Microsoft MN-730 & Ambicom WL1100C

Ok what a pain. It seems the jolly old WMP54G Linksys wireless network card, from before, was destined for faliure. The thing installed but never connected to the access point of approximately one meter away.

So I went back to Best Buy, with card in hand and swapped it for a Microsoft MN-730 Wireless-G PCI Adaptor and picked up an Ambicom WL1100C-CF Wireless CompactFlash Card which had been calling gently to me for weeks, as it was the only one they had hanging on the shelves there.

So back to the plot....
Ripped out the Linksys card, uninstalled the drivers, as well as the card configoration utility that decided it had to be evicted seperately.

It's the same set up under Win98 for the Microsoft card, as the Linksys one.

1. Install drivers.
2. Reboot about three times in all.
3. Physically install card.
4. Give card the final instructions to connect to your already functioning wireless access point.

There was a little annoyance about having to use the included wizard to set the card up, but I have only used WinXP with wireless cards up to now, and there seems no other way with Win98...

Upon installation, I begin to find another access point, which the previous card, and even the seemingly puny one in the laptop did not spot. The Ambicom card slotted into the Axim with no trouble, quick install and I was connected.

Now here IS the news...

Ambicom WL1100C-CF Wireless CompactFlash Card manages to surf when I am sat in the car outside!



Ambicom WL1100C-CF


A ZE4560US Laptop from HP manages to get no further than one floor away before it cannot contact base camp..

The Microsoft MN-730 Wireless-G PCI Adaptor seems to pick up anything that once passed this way, even back in time. I have yet to move the PC itself to somewhere more challenging, but things look good so far.



Microsoft MN-730


All this is attaching to a Linksys WRTG54 Wireless-G Broadband Router which now looks to be blasting the signal MUCH further than the one floor it was thought previously to have been doing so. So get that WEP security setting going folks, if you don't want someone Kazza'ing your butt into court sometime soon! It only takes a moment to set, and could save a LOT of headache later on.

To be fair to the Linksys card, that it could have been that a neighbor was using the same SSID as me (until recently) which was causing the faliure to connect. I had thought there was nothing out there and all of this was a symptom of what I assumed to be a puny access point. What a difference some new hardware made to that. Although there is some strange thing going on with the kitchen which makes all transmissions cease within. I think it's years of built up early morning, bleary eyed karma, or something....