Orinoco Gold/Silver PCMCIA 44.99 shipped

[nhidog]

Just received my HP hn220w Wireless Card. It is a rebadge Orinoco Gold I believe, but there are some who say its Silver. The retail HP box as well as the back of the card even states 128RC4. I bought mine at 3btech.net for 44 + .99 shipping, very good deal for an Orinoco Gold or Silver. Its a new retail HP box, comes with a nice hard plastic case and Orinoco Drivers CD.

You can find it cheaper on pricewatch by a buck, but I didn't see that before plus this is a yahoo shop.

Now if only Staples would send me my laptop.

Link for the Lazy

 

[wabbiter]

Thanks for the tip!

Could you look in your wireless settings and tell if the configuration utility allows you to set a 128 or 104 bit WEP encryption code?

If yes, then it is gold.

if it only says 40 bit or 64 bit, then it is silver.

 

[Tot]

Good deal. But right now I have wired setup and is looking to get a wireless setup soon. Many cafes and bookstores around my place already have wireless, now is the time to jump.

 

[aircasper]

Originally posted by: nhidog
Just received my HP hn220w Wireless Card. It is a rebadge Orinoco Gold I believe, but there are some who say its Silver. The retail HP box as well as the back of the card even states 128RC4. I bought mine at 3btech.net for 44 + .99 shipping, very good deal for an Orinoco Gold or Silver. Its a new retail HP box, comes with a nice hard plastic case and Orinoco Drivers CD.

You can find it cheaper on pricewatch by a buck, but I didn't see that before plus this is a yahoo shop.

Now if only Staples would send me my laptop.

Link for the Lazy

Great deal if it's a rebadged gold! i recently purchased the Dell TrueMobile 1150 PC card (gold rebadge) and it works great with the Orinoco BG-2000 gateway that i got from amazon. excellent range and throughput (the BG-2000 is actually rated at approx. 550m/1750ft, although that's under ideal conditions).

So does your card appear as an Orinoco Gold/Silver card under your hardware device profile? I'm thinking it should since it came with an Orinoco drivers cd. If so, that's an excellent deal because you don't have to worry about flashing the firmware in order to use the Orinoco drivers.

 

[riznick]

If it is a silver, then it can be flashed into gold.

Originally posted by: wabbiter
Thanks for the tip!

Could you look in your wireless settings and tell if the configuration utility allows you to set a 128 or 104 bit WEP encryption code?

If yes, then it is gold.

if it only says 40 bit or 64 bit, then it is silver.

 

[mdcrab]

I have a silver Orinoco PCMCIA card. Where can I find info on flashing it too a gold?
Will it reduce the thruput much compared to 64 WEP operation?

mdcrab

 

[MuffD]

If it is a silver, then it can be flashed into gold

Please share the info

 

[nhidog]

Originally posted by: wabbiter
Thanks for the tip!

Could you look in your wireless settings and tell if the configuration utility allows you to set a 128 or 104 bit WEP encryption code?

If yes, then it is gold.

if it only says 40 bit or 64 bit, then it is silver.

Hm I will once I get my laptop which is due Monday. Kinda hard installing the card without a laptop

Anyhoo I can tell you what the back of the HP box says.

11 Mbps wireless LAN PC CARD
*connect a laptop or notebook PC to your wireless network
*no additional wiring required
*installs easily with step-by-step guide
*share your portable work PC with your home network using 802.11b wireless technology
*supports 128-bit encryption for added security
*share information safely-up to 11 Mbps

Oh the side of the white box inside the HP cover says "HP Wireless World PC Card Gold (128RC4)"
The back of the card also has a label which says "Encryption: 128RC4" along with MAC Address, p/n, s/n, etc...

So I'm pretty sure my card is Gold, but like I said I can't be 100% until I actually install it.
From what I heard, Agere supposedly ended the Silver line when taking over Orinoco, so they oem all Gold as of late. So there is a possibility that you could end up with a Silver rather than a Gold when dealing with third party name.

Link to End of Silver and Bronze line

 

[nhidog]

[/quote]

Great deal if it's a rebadged gold! i recently purchased the Dell TrueMobile 1150 PC card (gold rebadge) and it works great with the Orinoco BG-2000 gateway that i got from amazon. excellent range and throughput (the BG-2000 is actually rated at approx. 550 feet indoors and 1750 feet outdoors, although those are under ideal conditions).

