Silver vs Gold card

jay1028 · #1 11-05-2002, 11:58 PM

I presently have and RG-1000 which has an Orinoco silver card in it. I use a Orinoco silver card in my laptop and all works fine. I am now interested in adding a USB 802.11b unit to my desktop. Only thing is the USB 801.11b has a gold card in it. Is there going to be a problem here? Thanks
Jay

Greenstead · #2 11-06-2002, 11:30 AM

I think the answer to your question is no problem.

From Orinoco's website:
Our ORiNOCO PC Card is designed with a choice of security levels to protect your data. The standard level, Silver PC Card, has wired equivalent privacy (WEP), using a 64-bit key. The Gold version provides enhanced security with a 128-bit key, using RC4 encryption.

jay1028 · #3 11-06-2002, 07:06 PM

Maybe I don't quite know enough about 802.11b. I asked if the Gold and Silver with talk to each other? I know Silver is WEP 64 and Gold is WEP 128. Does Gold have to talk to Gold or will it communicate with the Silver card?

Greenstead · #4 11-06-2002, 08:34 PM

They will both talk to each other, or to any 802.11b wireless AP or router on the market. The restriction is that the silver card is limited to 64 WEP so that limits the WEP you can use on everything else.

Having said that you really need to consider if you need to use WEP. I don't. It takes significant bandwidth and really is a bit OTT unless you have malicious hacker neighbours or you do on-line banking or you are a goverment agent.

IMO more important is to use the MAC authentication and secure your PCs with passwords.

jay1028 · #5 11-06-2002, 11:41 PM

Thanks Greenstead that's what I needed to know. I can't pick up a signal at my next door neighbor's house so doing away with the WEP sounds good to me. I'll do it.
Thanks for your help.
Jay