Wireless LAN: Any incompatibilities between vendors?

[pm]

I bought what I hope is an "IBM 802.11b Access Point" on E*Bay over the weekend. In the past my experience with standards has been that they don't always work all that well when the product initially is released. Since 802.11b is a relatively new standard, does anyone know if there are product incompatibilities between companies?

The specs on this thing are:

• IEEE 802.11b standards based - Lower cost than previous generation wireless LAN solutions; compatibility
• Up to 11Mbps data rate with fall back to 5.5, 2 and 1Mbps - High performance, similar to wire-based Ethernet solutions
• Supports WEP (Wired Equivalent Protection) encryption - Enables secure transmission

Now I need to get a PCCard or USB connector for this. Are there any incompatibilities between vendors? If I buy, say an Intel, a Dlink, or a Linksys 802.11b wireless PC Card will it work?

Are there any good sites for information on wireless networking?

Thanks

 

[JackMDS]

I notice that people complain (in various forums), about difficulties in setting up Wireless connection using equipment from different manufactures.

Most of the complains seems to relate to the wep (encryption) scheme.

So, if you don?t need the wep it probably does not matter. If you do use wep, order a card that you can return.

It also seems that the sentiment is that the Lucent Orinoco is the best Wireless card, it seems that people get a better distance to speed ratio out of this card.

All of the above is people stories, I can not find a real pro review that compares this equipment.

 

[Windogg]

I'm mixing 3 vendors at home and no problems so far (SMC, D-Link, Linksys).

 

[JackMDS]

Windogg will you please post which is the Wave access and which is the Wireless Cards.

Thanks.

 

[pm]

Thanks for the post, JackMDS. I'm considering using WEP, so I'll take your advice to heart.

Windogg are you using WEP? Which of the three products would you recommend - or are they all approx. the same? Should Ishop based strictly on price, or is there one that stands out?

 

[Eug]

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