SMC2632W Wireless Ethernet
(802.11b) PCCard Adapter Link
from SMC
Score: 3 out of 3
Review Type: Hands On
Reviewer: Chris Kaminski
Date: June 20, 2001
Drivers: 1.27
 The SMC2632W is a 802.11b wireless Ethernet adapter
from SMC Networks. It supports a maximum throughput of 11Mbps, has a built
in antenna, and comes with a limited lifetime warranty. The card supports
64 or 128 bit encryption and allows ASCII pass phrase or manual hex entry
of WEP keys.
One of the more striking features of the card is its
operating system support. It comes with drivers for all flavors of
Windows, Linux drivers (from http://www.linux-wlan.com), and even
Windows CE in MIPS, SH3 and StrongArm varieties.
The card installed easily on both of our test
machines (Windows 2000 and Windows 98SE) and were easy to configure using
SMC’s configuration utility. About the only additional thing I would like
to have seen is a more dynamic tray Icon. It displays green for linked and
red for un-linked – It might be nice to have a graphic indicator of signal
strength.
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