I have been in trouble this past couple of months. I discovered Ciao, and want to spend loads of time here. My husband wants me to spend time with him, understandably. He likes watching car programmes on the television, and I don’t. The solution we came up with was a Wireless Router for my ... Read review
With the 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 54 Mbps 11g PC Card notebookusers can access ... more
network resources the Internet and e-mail atspeeds up to 54 Mbps and at distances up to 100 meters (328 feet).That's almost five times the speed of existing 802.11b...
Postage & Packaging: £4.39 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 54 Mbps 11g Access Point offers high-speed, reliable, ... more
secure IEEE 802.11g wireless networking with speeds of up to 108 Mbps. Compact, streamlined and versatile it ships with a custom cradle for mounting on a desktop or a wall. Displaying impressive deployment capabilities this access point features four different operating modes. Access point mode enables wireless connectivity between wireless client adapters and the access point and the client mode provides wireless connectivity to a remote access point for a non-Wi-FI equipped PC. Additionally, for more flexibility the point-to-point bridge mode can be used to link two LAN segments connected by two units and the repeater mode to repeat the signals of a remote access point to increase its range. Enabling wireless roaming in the office this access point facilitates access to Internet and network resources with speeds of up to 108Mbps and distances of up to 100 meters (depending on physical conditions, building construction, electrical devices in the area and other environmental factors). Performance-boosting features such as packet bursting and compression increase the effective transmission speed. Compatibility with 11b and 11g wireless devices helps preserve existing wireless network investment and Wi-Fi certification assures interoperability with similarly certified products. Furthermore, this access point supports Wi-Fi Multi-Media (WMM) and Wireless Distribution System (WDS) and is RoHS- compliant. With security in mind the access point supports 128-bit WPA/WPA2 with TKIP/AES encryption for maximum security, along with 40-/60- and 128-bit WEP encryption for legacy clients. Dynamic rate shifting automatically matches the best connection speed in response to physical and traffic conditions so wireless connections stay reliable. Clear Channel Select enables the access point to scan the spectrum and select the least busy channel. Supporting up to 30 simultaneous users plenty of room
Postage & Packaging:£1.44 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 54 Mbps 11g Access Point offers high-speed, reliable, ... more
secure IEEE 802.11g wireless networking with speeds of up to 108 Mbps. Compact, streamlined and versatile it ships with a custom cradle for mounting on a desktop or a wall. Displaying impressive deployment capabilities this access point features four different operating modes. Access point mode enables wireless connectivity between wireless client adapters and the access point and the client mode provides wireless connectivity to a remote access point for a non-Wi-FI equipped PC. Additionally, for more flexibility the point-to-point bridge mode can be used to link two LAN segments connected by two units and the repeater mode to repeat the signals of a remote access point to increase its range. Enabling wireless roaming in the office this access point facilitates access to Internet and network resources with speeds of up to 108Mbps and distances of up to 100 meters (depending on physical conditions, building construction, electrical devices in the area and other environmental factors). Performance-boosting features such as packet bursting and compression increase the effective transmission speed. Compatibility with 11b and 11g wireless devices helps preserve existing wireless network investment and Wi-Fi certification assures interoperability with similarly certified products. Furthermore, this access point supports Wi-Fi Multi-Media (WMM) and Wireless Distribution System (WDS) and is RoHS- compliant. With security in mind the access point supports 128-bit WPA/WPA2 with TKIP/AES encryption for maximum security, along with 40-/60- and 128-bit WEP encryption for legacy clients. Dynamic rate shifting automatically matches the best connection speed in response to physical and traffic conditions so wireless connections stay reliable. Clear Channel Select enables the access point to scan the spectrum and select the least busy channel. Supporting up to 30 simultaneous users plenty of room
Postage & Packaging:£1.44 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: You can access the internet from anywhere in the house (or garden) Disadvantages: Hard to set up.
...order from ebuyer for a 3COM Office Connect ADSL Wireless 11g Firewall Router, with a 3COM Office Connect Wireless 11g PC Card. The cards on their own cost around £34 if you search the net.
If ever they add the correct product to the category, I will write one on the Router itself, but for now, I get to tell you about my experience with the card.
This review assumes that you already have a router installed.
...PCM network card, but with a black plastic extension. The plastic extension sticks out of the PCM slot. When it is connected, it has 2 little green lights inside. One for link, and one for activity. It is quite neat and compact.
***What does it come with?***
There is an A5 sheet of instructions.
