Ahhhh Wireless! It's been a long time in the making, but consumers are finally getting wireless LAN products that actually work - and at high speeds (11 Mbps). Soon, there will be a flood of new IEEE 802.11b wireless products hitting the market. We decided it was time to dive into the wireless reviews.

This review will be a mixed bag. We will first try and bring you the basics on the technology, how it works, it's first round flaws, and then we will give you a short and sweet review of the Lucent Orinoco RG-1000 and client cards.

The 802.11b technology uses DSSS or Digital Spread Spectrum Sequence technology using the 2.4Ghz frequency (similar to your high-end 2.4Ghz cordless phone) to transmit your data through the air. The Wireless Access Point or the RG-1000 allows the wireless network devices to access the wired LAN. This 802.11b protocol calls for wireless communications at 11Mbps, and as the devices get a weaker and weaker signal, they will fall down to 5.5Mbps, 2Mpbs, and 1Mbps, all without loss of connectivity. This allows the wireless clients to access the network up to 1,650 feet away. See this Shockwave Flash Diagram that shows the typical setup within a small building or household. Note that it includes a wireless PCMCIA adapter in the vehicle in the garage. This allows the vehicle to become a node on the LAN when it pulls into range (parked in the driveway or garage). We are using one of these wireless adapters in our MP3 Car project site at http://www.MobileJukebox.com

Most all manufacturers of these 802.11b wireless products are also members of the Wi-Fi group, an organization that helps with standards and interoperability amongst it's members products and services. This does NOT mean that if a company is not a member of the Wi-Fi group, that their product(s) will not work with other 802.11b products. It all depends. Each manufacturer of these new wireless devices typically will have 3 products, a Wireless Access Point, A Wireless Access PCMCIA card, and a PCI adapter for the PCMCIA cards for use in desktop PC's. The Wireless Access Point or WAP for short, allows PCMCIA client adapters to talk with the wired network. If 2 PC's on the wireless network want to communicate, they communicate directly with each other, skipping the Access Point, since the transmission is wireless only, and does not need to travel to the wired network. You must have some sort of Access Point in order to talk to the wired network (Any device that uses Ethernet or 10BaseT as it's Network Interface). These Wireless Access Points or WAP's, can typically perform NAT and DHCP functions, similar to a router, or they can work in bridge mode, where they simply bridge the wired network to the wireless clients. Some of these WAP's (like the Orinoco RG-1000 AP) even include a 56K dialup modem for backup routing, which is a very nice feature if your Broadband ISP happens to be down at any time.

The main issue with the adoption of this wireless technology will be security. Security is an issue, but with the inclusion of encryption technology, these devices can communicate over an encrypted channel, typically called WEP, or Wired Equivalent Privacy. This WEP can be a total administration nightmare, since this protection requires handing out passkeys, or encrypted phrases to users. Most client access cards are shipped standard at 40 Bits Encryption, and higher encryption rates are available if you purchase 128 Bit cards. These cards cost anywhere from the low end of $129 to $250 or more for some 128 Bit encrypted cards. We ran into some major confusion when trying to get the Linksys WPC-11 PCMCIA Client card to work with the Lucent Orinoco RG-1000. The Lucent "Silver" cards are capable of handling 40 Bit encryption. When we installed the Linksys software and Wireless utility, we got a link as soon as we set the Network Name and Network Type as Infrastructure. (We will get into this in more detail later in the review) The last step is to set the encryption passkey properly to get access to the wired network.

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