Linksys WCF12 or the Socket WL6000-320 - opinions needed

[bdeli]

I had the WCF12 on order but cancelled it due to the time it was taking to ship. So now I am reconsidering again what wireless CF should I buy. The WCF12 is more affordable - halve as much as the Socket, but which one should I get?

Can anybody share his experience with configuring these cards? I have a Linksys Wireless Access Point and another 2 Linksys wireless cards in my two laptops.

[JJ]

I paid $80 US for a AmbiCom CF Wirless card from CompUSA and it works great! The form factor of my AmbiCom card is only slightly bigger than Socket and it has great signal range. The only complaint I have about it is that the included software does not store parameters for multiple networks, so I had to manually type in the info going from one wireless network to the other. Just one more choice to elevate your anxiety. :lol:

[marketheredge]

I just got exactly those two cards this week. Last night was my first attempt at WiFi, and it was painless and fun. I used the Linksys WCF12 in my iPAQ 3850 (with CF/extra battery sleeve), connecting to a DLink 1000AP / DLink DI704P combination. Everything worked great, although a couple hours of use completely drained the sleeve battery. (I was browsing, comparing IE and NetFront, downloading and listening to MP3's, checking email.) I was a little surprised at how weak the signal would get only a couple of rooms away; I don't have an enormous house. But I was able to use it wherever I wanted, and I plan to mount the AP about 20 feet closer to the center of the house and more in 'sight' of everything.

Tonight I will try the Socket WL6000 in the same scenario and post an opinion vs. the Linksys WCF12. In case you wonder, I first ordered the :) less expensive Linksys card from buy.com, then at the last minute, before it shipped (and after reading good reviews of the Socket's low power features), I cancelled the Linksys and ordered the Socket. Unfortunately, it wasn't cancelled in time, so I got both. I may send one back, depending on performance, or keep both of them, use one in my notebook PC, etc.

But it was definitely fun last night.

[bdeli]

Thanks Mark,

Will be waiting for your review. I am interested to know what is the signal comparison between the two cards and how much they suck up power.

[marketheredge]

Well, at first I was disappointed with the SOCKET card because it could 'link' or see the AP, but I couldn't browse the internet or ping (using DHCP). I tried switching to static and had to figure out my broadband provider's DNS settings, etc., after which it worked fine, which was a good configuration lesson, anyway.

But the DHCP problem was not the SOCKET's fault. Apparently there was a brief power outage at home earlier, and the WAP had lost its settings. I was able to quickly reload them from a file, but my problems persisted until I realized that the settings hadn't been downloaded or initialized on the WAP. Good on-the-job training. So the problem all along was a misguided WAP that couldn't hand out DHCP information.

In the end, the SOCKET card worked fine with DHCP and static. In fact, it worked great. I haven't used either card enough to evaluate power usage, but I can say that the SOCKET signal was much better and stronger than the Linksys, and everything seemed to move faster. Noticeably faster. And perhaps used less power to do so. Another thing I like about the SOCKET is the active indicator light, compared with the steady-on light of the Linksys. It's nice to see how fast or slow it's blinking to have an idea of how fast the data's moving. Also, the icon at the bottom of the Today screen changes to indicate the strength of the signal. On the Linksys, you have to run the utility to look at signal strength.

So my non-professional iPAQ WiFi enthusiast advice is that the SOCKET is a better card all-around, but it comes at a higher price.

[bdeli]

Thanks again for the post. If you can post battery life with both cards when you have some time to test would be brilliant.

The only thing about the Socket is the price....

[yellow1]

any news on whether the Socket really uses less power in real life testing ?