Author Topic: suggestions for cheapest (!) WiFi card for 5500  (Read 4977 times)

dshumate

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suggestions for cheapest (!) WiFi card for 5500
« on: March 29, 2004, 10:11:40 am »
Gang-

    I have a 5500 running the latest Sharp ROM, and am looking for the cheapest WiFi CF card to use. Any suggestions?

Thanks-

Dennis (not always so penny-pinching!)
\"90% of being smart, is knowing what you\'re dumb at.\"

CoreyC

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suggestions for cheapest (!) WiFi card for 5500
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2004, 10:19:21 am »
Amazon linksys wcf12

This is a good card, but you may want to consider spending a little more for a low power wifi card if battery life is important to you.

dshumate

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suggestions for cheapest (!) WiFi card for 5500
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2004, 10:23:08 am »
Corey-

   Thanks, Corey! Will this work \"out of the box\" on the Sharp ROM? (3.10)

Dennis
\"90% of being smart, is knowing what you\'re dumb at.\"

CoreyC

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suggestions for cheapest (!) WiFi card for 5500
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2004, 10:27:47 am »
It works out of the box with my 5600, I don\'t see why it wouldn\'t with the 5500.  There are allot of 5500 users here, it may be worth it for you to wait for one of them to post their recommendations.

iainshaw

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suggestions for cheapest (!) WiFi card for 5500
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2004, 10:55:15 am »
I\'ve got a couple of WCF12s.  They are a lot better than the flimsy 660w and I\'ve found them to be good cards

They worked out of the box on my 5600 but I had to edit /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.conf on my 5500.  Below is a quote from Amazon reviews on the card posted  on HallMP3.com from 2 users who had to make edits to get the card to work.  It\'s very straightforward and I only had to do the edit suggested by the first user.  think I found a link to this article on the old DevNet site.   If you use the Sharp text editor note that it will change the name of the file.  Make sure you remove the .txt extension or better still, edit it in vi in the first place

<quote>  

How to get this to work with the Zaurus SL-5500
I purchased this card to work with my Zaurus SL-5500 and had a difficult time setting it up. There was a user that gave some advice in a review of the product and made it sound so easy. Well, his method did not work for me. Here is the method that did work.
Hard reboot the system. When the reboot is finished, install the terminal ipk file. Once that is installed, use vi to edit the /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.conf file. Add an entry that says:

device \"prism2_cs\"
class \"wlan-ng\" module \"prism2_cs\"

at the top of the file. At the end of the file, ad an entry that says this:

card \"Linksys WCF12 11Mbps 802.11b WLAN Card\"
version \"Linksys\", \"Wireless CompactFlash Card\"
bind \"prism2_cs\"

Once you have done this, reboot the Zaurus and once it has restarted, insert the WCF12 card. The link light should flash and the ifconfig eth0 should return useful information.

Other than the difficulty that I had setting up the card and getting it to work the first time, I\'ve not had any problems with the WCF12. It\'s a great card but it\'s hard to get it setup on the Zaurus if you don\'t know much about Linux.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Good with Sharp Zaurus SL5500...
I bought the Linksys WCF12 WiFi card for my Sharp Zaurus SL5500. It\'s worked flawlessly so far in my wireless network (with SMC Barricade 7004VWBR Access Point/Router).
Keeping the Sharp Zaurus with LinkSys WiFi card by my bedside, I am able to browse Roger Ebert\'s movie reviews from bed!

There are two reasons I am rating it a 4 and not a 5:
1. My first Linksys WCF12 card was defective and did not connect to the internet. I exchanged it for a new one and have been a happy camper since.

2. This card is a bit power-hungry in my Sharp Zaurus.

A note about getting the Linksys WCF12 card to work with the Zaurus. Another reviewer (see firecrafter695\'s review , Jan 15, 2003) gave details about getting it to work by editing the \"wlancfg.conf\" file found in the \"/etc/pcmcia\" directory, and adding the necessary lines. This should get the card working in most cases.

However, apparently, there are chipset differences between batches of WCF12 cards (or so we are told, reading the postings in the Zaurus community website forums). So, you may also need to do the following in addition to editing the \"wlancfg.conf\" file:

1. Create a new file called \"wireless.conf\" in the \"/etc/pcmcia\" directory and add the following exact lines:

device \"prism2_cs\"
class \"wlan-ng\" module \"prism2_cs\"

card \"Linksys WCF12 11Mbps 802.11b WLAN Card\"
version \"Linksys\", \"Wireless CompactFlash Card\"
bind \"prism2_cs\"

2. Copy the file \"sq_wlancfg.conf\" from the \"/etc\" directory to a new file called \"wireless.opt\" in the \"/etc/pcmcia\" directory.

(NOTE: Do not overwrite \"wireless.opts\". It is an existing file and not to be confused with \"wireless.opt\").

This should get the Linksys WCF12 WiFi card working with the Zaurus after rebooting.

</quote>

lardman

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suggestions for cheapest (!) WiFi card for 5500
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2004, 11:08:12 am »
Yep worked fine on my 5500 with Sharp ROM 3.10 and does with OZ too.


Simon
C750 OZ3.5.4 (GPE, 2.6.x kernel)
SL5500 OZ3.5.4 (Opie)
Nokia 770
Serial GPS, WCF-12, Socket Ethernet & BT, Ratoc USB
WinXP, Mandriva

jason123

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suggestions for cheapest (!) WiFi card for 5500
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2004, 12:58:22 pm »
Theres an ambicom one at the officemax I live near ....  are they any good?
SL-5500
Hentges 3.5.4.1
Kingmax 1gb SD
Lexar 1gb CF
Belkin IR Keyboard
Socket 56k Modem CF
Linksys 802.11b CF

dawest

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suggestions for cheapest (!) WiFi card for 5500
« Reply #7 on: March 29, 2004, 01:11:21 pm »
I use an AmbiCom WIFI card and it works fine and has since I first got it. Mine is a model: WL1100C-CF and worked right out of the box.  It was not pricy either

Be Well
DW

mjh

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« Reply #8 on: March 29, 2004, 02:28:46 pm »
On Friday, I purchased a SanDisk Wifi card from buy.com for $38.51 with free shipping (the price today seems to have gone up $3).  SanDisk says that it\'s \"Low Power\".  I haven\'t read anything about whether or not it works in a zaurus with the sharp ROM, but according to the linux-wlan list it has a prism2 chipset, so I would think it would work.  It arrives tomorrow.  I\'ll report back.

Edit: I found this post  reporting good success using the sandisk wifi card in the sharp roms and OZ.

elementcomputer

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suggestions for cheapest (!) WiFi card for 5500
« Reply #9 on: May 18, 2004, 08:11:21 pm »
Go to the deals section see my post you can get a pretec card for 20.59 delivered anywhere in the US !!

dolphin_oracle

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suggestions for cheapest (!) WiFi card for 5500
« Reply #10 on: May 28, 2004, 09:48:39 am »
I use a NetGear MA701.  It worked right out of the box.  It logs in to an old 3com wireless gateway just fine.  I\'ve also taken it on the road, and it connects with the networks in motels just fine.  It drains batteries fairly quickly, but I gather thats a problem for many wi-fi compact flash cards.  

I bought mine off of Amazon, but I see them all the time on EBAY.