So does your card appear as an Orinoco Gold/Silver card under your hardware device profile? I'm thinking it should since it came with an Orinoco drivers cd. If so, that's an excellent deal because you don't have to worry about flashing the firmware in order to use the Orinoco drivers.[/quote]

Yeah from what I read bout the hn220w at netstumbler.com, HP just stuck a sticker on it, didn't alter it one bit. So its basically an Orinoco with an HP sticker on it, uses exactly same driver instead of third party driver like Dell. Hehe even at netstumbler.com, some report the card as silver and some report it as gold. So it's all about which retailer you buy it from, some probably have old stock while other have new stock. For 45 new, I think both silver and gold are a good deal.

Oh to upgrade silver to gold, you need either an Apple Airport or an Orinoco Access Point with removable card. Basically you just put your silver card into the Airport/AP, upgrade the software, reset the device, and it should change the firmware of the card to Gold. The Silver and Gold card are exactly the same, the Silver just has a 128 bit disabled in its firmware while the Gold has it enabled. This work with all Orinoco cards.

Link to upgrade

 

[mdcrab]

Since it says "*supports 128-bit encryption for added security" it is a gold, if it it is an Orinoco. Great deal!

I am still interested in flashing my card (actually 2) to Gold. Where is there info?

mdcrab

 

[quirky]

wats the difference btween gold and silver? does one hav beter range than the other?

 

[oniq]

Any information whether this works in Linux or not?

 

[nhidog]

Originally posted by: oniq
Any information whether this works in Linux or not?

Yea take a look at the link few post above. Upgrade info is on same link.

"It is reported here that you can upgrade Silver to Gold at home using the Apple Airport Updater on your Mac. KyleJones reports success with this using Airport 2.0.4. You don't have to do anything with the Airport software except install it. The installation process updates the fireware on the Orinoco card. To update multiple cards just reinstall the software on top of itself; you don't have to uninstall-reinstall. "

Its the second part under heading Gold, Silver, Bronze models

 

[nhidog]

Originally posted by: quirky
wats the difference btween gold and silver? does one hav beter range than the other?

Silver has 64bit WEP, Gold has 128bit WEP, read the link. They are exactly same card, just Silver has 128bit disabled in the firmware.

 

[quirky]

but what is that in practical terms

 

[mdcrab]

Thanks for pointing out "Link to upgrade". I must have scrolled right by it. The upgrade info is for performing the flashing on a MAC or Apple.

Is there a way to do it if you only have a "PC"?

mdcrab

 

[nhidog]

WEP is encryption for security, the higher the number the better the encryption. It prevent the average snooper from breaking into your network and stealing your broadband and or information. It not the best of security but its better than nothing.

Besides upgrading on MAC there is another router than can update the firmware but I forgot the name, its also like $300 so probably not worth it just to upgrade a card.

 

[finalpendragon]

Does anybody know where i can get a good deal on an 3Com wirereless XJACK card?
the orinoco would be my first choice, but i think the XJACK's retracable antenna would be much more convenient. I cant figure out why other companies dont make their own version.... or maybe they do? Anybody know of any XJACK wannabees?

 

[rufruf44]

A tad off topic, but how good are these Orinoco's Gold/Silver compared to the wireless card offering from the usual vendors (Netgear, DLink, Linksys, etc) ?

 

[nhidog]

Originally posted by: rufruf44
A tad off topic, but how good are these Orinoco's Gold/Silver compared to the wireless card offering from the usual vendors (Netgear, DLink, Linksys, etc) ?

These are the second best card out on the market with respect to range. The only card that is better than the Orinoco's are Cisco Aironet which run for 2 to 3x the price. These card however are only 802.11b version and I'm not sure if or when they will release an 802.11a version which is offered by other vendors. But compared to the other "b" versions, these are the best unless you go the Cisco route.

 

[hamburglar]

thanx!

 

[AkumaX]

i got the dell truemobile 1150

since dell uses 3rd party drivers, does it make a big performance difference from being a true orinoco gold card?

 

[kissdisap]

Does anyone know how to set up the WEP in Windows XP? I'm currently using an official Orinoco Silver card but when I try to setup the WEP with my Linksys router and try and plug the same info into the Wireless Network Properties in XP, my connection dies and I need to plug in my cable to undo everything. Can anyone help? TIA

 

[BUH]

They now have free ground shipping on all orders. I ordered mine just a minute ago. I will let you all know whatever I can when I recieve it.

-BUH

 

[badluck]

Should I buy this or the 22mpbs D-Link DWL-650+ card? My WAP is the D-Link DI-614+. The difference in price is $23.