From the manufacturer: “The EZ Connect g 54Mbps Wireless PCI Card (SMC2802W) is another cutting edge introduction in 2.4GHz wireless communication for your desktop. Designed for both business and home users, this new adapter provides the speed, coverage, and security expected by today’s wireless users. Based on the IEEE 802.11g standard, the new EZ Connect g Wireless PCI Card is 5 times faster than the widely used 802.11b wireless networking devices and is 100% compatible with existing 802.11b wireless networks. The SMC2802W is extremely fast and can handle streaming video, multimedia and all other bandwidth-intensive applications. Wireless clients can now easily obtain instant, seamless high-speed network connection.”
Holding the package in my hand, this feels like a feather next to the router. Much smaller package and, after opening it up, much less contents. Besides the card itself there’s only a driver CD, an antenna, and a tiny instruction manual I didn’t even read (just pop the card in and install drivers). Looking closer at the card, it looks like they just glued the PCMCIA laptop card to some PCB to get it to interface with a desktop PC! Interesting way to bring down production costs.
Installation
Installation was pretty straightforward. All there is to do is put the card in an open PCI slot and screw in the antenna. After powering on the PC it detected an ‘Unknown Network Device’, but the driver install takes care of that. I downloaded the latest drivers off the SMC website, and I recommend anyone else do the same. Driver CD’s are often out of date by the time you get the product home. The total installation only took about fifteen minutes.
