Comments on the Proxim RangeLAN-DS PCMCIA Prism2Card:

Originally we were hoping that this card was a rebranded Zcomax XI-300 (see ZcomaxXi300Comments). However MichaelCodanti reports that:

I just got my 20 Proxim RangeLan-DS 8434-05 cards...

The good news:

• They are Zcomax XI-300's and have a snap off antenna with two Reverse MMCX connectors

Now for the bad news:

• The sticker says they have firmware 0.7.6, where the new Zcomax ones have 0.8.3.

Now for the REALLY bad news:

• These are 3.3 volt cards, not 5 volt. (They are like the D-Link cards) But even worse, the cards are keyed correctly (unlike the D-Link ones) so they won't even go into the slot on my Toshiba 430CDT or a Stylistic 1000. This could be good news for some embedded boxes(if they support 3.3 volt) as I think the 3.3 volt cards draw less power.

I, also, got 2 Proxim RangeLan-DS 8433-05 cards. They are almost the same as the above 8434-05 cards but the have an integrated antenna with a single connector of unknown type (maybe SSMB). They still come with old firmware and are 3.3 volt.

NOTES: With a little coaxing you can get Windows to update the firmware on these cards. I had to use drivers from Zcomax (had to hack the .inf file) and then I used the firmware update tool from Addtron as Zcomax hasn't released the 0.8.3 firmware they ship on their cards They have released a newer one but you can't use it until they release newer drivers to match.

[CategoryHardware]