Finally doing some comparative testing between the Cisco Aironet LMC-352 and Lucent Technologies Orinoco based WaveLAN Silver PCMCIA network cards on my NEC Versa 40EC under Windows 95 OSR 2.5. Got them BOTH installed on the NEC Versa.
So far I still prefer the Orinoco functionally, and because I can actually find the DOS drivers for it online without a bunch of cockamamie login baloney. The Orinoco also seems a lot less fiddly and has a far more "modern-esque" user-friendly setup that someone used to modern WPA2/WPA Wifi Networks would feel more comfortable using. It has the signal bars in the system tray like a modern laptop, while there is some manual configuration with creating profiles, and there's a pretty good amount of tweakability in the software (as well as the profiles being editable outside the utility in the registry). I'd say this is the best choice so far. That and again, not having to sign up to download drivers.
The Cisco card does have some advantages though. For starters, I picked the LMC-352 because it's actually just a PCM-352 with the outboard extension block removed and replaced with a pair of very discreet LED lights and 2 screw in antenna terminals. This means it can be operated with the door of the laptops PCMCIA expansion bay closed. This is basically a "hack" but it does work and rather well with modern WiFi access without security, or with WEP encryption "security". Also, Cisco, being probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest corporate network hardware companies in the world, has some extremely detailed software for it - the ADC (Aironet Client Utility). The ADC
Things I've done WiFi Wise with both cards....under windows 95 OSR 2.5....
- Connected to an open Wifi Guest network opened temporarily on my Linksys router from our ISP. It gets a rather good signal, however, after removing IE 4 during an unwanted install while installing a game, I started having problems. The ONLY reason I went with no security is my router only supports WPA/WPA2 and has no support for WEP. I'm more than happy with that for security reasons, plus I turn off the Guest WiFi when I'm not using it.
The Lucent WaveLAN Silver managed to connect to this hotspot until the IE mess up. The Cisco however was uninstalled before putting the WaveLAN in to prevent conflicts (I got the Cisco earlier). I reinstalled it afterward for the conflict test of having BOTH cards in the computer. I noticed when the Orinoco failed to connect it was because it was failing to get an IP Address from the router/access point. However, changing to using the Hotspot function on my Google Pixel 3 as-needed works great, and it's not using my data plan because I'm basically piggybacking the laptop onto my phone.
The Cisco I never got working before the WaveLAN card. The software is a tad more clunky, but quite a bit more detailed. Apparently it was designed to work directly with Cisco's Aironet APs and other Cisco proprietary gear. That said I was able to get it to connect to the Cell Phone but it won't get on the internet from it for whatever reason, probably just some details I'm missing in configuration or something about how the driver or card works it does not like. However, it's cool that I can see everything - throughput speed, how much data xferred, how strong my wireless signal is (frighteningly strong - this is a 486 laptop with a WiFi card with basically no Antenna and it's getting a full five bars in the utility, 🤣, WITH The door closed).
Outside of WiFi, have been experimenting a lot with games. Diablo, Microsoft Golf, and Postal all run on the NEC (postal runs a bit grumpily though, as expected). I'm holding off on the DOS/WFW setup because I'm thinking of throwing an 8GB PATA SSD with Maxblast DDO into it with 4 2GB Partitions just like my desktop, and that most likely will become it's permanent setup. But before that I might use the original 230MB HDD to test out the cards in DOS/WFW. The battery can also use a rebuild but finding NiMH cells for it is kind of hard, the ones in it are roughly 3/4" wide by 1 3/4" long - can't remember the "millimeter" conversion - have it written down somewhere else ATM. I also plan to try out a Kingston 32MB memory card upgrade - putting it at 36MB of RAM. For some weird reason NEC says that the highest card offered was 16MB and must never have updated because Kingston's document said the card is compatible with the 40EC - would be nice to have this thing running somewhat like my Desktop 486 DX4-100.
Also messed around with the 486 DX4-100 quite a bit, plugged a Fender Mustang Pro Rock Band 3 controller into the MIDI (basically those Fender licenced guitars that actually play like real guitars are just MiDi controllers with a console-interface that plugs into them to work with the game). Used Cakewalk Pro 5 and messed around abit in Creative Vienna so I might be doing some Soundfont Authoring for my own music before too long using the DX4-100 both as a recorder, and as an instrument. Will be awesome once I start moving to PATA SSD's in that computer as well.
Next up, since my "retro budget" is non-existent this month, start installing some more software on the NEC Ready 9522 P100 computer. Have some other games ot run on it (Midtown Madness, Monster Truck Madness - I like Bigfoot - a LOT!).