Driver CD
***Technical stuff***
It runs at speeds up to 54Mbps, and at a distance up ... more
I have been in trouble this past couple of months. I discovered Ciao, and want to spend loads of time here. My husband wants me to spend time with him, understandably. He likes watching car programmes on the television, and I don’t. The solution we came up with was a Wireless Router for my laptop.
Having looked around, and found no product reviews on wireless routers, we took our chances on this. We searched around for a good price.
We placed an order from ebuyer for a 3COM Office Connect ADSL Wireless 11g Firewall Router, with a 3COM Office Connect Wireless 11g PC Card. The cards on their own cost around £34 if you search the net.
If ever they add the correct product to the category, I will write one on the Router itself, but for now, I get to tell you about my experience with the card.
This review assumes that you already have a router installed.
***Appearance***
It looks like any normal PCM network card, but with a black plastic extension. The plastic extension sticks out of the PCM slot. When it is connected, it has 2 little green lights inside. One for link, and one for activity. It is quite neat and compact.
***What does it come with?***
There is an A5 sheet of instructions. Driver CD
***Technical stuff***
It runs at speeds up to 54Mbps, and at a distance up to 100 metres, or 328ft for those of you who work in old money.
If you have already got a Router up and running, then this bit is easy in comparison. (The router itself took several hours to sort out, but that is another story.) Notice that I said “IN COMPARISON”. It works great with Windows XP, but not with Windows 98 or ME.
My dad is quite good with computers, and has built a few in his time. He tried to help set up the card, and failed. You definitely need some knowledge of what you are doing to be able to connect it. The process is as follows:
1. Turn on the computer 2. Insert the installation CD into the CD Rom Drive – the autorun should start it automatically. 3. Insert card into PCM slot
The instructions for installation come up in Windows. Just follow the instructions on the screen. You will need the CD for the Windows operating system. You will also need the encryption code. Assuming that this is the first wireless connection you are making to the router, the default wireless settings for the router you can find on the router instructions.
Once you have followed all the instructions, it SHOULD just connect. If you’ve ever tried to install things before, you will know that computers have a mind of their own, and even when you do everything correctly, it will never work first time. After playing around with it, eventually they just seem to work, even though you haven’t done anything different.
You will need to tell your computer to connect to the internet via the LAN, not via dial up or USB.
If your router allocates IP addresses, you will need to set your computer up to accept an IP address from the router. If not, you will have to give your computer an IP address between the numbers of the IP Pool start and IP Pool end address. (Is this making any sense?)
Also, you have to change the lease time to “forever”.
If you are able to connect to your wireless network with the default settings, you will now have to add some security by way of the WEP encryption. It is best to use 128-bit. This makes it much harder to crack. The encryption values can be changed by using pairs of numbers between 0-9, and letters between a-f, e.g. 09.FC.26.BD. etc.
Next, you need to connect your computer using the same encryption code.
***The Verdict***
So, now it connects without any problem whatsoever. It runs at about half the speed of my main PC, but as we are on Broadband, it isn’t a problem.
I also use the card to connect to my dad’s PC. Again, it took a bit of playing around with.
Since it was installed, I’ve not had any problems with it. It appears to be quite stable. My LAN is in the office on the ground floor. The wireless card allows me to sit in any room in the house. I’ve even used it in the garden. It is fantastic.
Now Lee can sit and watch his car programs, and I can sit next to him and read and write on Ciao.
All I can say is – FANTASTIC!
If you haven’t understood a word I have just written, please seek professional help with the installation! (Fortunately, I had Lee to do this for me.)
Product Information for "3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g PC Card" »
Manufacturer's product description
With the 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g PC Card, notebook users can access network resources, the Internet, and e-mail at speeds up to 54 Mbps and at distances up to 100 meters (328 feet). That's almost five times the speed of existing 802.11b wireless products, which makes this product ideal for small offices that work with demanding audio, video, and multimedia applications. The 11g PC card works with the 3Com Wireless 11g Access Point to create a powerful, high-speed all-wireless network in minutes. The 11g products are compatible with 11b products, so both 11b and 11g clients can reside on the same network. This flexibility preserves your network investment and allows you to upgrade or scale your network according to your budget and time frame. Setup and operation are extraordinarily easy, making these products great choices for first-time wireless users. Like all award-winning OfficeConnect products, the 11g PC card delivers reliability features such as dynamic rate shifting, which automatically matches the best connection speed to room conditions so connections stay clear and open. The PC card also employs advanced 256-bit WPA (Wireless Protected Access) encryption as well as 40/64- and 128-bit shared-key WEP (Wireless Encryption Protocol) encryption to help protect data on the wireless LAN. And because it is Wi-Fi certified, the PC card should work seamlessly with Wi-Fi certified products from other vendors.
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