On the laptop (Windows ME) it installed prefectly from the cdrom and was up and running within 5-10 mins.

However there were no drivers on the cdrom for WinCE/PocketPC and no mention on the packaging. I searched their website and didnt find any drivers. It wasnt until I searched another site that I found that linksys DO have drivers for PockedPC/WinCE.

If you need them, there are at ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/network/wpc11forwince.exe

I love the fact that they have created WinCE/PocketPC drivers but just wish they had been easier to find on their site.

Overall, its a very nice product.

By the way, I bought two of the PCMCIA devices and both exhibit identical behavior. Go with the USB...

NOTE THAT IT TOOK 5 CALLS TO GET A CORRECT RESOLUTION FROM LINKSYS FROM THEIR TECHS. WASTED MANY HOURS.

The most difficult part about getting this card up and running on my Linux laptop was a lack of thorough information on the steps needed to get the card running (not a typical open source situation. I plan on writing a THOROUGH tutorial and posting it soon). I downloaded and compiled the drivers as per the most thorough tutorial I was able to find online and couldn't get the card to link to the AP. After some playing around with config files I discovered that the tutorial forgot to mention the absolutely important edits to a few config files (not just the wlan-ng.conf files) that would get this puppy flyin'. SO, once I got those edited I picked up a fairly strong signal (about 80%) to the AP which is a few hundred feet away in the middle of the shop in the back of our building (and behind two walls with a server room also sitting between me and the AP). The only issues I've had since getting it installed is the AP has dropped off a few times and it had to be power cycled (nothing to do with the WPC11 card). And I have had other AP's cause interference when they were within say 10 feet of me and between me and the AP in the middle of the shop, even though their SSID wasn't the one I was looking to connect to and I'd hardcoded the SSID into the .conf file. That's probably just an 802.11b problem.

As for a Win2k install. Not a problem. Strong signal from the same AP (My laptop dual-boots Win2k, RH Linux 7.3) from the time I entered the SSID.

So, my opinion is this... anything I can get to run in Linux that the manufacturer doesn't ship drivers for is a bonus. Anything I can get to work as well as this card does in Linux I will surely recommend. I was so impressed with the way this card works I've ordered a Linksys WCF11 card with the Sharp Zaurus I just ordered. I'm confident that I'll have similar luck with getting the WCF11 card working happily in the Zaurus (which is also Linux based) because of my luck with the WPC11 card.

Part of the reason I might not have had a problem was that when I bought my card I made sure it was version 3 (a little online research told me that was the most current card) AND I downloaded the updates from linksys.com before I attempted to install the card in W2k. The only odd thing I noticed was that my LEDs are quite dim so they really don't give me effective feedback. If I hadn't gotten the card working so well I would've returned it as defective for the LED problem... but, since it works well (and I have tools to monitor the card anyway) I don't worry about the LEDs.

So.. I give the card only 4 stars because Linksys doesn't bother to provide drivers for Linux with the card. They do provide a link to the opensource wlan project ( [URL] ) but, none on the linksys site or install CD

It turns out that there is a known compatibility issue between the WPC11 v3.0 and the Linksys Wireless Access Point WAP11 v2.2. After spending hours trying to get them to work together, updating firmware and drivers, I gave up and called Linksys' technical support. The technician said that there was indeed a problem using those two particular Linksys products together. He said that a beta firmware upgrade (1.010) was available for the access point which MIGHT resolve the issue, with the caveat that it worked only about 50% of the time.

His best advice was to either use an earlier version (v2.5) of the WPC11, or use a card from another company (which was the solution I used).

Once again, there is a compatibility issue with version 3.0 of the Linksys WPC11 and the Linksys WAP11 v2.2. Until Linksys has a definitive fix for the problem or you know for certain that you are not using a Linksys WAP11 v2.2, do not purchase this card to use with your wireless network.

The card was easy to set up with the installation disk (we often set our houseguests up with their own card for their visit), as long as you make sure to coordinate the settings with the router. Their is a one-page instruction sheet which was easy to follow.

We did have a problem with one of our cards, which stopped working one day. We returned it along with sales receipt and received a new one 2 weeks later, no hassle. Linksys tech support has been generally helpful with a reasonable response time.

Installation Comments: As soon as I plugged in the card and put in the CD, XP found it and installed the non-XP certified drivers for the card. I then ran the install utility from the CD to get the configuration utility. Rebooted, expecting it would see my wireless router (linksys befw11s4 version 2) without issue, but it didn't connect to it (saw it existed but wouldn't connect).

Configuring it within XP: Do NOT rely on the configuration utility to do anything for you. The version of the program that comes on the CD, or the one that you can download (latest seems to be from january 2001) does not have the same tabs availble as the documentation specifies. Most noteably you can not configure anything about the card from this configuration utility, which is essential to getting it to work in XP.

So, here is what you have to do...go into your control panel / network connections and open the properties for the wireless card. (don't bother trying the view available networks option, it does not work) From the GENERAL tab, select CONFIGURE, making sure you have selected your wireless card. Select the ADVANCED tab. This is where you can configure the SSID, WEP passphrase, encryption level, etc to exactly match your wireless router. I found it easier to set the router FIRST, then set the wireless NIC.

I changed Authentication Algoritm to automatic based on WEP. I set channel equal to the one on the router. I reset encryption to 128, after setting this on the router and creating the passphrase and enabling WEP. I set network type to infrastructure. SSID to equal that of the router, and WEP passphrase to equal that of the router.

Voila, the wireless NIC instantly found the router and I'm online. Even have VPN available just like a normal NIC.

I hope this helps you get it working in XP :-)