Best of the ISP-Lists

Build Your Own Card—or Not

Members of the ISP-Wireless list discuss whether or not you can save money by building your own wireless card. Before you try, take a look at all of the cheap cards on the market now.

[May 11, 2001]

On the ISP-Wireless list in April, RE had an idea:

"Has anyone ever modified any of the cards that do not have external antenna connections and added a pigtail connection? I have not been able to find an 11Mb card that has an external antenna jack for under $200, and I was thinking about soldering an external pigtail to a D-Link card."

A number of respondents advised trying some easier solutions first:

[RH scoffed] "Can't find a card for less than $200? Methinks you aren't looking. Check out Teletronics, ZCOMAX and Orinoco, just to name a few. I've modified cards before: it isn't worth it."

[LY added] "11Mb Lucent cards go for about $135, and they have a connector for a pigtail."

[MJF warned] "Modifying these cards will void the warranty, potentially damage the card, and make it no longer FCC compliant."

PF suggested diving straight in:

"The FCC rules are so convoluted it's ridiculous. For example, if you buy a Raylink card, to be 100% legal you also have to buy the specific set of components that were certified (antenna, cable, card) to be 100% complaint.

So if Raylink only certified the ISP card with no cable or antenna and you plug in any cable or antenna, you are breaking the Raylink certification. And most vendors don't list what was certified, so they screw it all up from the get-go.

Just go ahead, pry open the PCMCIA card and solder away. Be warned, through: the antenna leads can be quite small and fragile, so your soldering skills do need to be pretty good."

Others noted that rules are rules:

[AM observed] "Ridiculous as the rules may be, they are federal law. I think the tax code is ridiculous, but that doesn't stop me from abiding by it. I think anyone modifying and using unlicensed cards is asking for it. Paying extra to operate legally is often required in business. How much risk you're willing to take is a personal decision."

[JS added] "The rules we operate under were not written to account for the way we use these devices. We are fortunate that we have these tools to work with, for they would have never been developed specifically for us. As such, complaining about the rules is pointless, and saying anything that points to the regulations being at fault isn't accounting for the fact that this method of Internet delivery was developed outside of regulatory control."

—End

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