ORiNOCO PC Card

Overview
These cards were extremely popular in the early 2000s before the 802.11g standard was finalized.
 * This was the card NetStumbler (authored by Marius Milner) was written for.. which started the WarDriving craze of the early 2000s.

This card is not to be confused with...
 * Ruby (Agere W4050) radio cards (FCC ID IMRWLPCE2411R)
 * Ruby cards can only run newer firmware.. which is problematic if you want monitor mode w/ the in-kernel orinoco_cs
 * HERMES II based cards from Proxim (8420 / 8421)
 * these cards are distinguishable by the label art (they feature a businessman) and smaller antenna size
 * HERMES II cards use a different driver set than HERMES I cards
 * any other Proxim cards bearing the ORiNOCO brand

Various files and driver sets for these cards can be found here.

Additional specifications

 * Rx Sensitivity info is per the User's Guide included with the cards. This page is viewable here.

Bronze
See Lucent WaveLAN Bronze. These cards do not support 802.11b. WaveLAN Silver

Early versions (removable shields)
Cabletron CSIBD-AA 

Flashing and PDA modifications
The cards are a pain to reflash. Flashing via Windows requires a driver compatible with the desired firmware updater and a compatible card identification string (or USB ID) for the firmware updater (barring hex edits to the updater).

If you happen to have one of the Lucent branded original USB variants, you can replace the card inside with different card (most if not all rebranded models should work) and flash it without consequence. This will conveniently allow flashing from within a VMed environment.

Silver models are able to be converted into Gold models by way of lincomatic's Alchemy, allowing you, a lowly civilian, access to military-grade encryption (ROT128). Alchemy also provides the ability to change a number of options in the PDA (MAC address, usable channels, etc). PCMCIA and USB models can use Alchemy.. provided you are using a supported driver set.

For more advanced flashing of the cards (primarily changing the CIS), Intersil's FLASH.EXE program is required.
 * FLASH.EXE requires a genuine DOS environment and a suitable PCMCIA controller to work.
 * I do not fully remember at the moment and netstumbler.org is currently down, but flashing via this method will probably require conversion into Motorola S-record format.
 * You can easily brick your card with this method. Please exercise caution when flashing with this utility.