Home > Consumer Reviews > OfficeConnect® 11Mbps Wireless PC Card w/ XJACK®

Wireless LAN for the home is going mainstream, with a wide range of compatible 802.11b WiFi products now in the marketplace there is plenty of choice and competitive pricing. 3Com are a big corporate networking player but don't be put off by the "Officeconnect" tag. This product along with 3Com's Wireless access point router was keenly priced and met my needs for a simple home network setup sharing a broadband ADSL connection. Latest drivers and firmware can be downloaded from the 3Com support website and upgraded without a hitch. The xjack retractable antenna is a useful special feature of this card. Wireless range seems to be good, with strong signals on three different floors, even with concrete walls. Highly recommended.

This card is very good value for the money. I was tired of having to pull my wireless cards in and out all the time because of the antenna that always got in the way. This card was a breeze to set up (3 minutes) and worked like a charm since day one. I am using it on XP Professional running on a Thinkpad X series. The antenna can be toggled in and out. The good thing is that you do not even need to pop out the antenna if you have a strong signal around you. I consistently get 10+ MBPS connects with my Netgear router at home. The software that comes with it lets you set up mutiple profiles: I have one for my office and one for home. Highly recommended.

This card is amazing. The abiltiy to retract the antenna is a huge plus. A corection to another review I read - Card will not work while retracted!. The reception is excellent. I needed to replace a USR2410 due to VERY poor signal strength. I ordered linksys card (not the new 54g) since I have the Linksys WAP. Even worse signal strength than the 2410. Returned it and ordered the 3com card, with much hesitation considering my problem with the USR. Signal strength is at full where other two cards could not even connect. Amazing!! I would highly recommend this product.

The XJack is a great product for those of us with laptops that did not come with built in wireless LAN capability.

The antenna can be pushed in and tucked away without having to remove the PC card from the laptop.

When the antenna is pushed in, you CAN still get connected to a wireless LAN as long as you are less than 3-5 feet away from the wireless router.

Once you are more than 5 feet away from the wireless router, you will have to pull out the antenna to get connected.

The reception is much better than the Linksys card I used earlier.

I wish I had bought the XJack first.

In my opinion, this is the best wirless LAN PC card out there in the market since the card is in a way "integrated" into the machine instead of sticking out all the time.

Performance, design, and functionality are all excellent.

It's just better than I expected. It works even when the antenna is pushed in! (with enough signal strength around you)
I recommend it!