RE: [Aironet] Do PRISM based cards really stink?

[Cainkar, P. <PCa...@al...>]

	In my experience Ciscos/Lucents have some advantages - mainly in the
areas of borderline range, range through objects that prism cards struggle
with (brick walls for one), stable drivers, and also throughput.  My
experience has been 6 megabits with aironet, ~5.5-6 with lucent, 4-5 with
prism's.  Lucent's are also nice because they have an external antenna
connector.  I find a lucent/cisco with a linksys wap11 accesspoint does very
nice compared to a prism (dlink).

	You also get other benefits like an accurate activity light, wider
driver support (wince, linux), and advanced network monitoring features,
mainly on the cisco's (rf monitoring comes to mind), secure ways to store
WEP keys in enterprises (Cisco's come to mind here), and some real tech
support.

However, some of the new Prism 2.5 I think? Usb devices with those fold out
antennas get pretty decent range compared to the prism pcmcia cards.

Your milage may very, prism is good for home use, cisco/lucent is almost a
must for corporate use.  However in your regulatory domain you probably get
little gain out of the ciscos and might want to choose a lucent instead.

Alternatively you can use Cisco clones, although I haven't tried them.

As always, You milage may vary,

-PC



-----Original Message-----
From: Manuel Kasper [mailto:mk...@ne...] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2002 5:31 AM
To: ai...@en...
Subject: [Aironet] Do PRISM based cards really stink?

Hi all,

I just bought a Cisco AIR-PCM352 in the hope of relieving my general
802.11b wireless disappointment. I used to have two D-Link DWL-650
wireless LAN PC cards, and a ZyXEL Prestige 316 for an access point at
home. 

However, IMHO the range I get out of this combination sucks - I can even
communicate over the same distance in the same flat with Bluetooth (3Com
USB adapter <-> Compaq iPAQ)! And Bluetooth was never intended for
distances > 10 metres.

Well, I read some raves about how good Cisco and Lucent cards are in
comparison to Intersil PRISM based ones, so I decided to buy one. I
compared it to my cheap D-Link card, and guess what - maybe I could move
a few more metres away from the access point, but it was in no way much
better than the D-Link card, given the fact that it transmits at 50 mW
(can't switch to 100 mW because I'm in Switzerland and my card is
obviously limited ;) whereas the D-Link only does 30 mW. It has a higher
receiver sensitivity (as per the datasheet) as well, so I thought this
would make up for the weaker signal of my access point.

Thinking it was the access point, I tried with a 3Com AirConnect access
point. Not better. I also tried Ad Hoc communication between another
3Com and my Cisco card. Same range.

So I conclude that either
- it's not true that Cisco/Lucent cards are so much better
or
- my D-Link cards are some of the better PRISM based cards
and
- I'm expecting way too much. :(

Has anybody else done a serious comparison between PRISM and Cisco
cards? Other than the fact that Cisco drivers seem more stable to me, I
can't think of a reason to buy Cisco again. :(

Greets,

Manuel Kasper

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