Have you ever heard of Cisco? To be honest, the answer is yes in 99 out of 100 cases. In any case, Cisco is arguably the best network hardware producer in the world and there's no doubt about that. Everything from the pure hardware to the internal OS of Cisco devices is fully functional, offering an unprecedented level of performance both in the wireless and wired area.



The Aironet Cardbus network adapter produced by Cisco is an interesting addition to the already crowded world of laptop network adapters. The card comes with wideband transmitters which allow it to “see” both bands that are being used by APs. The network interface can be used in single mode where the card will only be able to connect to one of the a,b or g standards. Nevertheless you can also configure it to work in dual-mode or tri-mode, where it can connect to all three types of networks.



With a peak throughput of about 45-50 Mbps, the Aironet Cardbus is a very fast Cardbus adapter its pure speed in g mode matching the one of an on-board b/g adapter most of the times. While this is definitely not the cheapest Cardbus Adapter ever, it still represents a bang-for-the-buck deal especially if your portable does away with wireless networking. Moreover the Aironet adapter comes with a lot of useful security features.



At a first glance the adapter looks rather plain but don’t let that image fool you. The tiny Cardbus card can support any variation of the AES encryption standard and can even record the complete list of authentication attempts using the Radius server protocol. Keep in mind that although this product comes with a fully loaded software package, it remains quite intuitive and the configuration utilities are easy to work with.



Price-wise the Cardbus Aironet adapter can be yours for about $200. The same amount of money can buy you two classical Wi-Fi adapters but they probably won't integrate the same amount of features that come as default with Cisco's product. In the end it's up to you to decide whether you want it or you're better off with a cheaper solution.