Re: External antenna for pcmcia Aironet cards

ullbergm · ‎03-24-2002

I'm looking at buying a aironet card for my laptop. The problem is that i want to use an external antenna.

I've been looking online and it looks like that i can buy the PCI version and be able to use the pcmcia card with an external antenna.

Is this true or is there an other way to use a external antenna?

Thanks,

Magnus Ullberg

e-see · ‎03-24-2002

The PCI card is for a device with a PCI expansion slot. For a laptop, you need a PC card, which has a fixed diversity antenna.

shaun.oliver · ‎03-26-2002

You need an AIR-LMC352.

It is a PC Card with 2 MMCX connectors, rather than integrated diversity dipole antennas (as in the PCM352).

ullbergm · ‎03-26-2002

Great,

Thanks.

I was afraid that Cisco might be doing the same thing that LinkSys has done, they have gone away from doing the pc card -> pci converter card. The now have a "normal" pci card..

derwin · ‎04-02-2003

The PCI card is made up of a LMC card on a PCI card adapater.

You can not however remove the LMC card from this card adapter and use it as a LMC card, the reason for this is the boot block versions are different and the bootblock version used relies on logic found on the PCI card adapter. This is maninly due to the very different bus speeds of the 2 form factors PCI Vs PCMCIA

You will see very bad RF and throughput performance and doing this is NOT supported.

The correct way of doing this is use a LMC cardwhich can be ordered with the part number AIR-LMC352

howardxu · ‎04-02-2003

dimnsion

tdennehy · ‎03-29-2002

Yes, you can use an external antenna....you can find an antenna adapter cable and antenna on ebay.

derwin · ‎04-03-2003

You are 100% correct for a PCI card but he needs to use a PCMCIA card for a laptop,

I also would not recommend using an antenna you buy on ebay as the FCC certification is for the system this includes the cable and antenna, if you change this then the install is responsible for the certification.

The certification is valid for any Cisco antenna that can be found at this link for the applications listed.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps469/products_data_sheet09186a0080092285.html

AIR-ANT3351 is designed for use with the LMC card

This is a great link for understanding Antenna

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps469/products_data_sheet09186a008008883b.html

It has a great section with some information on regulations