TrueMobile 1170 802.11g upgrade

Question

Hi,   Is there a list of PCMCIA radio cards that the Dell TrueMobile 1170 AP supports? I would like to upgrade to 802.11g but the Dell radio kit has long since been discontinued.   Thanks, Duncan

esquire · Answer

Any PCMCIA 802.11g wireless adapter will work since it is backward compatible with the older standard, but merely upgrading your adapter will not migrate your whole network to the newer standard since your AP supports 802.11b only - your network will still operate at 802.11b standard and so will your new adapter.   You will need to replace your 1170 as well.     Message Edited by esquire on 11-08-2005 10:03 AM

dp27 · Answer

This is not true. i) The Dell 1170 (aka Orinoco AP2000) is fully 802.11g compatible and ii) most PCMCIA cards are not supported. Since starting this thread I have found info on both the Dell and Orinoco websites regarding which PCMCIA radios can and cannot be used. Also check the firmware updates - each successive update includes support for another 1-2 cards. The radio is standardised (802.etc) but the drivers for the multitude of differnt cards are not.

esquire · Answer

I think you have missed the finer point on compatibility between the two standards.  The Dell TrueMobile 1170 Wireless Base Station is a 802.11b device only. http://supportapj.dell.com/support/edocs/comm/1h824/enu/intro/index.htm   Being 802.11g compatible does not mean the network will run as 802.11g.  A 802.11b router or Access Point will only operate at 802.11b speeds, even in the presence of 802.11g device, and the 802.11g device will connect and run at 802.11b speeds to the router/AP.  The presence of a 802.11g device does not upgrade the entire network the 802.11b router/AP operates - the device will downgrade instead to the operate at the older standard to maintain backward compatibility.     I have yet to come across a wireless adapter whereby the connectivity is dependent on the router/AP firmware support, so it will be interesting to see an example of what you have been reading regarding this 'driver' issue.     Message Edited by esquire on 11-08-2005 10:05 PM

dp27 · Answer

I'm referring to the PCMCIA radio card(s) that plug into the 1170, not that are merely on the same network! The 1170 uses PCMCIA cards as its radio source i.e. it doesn't have an internal radio of it's own hence it needs a driver built into the firmware for whatever card is plugged into it.

It's also most definitely 802.11g compatible: http://www.dell.com/downloads/us/products/latit/tm1170_spec.pdf

Anyways, I've found a compatibe Orinoco 11g card on ebay (needs the 1170 reflashing with Orinoco firmware).

esquire · Answer

Sorry about the confusion.  Your original post makes more sense now after reading the PDF document your posted.

dp27 · Answer

I think I've just found the source of confusion  - there is another Dell wireless device called the 1170 wireless router which has an internal 11b radio.   My device is the 1170 wireless access point which depends on PCMCIA cards for it's radio.   Cheers

bradchapin · Answer

Duncan / Or others that know the answer,
I also have a Dell TrueMobile 1170 (the Proxim AP-2000 version) and I'd like to upgrade my access point to support the 802.11g standard as well. I'm curious what card you used and what if anything you had to do to get the card to work within the unit. I've heard that the Proxim 8800 card works, but those are hard to find at reasonable prices (I'd end up paying more for the card than I did the Access Point -- granted I got a great price on such a great product). Does anyone have a list of 802.11g cards that will work within the PCMCIA card slots of this unit?
Thanks,
Brad

dp27 · Answer

Brad,

I was looking at reflashing my 1170 with the Proxim firmware so I could use one of the Proxim 802.11g PCMCIA cards but like you I found these cards to be rare and expensive.

I'm still trying to determine which Dell cards will work - perhaps someone from Dell could provide a list of the cards that work? There must be at least one as there used to be a Dell 802.11g upgrade kit for the 1170.

Duncan

bradchapin · Answer

Duncan,
I've upgraded my Dell unit to the latest 2.5.5 firmware. The web-gui will show Proxim after the upgrade. You can download the software from Proxim. This latest release fixes a 802.1x issue where using WEP and 123456 disabled the Radius requirement (I think I got that right).

I know that HP also OEM'd this unit from Proxim and called it the 520WL (J8133A). They also sell/support a PCMCIA card that supports the 802.11g rate.
http://www.hp.com/rnd/products/wireless/520wl/accessories.htm?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN
I think that the US uses the 11 Channel version (J8432A), but for people reading this post in other countries...

ProCurve Wireless 802.11g Access Point Card 170wl 11 CH (J8432A)
IEEE 802.11g radio card for 520wl Wireless Access Points, 11-channel

ProCurve Wireless 802.11g Access Point Card 170wl 13 CH (J8430A)
IEEE 802.11g radio card for 520wl Wireless Access Points, 13-channel
ProCurve Wireless 802.11g Access Point Card 170wl 14 CH (J8431A)
IEEE 802.11g radio card for 520wl Wireless Access Points, 14-channel

Unfortunately they have a disclaimer that states "The ProCurve Wireless 802.11g Access Point Card 170wl is only supported in the ProCurve Wireless Access Point 520wl." I think that it should work, but of course depending on your budget it might still be on the expensive side for an 802.11g card

http://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin/tech4less/J8432A $83

The Proxim 8800-FC card which should work with the Proxim firmware seems to cost quite a bit more, the best I could find was $150
http://www.thegrafixguy.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&currency=USD&products_id=3185

Not sure what the Dell card is packaged as, but I agree with you, it would be nice if someone from Dell could provide that answer. I wish that there was a Dell firmware of 2.5.5, but I didn't see in on their website, so I guess I am branded as a Proxim unit now (not sure if this affects which OEM cards you can use, but probably not).

Regards,
Brad

p.s. If I find anything else out, I'll post here since you (like me) have an automatic notification of this thread set-up.

bradchapin · Answer

Another option may be client card for the AP-3. There's an Avaya load (also 2.5.5)
ftp://ftp.avaya.com/incoming/Up1cku9/tsoweb/avayawireless/software/12_2005/OR_AP2000_R2.5.5-B1070-AP2000.bin
The Proxim load (2.5.5) is here
http://keygen.proxim.com/support/orinoco/ap-2000/2.5.5/AP2000.bin
The HP's not so current software is here (2.4.5)
http://www.hp.com/rnd/software/wap520wl_Download1.htm
I can't seem to find any recent Dell Software. There may have been other OEMs that would also have reasonably priced 802.11g cards
Brad

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

TrueMobile 1170 802.11g upgrade

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