Opinions On Various Cf Wifi Cards For Zaurus 5500

[victorhooi]

Hi,

I've just bought a new Zaurus 5500 off eBay , and now need to get a WiFi card for it. I would like to canvas opinions on various cards - which are well-supported (Sharp ROM vs. OpenZaurus), are good for wardriving, have decent battery life, are reliable, have good pickup, an external jack etc.

Opinions/good places to buy tje following?

Linksys WCF12
GLinksys WCF54G
D-Link 650W
D-Link 660W
Socket/Symbol Spectrum24 (Why so expensive? )
Sandisk Connect
Cisco/Proxim Harmony/Lucent Orinoco??

Also, some people suggested using a PCMIA card, eg the Lucent Gold or Orinoco (same?) with a PCMIA/CF adaptor. Is this an effective setup (sorry, I know it's a very broad question) ? Apparently the battery life will decrease dramatically - what are the experiences with thi? How good is the driver support? Is the performance superior to just a CF card?

In terms of external jacks, are there any good cards with one? I can't seem to find a single cf wifi card with it at all...

There's a vague reference here, but I can't find any further information on the Artem, nor does anybody seem to sell them. In a press release (source[/url), Symbol said that there was a external antenna version of the 24:

About Spectrum24 High Rate Compact Flash
...
The Spectrum24 High Rate CF card comes in two form factors: with an integrated antenna for Type I CF extend slots in PDAs and an external antenna connecter for embedded device designs.

But I can't seem to see this anywhere else - thoughts?

Also, there don't seem to be a lot of 802.11g cards - the linksys G isn't out yet - any others that are supported on the Zaurus? Incidentally, are they actually worth it (eg do a lot of APs support only g and not b?)

Man, I'd hate to buy a card, and find out that 802.11i suddenly comes out... ...

Thanks,
Victor

PS: Out of curiosity, I bought the 5500 for AU$300 (about US$234) - is that a ridiculously high amount?

[chayimkirshen]

I'm using the SMC <a href="http://www.factorydirect.ca/catalog/product_spec.php?pcode=SM2642">2642w</a>, and love it.  It pretty much the 2nd best card IMHO because it's power consumption is reasonable, combined with its price.  The reason the socket is sow expensive, is that it's an exteremly low power card (you can google to compare the two).

It's not really worth the G cards on the Z, because the various filesystems we have (SD, CF, even internal) really can't handle jamming that much data on at the speeds of 802.11g.  I tried a pcmcia sleeve, combined with an orinoco card, and found that the Z is the slowdown, not the network.

As for the price, it's a touch high, at least for North America.  I don't know what they go for down in Australia though.  Also, if you're going wireless, you might want to check ou the battery for the 5600.  With a knife and some duct tape, you can use the larger battery (just no cover on the back of your zaurus).  I'm doing that, and using a usb sync cable instead of my cradles.

[NetNut404]

So if the smc card is in your opinion the 2nd best card, then what would you say is the best?

I have a ambicom wifi card(WL1100-CF) which works, but seems awfully flaky.

NetNut

I'm using the SMC <a href="http://www.factorydirect.ca/catalog/product_spec.php?pcode=SM2642">2642w</a>, and love it.  It pretty much the 2nd best card IMHO because it's power consumption is reasonable, combined with its price.  The reason the socket is sow expensive, is that it's an exteremly low power card (you can google to compare the two).

It's not really worth the G cards on the Z, because the various filesystems we have (SD, CF, even internal) really can't handle jamming that much data on at the speeds of 802.11g.  I tried a pcmcia sleeve, combined with an orinoco card, and found that the Z is the slowdown, not the network.

As for the price, it's a touch high, at least for North America.  I don't know what they go for down in Australia though.  Also, if you're going wireless, you might want to check ou the battery for the 5600.  With a knife and some duct tape, you can use the larger battery (just no cover on the back of your zaurus).  I'm doing that, and using a usb sync cable instead of my cradles.
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[PrOtOn]

I just got my Z(paid $154 w/shipping) and also got a brand new Symbol 24 Wireless CF card for $36.19 w/shipping. It works like a charm in Opie.

[jfv]

I've had the D-Link 650 W for quite a while and it works really well. I mostly use the Sharp ROM but I've tried with other ROMs too. Its only drawback is that it is quite big. It will block the stylus on the 5*00. I've recently bought the Linksys WCF12 (they are selling for a good price at amazon) which has the same chip, I think, of the D-LInk, so works just as well, but is quite a bit smaller.

Felipe

[Grimmy]

I got a Symbol24 for my 5500 for cheap on e-bay.

The guy that sells them seem to still have them:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...ssPageName=WDVW

It works well in all the roms I have tried recently:   3.10, Cacko, tKr and OZ(opie).

It is a lot easier to configure automatically in Opie, but its pretty straightforward in the Sharp based ROMs.

It only supports 802.11b however.

[rjohnson1969]

I got my Pretec CF wi-fi from HSN for $21 USD.  It was automatically recognised by my Z.  It works better than I expected for the price, but I am not a very experienced wi-fi user.

[lpetroni]

I'm about to buy a card like this one:

http://www.socketcom.com/support/support_wlan.asp?Type=CF2

I'm newbie with a SL-5500 which I'll be flashing with Sharp ROM 3.13 next weekend. Any chance that this Socket card will be recognized and that I'll be able to use the standard WiFi Lan Settings app with it?


lpetroni

[Mickeyl]

The old revision works painlessly out of the box. The new revision doesn't work yet, because no OZ developer has seen one.

[Cresho]

pretec 21 dollars...already a year old..........i think and still kicking.....

[lpetroni]

The old revision works painlessly out of the box. The new revision doesn't work yet, because no OZ developer has seen one.
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Hi Mickey,

Are you talking about my previous post? Will these Socket cards will work with SL-5500/SharpROM v3.13 or SL-5500/OZv3.5.3? I'm in Brazil and these cards are very rare here so I would like to take this opportunity to buy one but would like to be sure that it will work right out of the box.


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lpetroni

[rodm13]

I have a Linksys WCF-12 and it works great with OZ and the Sharp ROM out of the box.

Socket's cards are good in terms of low power use, but they only work out of the box on the Sharp ROM.  I had a tough time getting it to work right with OZ, and I couldn't ever get it working with Kismet/Wellenreiter.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=...26&loc=101&sp=1

[Mickeyl]

The old revision works painlessly out of the box. The new revision doesn't work yet, because no OZ developer has seen one.
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Are you talking about my previous post? Will these Socket cards will work with SL-5500/SharpROM v3.13 or SL-5500/OZv3.5.3? I'm in Brazil and these cards are very rare here so I would like to take this opportunity to buy one but would like to be sure that it will work right out of the box.
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lpetroni
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Yes, that was in response to the Symbol/Socket card.

I never tried it with SharpROM 3.13, however it worked out of the box (after installing the drivers) on SharpROM 2.x and (without any additional drivers) on OZ 3.5.3. It's very good supported on OZ because it's my favourite WiFi card

[zuiwall]

I have this card and can't get it to work, did you anything special to get it working?  

rodm13 stated:

Joined: 23-May 05
Member No.: 7198

   
I have a Linksys WCF-12 and it works great with OZ and the Sharp ROM out of the box.

Socket's cards are good in terms of low power use, but they only work out of the box on the Sharp ROM. I had a tough time getting it to work right with OZ, and I couldn't ever get it working with Kismet/Wellenreiter.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=...26&loc=101&sp=1