Buffalo AirStation 54Mbps Wireless CardBus

Model: WLI-CB-G54
Price: $99
MSRP
Rating:
3 out of 5
Features

The WLI-CB-G54 is Buffalo Technology’s companion network interface card (NIC)
to their Buffalo AirStation
G54 Wireless Broadband Router
. Like most CardBus
NICs, the WLI-CB-G54 is nondescript physically, though the smoked plastic (and
translucent) antenna portion is a nice touch.

It with a Windows-based utility called Client Manager, used to configure the
card, as well as perform basic configuration with the AirStation G54 router
itself. The application is very minimalist in form and function, essentially
consisting of a few pull-down menus from which you can perform basic tasks like
finding and connecting to an access point, and configure WEP settings. Most
other more technical WLAN settings must be accessed through the card’s device
driver Advanced tab.

If you don’t mind running Client Manager all the time, it can also display
pop-up messages concerning possible intrusion attempts experienced by the router.
One other helpful bit of information it provides is a status line that constantly
updates the signal strength percentage and the data transfer mode the card and
access point are communicating at.

Installing the drivers and the Client Manager utility went without incident,
but after rebooting I were unable to automatically acquire a signal from or
connect to the AirStation G54 router. After several minutes of troubleshooting,
I realized that the utility had been set by default to communicate with another
NIC in ad-hoc mode.

After, switching to infrastructure mode and doing a scan of available networks,
the AirStation G54 router/access point presented itself and I associated to
it without any further difficulty.

The WLI-CB-G54 can function as a standard 802.11b device, and is Wi-Fi certified
for that purpose. Connecting to a non-Buffalo access point required configuring
a manual connection in the Client Manager, but after doing so I was able to
connect it to a D-Link DWL-900AP+ 802.11b access point in 11Mbps mode, and with
128-bit WEP enabled as well. The Buffalo card, of course, could not take advantage
of the enhanced 22 Mbps mode the D-Link offers.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

News Around the Web