A really big advantage of the AP is that I can set it on a high bookshelf
(with a 10 meter 10baseT cable and power cord, not the 1.5 meter things
that come with it) and get dramatically better signal levels all over the
house. The PCI adapter in the desktop machine makes the PCMCIA card's
antenna stick out behind the machine, obviously, and also there's a steel
filing cabinet between it and my favorite spot on the couch.

A USB NIC could also be put up high, but I use Linux and there's a shortage
of drivers for USB wireless NICs.

James F. Carter          Voice 310 825 2897    FAX 310 206 6673
UCLA-Mathnet;  6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA  90095-1555
Email: jimc at math.ucla.edu    http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc (q.v. for PGP key)