ORiNOCO is the brand name that was used for a family of wireless networking solutions by Proxim (previously Lucent). These
chipsetA chipset or chip set refers to a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work together. They are usually marketed as a single product.- Computers :...
s (codenamed
Hermes) provide wireless connectivity for 802.11-compliant
Wireless LANA wireless local area network links two or more devices using some wireless distribution method , and usually providing a connection through an access point to the wider internet...
s.
Lucent offered several variants of the
PC CardIn computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by a group of industry-leading companies called the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association...
, referred to by different color-based monikers:
- White/Bronze: WaveLAN IEEE Standard 2 Mbit/s PC Cards with 802.11 support.
- Silver: WaveLAN IEEE Turbo 11 Mbit/s PC Cards with 802.11b and 64-bit WEP
Wired Equivalent Privacy is a deprecated algorithm to secure IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. Wireless networks broadcast messages using radio and are thus more susceptible to eavesdropping than wired networks...
support.
- Gold: WaveLAN IEEE Turbo 11 Mbit/s PC Cards with 802.11b and 128-bit WEP
Wired Equivalent Privacy is a deprecated algorithm to secure IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. Wireless networks broadcast messages using radio and are thus more susceptible to eavesdropping than wired networks...
support.
Later models dropped the 'Turbo' moniker due to 802.11b 11 Mbit/s becoming widespread.
Proxim, after taking over Lucent's wireless division, rebranded all their wireless cards to ORiNOCO - even cards not based on Lucent/Agere's Hermes chipset.
ORiNOCO is the brand name that was used for a family of wireless networking solutions by Proxim (previously Lucent). These
chipsetA chipset or chip set refers to a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work together. They are usually marketed as a single product.- Computers :...
s (codenamed
Hermes) provide wireless connectivity for 802.11-compliant
Wireless LANA wireless local area network links two or more devices using some wireless distribution method , and usually providing a connection through an access point to the wider internet...
s.
Variants
Lucent offered several variants of the
PC CardIn computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by a group of industry-leading companies called the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association...
, referred to by different color-based monikers:
- White/Bronze: WaveLAN IEEE Standard 2 Mbit/s PC Cards with 802.11 support.
- Silver: WaveLAN IEEE Turbo 11 Mbit/s PC Cards with 802.11b and 64-bit WEP
Wired Equivalent Privacy is a deprecated algorithm to secure IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. Wireless networks broadcast messages using radio and are thus more susceptible to eavesdropping than wired networks...
support.
- Gold: WaveLAN IEEE Turbo 11 Mbit/s PC Cards with 802.11b and 128-bit WEP
Wired Equivalent Privacy is a deprecated algorithm to secure IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. Wireless networks broadcast messages using radio and are thus more susceptible to eavesdropping than wired networks...
support.
Later models dropped the 'Turbo' moniker due to 802.11b 11 Mbit/s becoming widespread.
Proxim, after taking over Lucent's wireless division, rebranded all their wireless cards to ORiNOCO - even cards not based on Lucent/Agere's Hermes chipset. Proxim still offers ORiNOCO-based cards under the 'Classic' brand.
Rebranded products
The
WaveLANWaveLAN is a trade name that describes two completely different families of wireless network solutions:* Pre-IEEE 802.11 WaveLAN, also called Classic WaveLAN* IEEE 802.11-compliant WaveLAN, also known as WaveLAN IEEE or ORiNOCO-History:...
chipsets that power ORiNOCO-branded cards were commonly used to power other wireless networking devices, and are compatible with a number of other access points, routers and wireless cards. The following brand and models utilise the chipset, or are
rebrandsRebranding is the process by which a product or service developed with one brand, company or product line affiliation is marketed or distributed with a different identity. This may involve radical changes to the brand's logo, brand name, image, marketing strategy, and advertising themes...
of an ORiNOCO product:
- 3Com AirConnect
- Apple Airport and Airmac cards (original only, non extreme). Modified to remove the antenna stub.
- AVAYA World Card
- Cabletron RoamAbout 802.11 DS
- Compaq WL100 11 Mbit/s Wireless Adapter
- D-Link DWL-650
- ELSA AirLancer MC-11
- Ericsson WLAN Card C11
- Farallon SkyLINE
- Fujitsu RoomWave
- HyperLink Wireless PC Card 11Mbit/s
- Intel PRO/Wireless 2011
- LA4111 Spectrum24 Wireless LAN PC Card
- Lucent Technologies Wavelan/IEEE Orinoco
- Melco WLI-PCM-L11
- Microsoft Wireless Notebook Adapter MN-520
- NCR WaveLAN/IEEE Adapter
- Proxim LAN PC CARD HARMONY 80211B
- Samsung 11Mbit/s WLAN Card
- Toshiba Wireless Lan Mini PCI Card
Preferred wireless chipset for wardriving
The ORiNOCO (and their derivatives) is preferred by
wardriversWardriving is the act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless networks by a person in a moving vehicle, using a portable computer or PDA.Software for wardriving is freely available on the Internet, notably NetStumbler for Windows, Kismet or SWScanner for Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFly BSD, and...
, due to their high sensitivity and the ability to report the level of noise (something that other chips won't report). The pre-Proxim (or 'Classic') ORiNOCO cards have a jack for attaching an external antenna.
Linux drivers
The
Linux Orinoco Driver supports the IEEE 802.11b Hermes/ORiNOCO family of chips. It is included in the Linux kernel since version 2.4.3.
External links