I am interested in knowing the specs on this particular card ie chipset etc. Also I am interested in anyone's opinion regarding this card, whether it is any good? the pros and cons.

~Xipher~

Same as Lucent Gold card !!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually it is the same as the Lucent "Silver" (40bitWEP).
While this card will work under netstumbler, I had to image the card with Orinoco firmware before NetStumbler would recognize the card, my guess is that Sony modified the firmware just enough to work with their proprietary control panel.

-langly

Langly

I just bought one these cards, how do I update the firmware to make it an orinoco??

Any help is appreciated!
Thanks

I also have this card. How do I go about upgrading the firmware for it. Any help is much appreciated!

http://www.wavelan.com/template.html?section=m52&envelope=90&page=2953

Here is the link for the firmware upgrade. Now from what I understand it is the same as the silver card but you can upgrade this card to a gold card equivelant. Any further information is welcomed. I would love to know all I can about this card.

Thanks!

Well, so much for that idea. I tried to run the exe and it says "no wireless card driver found." Please post ANY useful links or knowledge.

Thanks!

Do I have to install Orinoco Client Manager first? What version of the firmware has anyone used.

Sorry for all the posts. Just trying to get things work'n here. Thanks for your time all!

Looking for a cheap 802.11b card? $50 for the vaio one, not a bad price for a "orinoco silver"
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=282097

-Malamute5

samtheclip....I have the firmware upgrade from Orinoco's website, and I'm trying to hack the firmware to allow it to update the Sony Vaio card. Basically, if you pull that upgrade program in a hex editor, you can see the text strings inside the program. ONE of those text strings is what it looks for in the card's firmware, and then it will begin the update process with the Orinoco firmware.

If Langly has done it, then I would love to get that hacked up firmware and flash my card with it. Otherwise, I'm stuck in searching for what the program is looking for. I don't know what it looks for in terms of another Orinoco/wavelan card to upgrade the firmware (anyone know?). If we can determine the exact text string it is looking for (from the card's firmware), we can change that using the hex editor into the sony's text (I also don't know what that is)...and the firmware upgrade program will flash the card to the orinoco!

If anyone could help in this, please let me know (email is zerofuzzy(at)hotmail.com)

Thanks.

Sorry but, I am getting very upset over here. It was like people where teasing me telling me they changed there VAIO card to lucent but, then offered no further infomation. Can anyone shed ANY light on this subject? It would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to run out and buy a new card if I can get this one to work.

Thanks!

samtheclip - I'm also still having the same problem.

I was able to flash it from firmware 6.04 to 6.06...I found the 6.06 firmware on ftp.orinocowireless.com.

Also there's another thread on AnandTech - see here http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=40&threadid=638744 regarding this card. There seems to be other people on that board that seem to have had luck in flashing their card to Lucent Orinoco.

Let's keep in touch and figure out how to do this....

Hi, I got the sony card too from compusa and spend sometime
fiddling in w2k trying to flash orinoco f/w without success.
However i've booted to w98 and can flash the firmware with
no problem. The overview procedure is -

1. d/l the WLW9872.exe file from wavelan ftp site. or search
from wavelan s/w d/l page.(it's the Client Mgr s/w for w98)
2. Run that exe and extract the files to a directory.
3. There are 3 directories, client mgr, driver, firmware.
4. assuming you've already installed vaio card with sony
programs and drivers, open up device manager window.
5. with the card in pcmcia slot, open network adapters.
there you'll see the sony wireless adapter.
6. do update driver from there and point to orinoco driver
directory.
7. pick orinoco 5v pc card driver from the selection.
8. reboot after updating drivers.
9. after boot up check in sony's wireless palette prog
that it still see the card.

/************************************************/
DOING STEP #10 MAY RENDER YOUR CARD __USELESS__ IF
THE FLASHING PROCESS FAILS!!!!! TAKE USUAL PRECAUTIONS!!!!
YOU ALONE IS RESPONSIBLE IF YOU MESS UP THE FIRMWARE.!!!

10. run setup.exe from the orinoco firmware directory and
update the firmware. it only takes less than 5sec.
11. you should have the latest Orinoco firmware.
/************************************************/

Run netstumbler and stumble away.....


** Some problems...
in w98 with orinoco firmware + driver.
1. Orinoco Client Mgr program complains about driver
not installed correctly. You won't be able to use
Client Mgr program. Sony app works ok even though you're
using orinoco's newest driver.

in w2k with orinoco firmware + driver.
1. netstumbler doesn't detect the card and won't scan
eventhough sony app runs fine.
2. client mgr run but cannot do anything, gives control
panel app .cpl not found error.

i'm guessing i need some app from orinoco cd to install
before installing downloaded client mgr software.


If anyone know why please post. Thanks,

lee.

Leeb...THAT'S GREAT!

I'll have to try flashing it from Win98.

Did you try uninstalling the sony drivers and then installing only the Orinoco drivers only? (either on Win98 or W2K?) Does it identify the card as Lucent Orinoco, instead of Sony Vaio?

I'm currently using W2K, so I'll have to reformat another drive on the laptop to Win98, and see if that works.


Let me know if uninstalling the sony drivers works...Great job!

oh, you can change to orinoco driver even without
updating the firmware in device manager.

i didn't try running netstumbler with just changing the driver in w98. it may work. i don't know..

lee.