Cisco Aironet 350 Series 11Mbps Wireless LAN PC Card Adapter (AIR-PCM352)

I've been using one of these for several years, in 3-4 computers. It's a superb, robust, unstoppable 802.11b card (that means it's only capable of 11 Mbps).The real value is not just in the card, but in the latest software from Cisco for it. Update to the most recent firmware, the Aironet Client Utility (ACU) 6.6.0.0 (as of this writing), and their separate site survey utility, and you've got more functionality, configurability (including World Mode) than most PC Cards. The ACU is a fantastic location switching program, allows you associate more than one SSID with a profile (say, "CAFE," or "LIBRARIES"), set specific power and sensitivity settings for each, etc. It will also work with IBM's Access Connections if you use a ThinkPad.If you want the best, you've found it (short of a newer a/b/g card); otherwise, settle for less with the rest.

I manage the wlan at work and test numerous cards. The Cisco 350 series is what we rolled of company wide for for employee use. The Client software (ACU) included with the card is straight forward and provides great info on the current connection and link status.One thing you can do with this card that you can't with others is modify the transmit power for the card. The primary difference between the Cisco 340 and 350 series is the transmit power. On the 350 you can change this from 1mw to 100mw (the 340 series peaks at 30mw). This feature is especially handy, especially when taking my laptop from work to home (you just don't need 100mw of transmit power in a 1200 ft. apartment).The hardware is great (Cisco acquired Aironet around 97 I think), the software is intuitive, and is fully compatible with many authentication methods other than wep (i.e., TLS, MD5, EAP, LEAP).So why did I give this card a 4 star rating instead of 5 stars? Three reasons:Client side software does not roam between discontiguous networks when using advanced authenticationClient side software does not include any kind of sniff feature to see what wireless networks are within range. I have to use third party software for that.Cisco cards do not do true rfmon passive packet acquisition. Cisco (and I think Lucent) diverged from the prism 2 chip , so i keep my Cisco card for work and keep a linksys wpc11 (prism2 chipset) for "network analysis".Hope this helps. Peace to all wifi junkies out there.

Excellent

I have a Jornada 680. I checked on line to see which card will allow my Jornada do LAN web browsing. Ok, Between all client I chose this. Downloaded to free Devices from CISCO, upgraded all other devices and this is the results. NO ASSOCIATION, although lights turn on and off. I have a headache.

this may the only way you can do it. My netgear card would connect but couldn't meet all the security imposed on it...had to buy this expen$ive little darling. Worked fine but I really dislike being held captive to one vendor to use a network. But it IS CISCO so why am I surprised? regardless, performs well and is a bargain at half the price.

i just put one of these into my older Compaq computer which had a Dlink 650Q G card installed. i am running Puppy on my system and chose a card based on the wireless card HCL on Damnsmall linux's wiki page. the cisco arionet is a great performer on the older 350mhz laptop. i had the laptop further away from my wireless AP than the Dlink could go and it still was able to connect up just fine. old hardware likes old hardware im my humble opinion.

I bought my card thru my university which uses this card for the entire system. Since my card has been installed and the drivers and ACU is already running, getting it to work with my Netgear FM114P router at home was breeze, taking just a minute to get it hooked up.The problem came when i tried to install the driver for my brother and girlfriend's laptop. On one laptop the system hung at the end of the installation and on the other when the computer was trying to detect the hardware.Cutting the long story short, i figured the system had just managed to install the software before it hang and thus after rebooting the laptop i could get online. whats interesting is that i didn't have to install the ACU or the card's firmware to get it to work. Well, as long as it works.... =PCompared to linksys or netgear wireless lan cards, this one give a much better 'feel' to its build and looks a whole lot more sturdy than any other cards i've seen. and of course its from a better brand too (if it matters at all).I guess if you're willing to fork out more than double the price for a somewhat more 'professional' card i guess this is it. if not, i would recommend the netgear MA401 card as i have absolutely no problems setting a couple of them up on my network.

I have 4 Linksys 54G cards ( 2 desktop and 2 laptop ) and 2 Cisco 11B 350s and I think the 350s are much easier to work with. Especially on the road with a laptop - they always work. Set up a new profile and your are connected.We use the 350s at work and they are just great, solid, predictable cards. For the price difference, unless you have a homogeneous 54G environment, the 350s are winner.My choice for ease of use and consistent performance.Plus, I like the Cisco monitoring software, profiles, etc. When I go out of town, I set up a new profile and almost always can get associated right away with whatever wireless provider ( maybe except for the Spokane airport but that's a different rant ).