SMC Announces High Power 802.11b PC Card

SMC announced today a PC Card that aims to increase flexibility and mobility of wireless networking.

The SMC2532W-B 2.4GHz 802.11b High Power Wireless PC Card is part of SMC’s new EliteConnect High Power family of products, and provides up to 200 milliWatts (mW) of transmit power, SMC said. The card will be available for $139.99 at the beginning of April, the company said.

According to SMC, the card has an operating range of 2,700 feet (SMC says three times the normal range of 802.11b clients) and has “excellent receive sensitivity.” The range of the card can be extended by attaching an optional high-gain antenna to one of two available MMCX connectors, SMC added.

The card includes an installation wizard for easy setup, and the card can work in either ad hoc or infrastructure mode, SMC said. Support for 64- and 128-bit WEP encryption is available on the card, and in Q2 2003 support for the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) standard will be available. Also in Q2 2003, 802.1x support will be available, SMC said.