Travel Technology - Recommend me a WiFi Card For my Laptop

Okay, next question for the assembled experts. I need to get hold of a new WiFi PCMCIA card for my laptop. I have an existing Belkin one that just about cuts it but in addition to some performance problems (see my thread on WiFi woes) the card seems to have terrible range.

I'm looking for something that holds onto a signal under questionable conditions. My HP MC6000 (work laptop with integrated WiFi) laptop does this very well, good enough for multi media stuff (streaming and so on). My Dell/Belkin combo does not fare so well showing at best a poor signal at the point in the house furthest from the router. I'm therefore looking for something that performs comparably with my HP.

Also, because I like to take my Dell on my hols, if I'm lucky enough to be in reasonable range of a hotel based WiFi router, I'd like to have the best possible chance of connecting (I think that puts me on topic for this board :D ).

I am new to wireless, but perhaps my suggestions will give the other, savvy people something good to correct.

I checked into a residential hotel where I had previously only been able to get dial-up at a cost of 5 cents/minute. Recently, they went to a wireless system with a good cost per day, week or month. I went to the local Best Buy and got ACACIA card made by Net Gear. It wqas the NetGear MA521 PC CardIt worked swell. Cost was $20.00 after a $20 rebate. I am not thinking of getting broadband for my home with wireless broadcast.

Then I could work in bed ... much to my wifes delight ...... not!

Best wishes,

Teacher49

Easy, a Horizons WiFi card, certainly not a $20 card but for $89 you'll get the best darn card in the market.

It's range and reception put any other card in the market to shame.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=683665&sku=P999-1000


If you really want to spend less, then get a Linksys or Netgear card. Stay away from D-Link, Belkin and SMC.

If you really want to spend less, then get a Linksys or Netgear card. Stay away from D-Link, Belkin and SMC.
Concur with the quality and reception capabilities of the Linksys card, especially when using a Linksys router/WAP. I can only praise the Linksys gear, and their tech support.

Thank you also to NM for fantastic configuration advice (my ADSL modem is also a router, so had to work out how to "unrouter" the WRT54G :))

What can I say but to thank you all once again. My brief (and ongoing) trip into the world of wireless networking has been interesting if sometimes a little frustrating so far. A couple of the people at work are lending me bits of kit (including some of the stuff recommended above) so I'll get to try some alternatives for free.

Next thing to do is replace the old Dell though - it struggled to play the Spider Man 2 movie trailler (over Real 10) compared to my shiny new HP (unfortunately technically not mine to abuse :D )

Unlike Scott, we've not had any problems with SMC cards in our household's laptops, and did have problems with Netgear.

I agree with the SMC recommendation. I am running the SMC 2835W (I think) 802.11g PCMCIA card and it works great.

I am even able to use it in the kitchen with the microwave oven running (which usually kills the signal off the crappy D-Link card I used to have).

I paired it with the SMC 802.11g Router. CompUSA and Buy.com tend to have rebate deals on this product, so watch out for it

Unlike Scott, we've not had any problems with SMC cards in our household's laptops, and did have problems with Netgear.

Little known fact. Each of the products mentioned (except Horizon) use the same radio chipset from Atheros. So they mostly perform the same. People forget that radio waves are susceptible to interference, reflections, multipath distortion, etc. So the RF environment changes when someone walks through the room or you move a few inches. A big impact on most WiFi connections is the close proximity of a Bluetooth device.

-Stimpy, who makes WiFi Mesh infrastructure solutions.

Concur with the quality and reception capabilities of the Linksys card, especially when using a Linksys router/WAP. I can only praise the Linksys gear, and their tech support.

I don't know about the linksys tech support, but I have had great success with the linksys WPC55AG dual band (A+G) card. The other nice thing about the linksys is the configuration utility is much easier to use and seems to work much better that other peoples software. I'm a geek at heart and I frequently have trouble getting other peoples wireless cards set up properly and have never had a problem getting the linksys card to connect

I don't know who makes these today, it used to be the Orinocco cards, there were sliver and GOLD cards. You definitly wanted the GOLD series. They had higher WEP incryption, like 152K or something.

Anyway, this card never required drivers, with Win2K or WinXP. It just worked and worked with most AP's and Routers I have tried. I should say, it always worked with EVERY AP and Router.

It worked in my Ipaq, and in every laptop I have throw at it. It worked in my TIVO, it works with netstumbler, MINI stumbler for the Ipaq.

I think there is something about it being very very compatible with other systems.

I cannot say that about my slick 3COM with the XJACK antenna, which is nice in a laptop since the Antenna retrats.

