Greetings.
For use with both T-Mobile, here in the USA, and Orange in Poland, I'm contemplating getting a Sierra AirCard 881 Wireless Unlocked High Speed PC Card from one of the vendors offering it through Amazon or eBay. Though AT&T-branded, it's allegedly "unlocked".
My questions, addressed to those who know anything about it, whether from reviews (I haven't actually been able to find any, myself) or from first-hand experience:
- Does it live up to its "High Speed" billing (7.2 Mbps DL speed)?
- Is it reliable or flaky?
- Is its driver installation a hassle or straightforward?
- Any other pros or cons you'd care to call to my attention?
- Is there a USB version that "runs cooler and more reliably"? (each candidate notebook, below, has both USB ports & PCMCIA slot)
- Does 75 bucks sound fair, high, or low as price for this?
I'm most likely to be wanting to use it with an XP notebook, or perhaps a Vista notebook; by the time I really need it, in Poland in April, I may even have Ubuntu 8.04 available as well.
Thanks in advance for your advice, and ...
Cheers, -- tlvp