Can anyone point me to a PCMCIA reader running off USB etc

Post #116,175 by dmarker 9/1/03 4:52:48 AM 9/1/03 7:23:09 AM Reply	Can anyone point me to a PCMCIA reader running off USB etc I want to plug a PCMCIA card reader into a USB 2 slot so I can use some pcmcia cards on my servers to experiment with. In particular (I bought 3 x 802.11a PCMCIA cards quite cheap & want to try to set one up as an access point). I like the thought of a home wireless network running at 54Mbit. Will try ad-hoc mode first :-) Cheers Doug PS I just ran some timing tests using 2 Proxim Skyline 802.11a cards, in ad-hoc mode, & with 2x activated. I transfered a staggering 300MB in 2 minutes over the Wi-Fi link. The computers were close to each other. When I put them in different rooms the speed droped to 300MB in 2min 40secs. I see you can get refurbished version of these babys in the US at just a few dollars. Edited by dmarker Sept. 1, 2003, 07:23:09 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #116,191 by hnick 9/1/03 9:57:48 AM Reply	Ad hoc may work for a very small network without much in the way of security. If you try to use WPA level security, the NIC you are using for an AP will disassociate and reassociate every time it connects to a different machine. That can devolve to almost a reassociate (including negotiating for keys) on a per-packet which would really suck. Static WEP doesn't have to renegotiate, but is easy to crack. You take your trade-offs and get what you pay for... AP's have smarts in them for a reason. Somebody has to keep track of things and the radio firmware in not really up to it. With regard to the original question, I am pretty sure that I have seen USB to PCMCIA converters, but I haven't actually got my paws on one. Further, most of the 11a radios are actually Cardbus which may not be covered by such a converter. That's about my 2 cents worth, Hugh
Post #116,206 by a6l6e6x 9/1/03 11:53:44 AM Reply	GIYF, Doug. Here is [link\|http://www.arstech.com/usbpcmcia.htm\|my find]: 1. allows plugging and handling of one PCMCIA card . This can be any standard or custom PCMCIA card . 2. easy and simple migration from PCMCIA form factor to USB - full access to memory and I/O space of the PCMCIA card , and handling of IRQ and DMA events . 3. includes Universal Software Layer support 4. have 2 test applications - menu driven GUI application and command line application for manual interaction - read / write of memory / I/O space on an PCMCIA card , demo available for download* . 5. software developers kit available - to assist in the conversion of the software of the PCMCIA card to work on USB . 6. products coming in enclosures / boxes in 3 different colors - black , grey , and bone ; please specify the color when ordering . Demo applications - 37k compressed file for download - uncompress and run on Windows 95/98/ME/2000 operating systems . [image\|http://www.arstech.com/pcm2.jpg\|0\|Image\|\|] I have no personal experience with it. Alex "Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something."* -- last words of Pancho Villa (1877-1923)
Post #116,271 by dmarker 9/1/03 9:28:37 PM Reply	That looks easy to setup & use Will go over the detail. Thanks Doug PS I ran the following timins 8011a vs 8011b cards in two notebooks 1) Proxim 802.11a Cards - 300MB single file 2 mins at 2,500k per second 2) Standard 802.11b PCMCIA cards same file 9 mins 555k per second. Cheers Doug
Post #116,378 by dmarker 9/2/03 5:39:48 PM Reply	Found a dirt cheap Proxim 802.11a Access Point Only $40 US Got it on eBay. It is a used commercial one (no power adapter & no antennas but that is no prob) & with a bios upgrade I can use it for home use with the Skyline cards. Turns out to be the cheapest approach of all. Cheers Doug

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