Or my NETGEAR 802.11b, or 802.11b. Or my linksys, which I would personally stay away from, WAY too much software to load for the linksys cards.

I had good luck until getting the Orinocco card with a Cisco card, which was one of the originals, but have not used it since.

Basically, when I travel I have the XJACK in the laptop and I carry the Orinocco in a protective sleeve in my bag in case I have problems or need to get any other laptop up and running wirelessly in a Starbucks or somewhere else.

IF you can find them, I would recommend it highly. It will defiintly be more $$ than the 40-60 you might pay for a good card. Probably like 80-100, but I would say worth it.

Try to find one of their 802.11 a/b/g cards, to cover yourself technolgoy wise.

Easy, a Horizons WiFi card, certainly not a $20 card but for $89 you'll get the best darn card in the market.

It's range and reception put any other card in the market to shame.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=683665&sku=P999-1000


If you really want to spend less, then get a Linksys or Netgear card. Stay away from D-Link, Belkin and SMC.

And stay away from TigerDirect! very shady vendor!

I also put in a good word for SMC after owning their router/card combo (11/22mbps -b standard) for a full year now.

My one call to tech service regarded a setting, and was promptly and courteously taken care of...yes it was an Indian call center.

IIRC, Orinocco and Lucent are related in some way.

IIRC, Orinocco and Lucent are related in some way.

Lucent made the original WaveLan cards, and that got renamed Orinoco and then Lucent sold the wireless division...

You can get the SMC 2635W - Wireless Cardbus Adapter (802.11b, 2.4ghz, 11mbps) for $9.95 & free shipping.

Just buy it at buy.com for $19.95 and send in the $10 rebate. It expires at the end of may.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10345316&dcaid=1688

Starwood is offering a free Linksys Wi-fi card with 3 stays at Four Points by May 28. Register at SPG.com.

FYI: Linksys is now owned by Cisco...

Starwood is offering a free Linksys Wi-fi card with 3 stays at Four Points by May 28. Register at SPG.com.
Promo description and registration here (http://www.starwood.com/preferredguest/promotions/registration/landing_page.html?promoID=WFI&IM=FP_HP_PRIM_FPWFI)

I have a linksys G card and love it. Very easy to set up, good range. Would highly recommend it.

Okay, next question for the assembled experts. I need to get hold of a new WiFi PCMCIA card for my laptop. I have an existing Belkin one that just about cuts it but in addition to some performance problems (see my thread on WiFi woes) the card seems to have terrible range.

I purchased a Netgear WG511 (802.11g) card about a month ago at Frys, $30 after rebate.

The driver software would immediately crash Windows 2000 or XP on putting the card into the slot. You must download the latest driver from Netgear. After that, the card has worked just fine on Windows 2000, Windows 98, and XP laptops.

The range is o.k., but my daughter has a Toshiba Centrino laptop, and the range is much better with that one. The real issue is that the Netgear card just sucks the juice out of the battery. I normally get 4+ hours with a Compaq Evo 610 (or whatever), but barely over an hour when using the card. The daughter's Centrino still gets superb battery life even with the wireless on.

Lucent made the original WaveLan cards, and that got renamed Orinoco and then Lucent sold the wireless division...

...to Proxim. Or at least they own Orinoco nowadays.

FYI: NetStumbler 0.4.0 has just been released, and now supports Linksys and MANY other previously un-supported cards! www.netstumbler.com

Woohoo!

FYI: NetStumbler 0.4.0 has just been released, and now supports Linksys and MANY other previously un-supported cards! www.netstumbler.com

Woohoo!

Thanks for pointing this site out, but it says that Linksys (and all the other Atheros cards) are specifically NOT supported in 0.4.0.

See http://forums.netstumbler.com/showthread.php?t=9496

Thanks for pointing this site out, but it says that Linksys (and all the other Atheros cards) are specifically NOT supported in 0.4.0.

See http://forums.netstumbler.com/showthread.php?t=9496

You linked to a thread about 0.3.0, 0.4.0 certainly DOES work with Linksys cards, as posted here:

http://forums.netstumbler.com/showthread.php?t=10411

I have tested it with several Linksys cards, cards with broadcomm chipsets and others, ministumbler also supports the Prism chipset in my PDA.

Easy, a Horizons WiFi card, certainly not a $20 card but for $89 you'll get the best darn card in the market.
Is this now known as "SignalMax"?

Is this now known as "SignalMax"?

Yes, SignalMax and Parkervision are their current names but somehow I don't think they'll be around much longer...