jimmy89 0 Report post Posted January 6, 2007 Hi all,i have just recently upgraded my home network to a wireless connection. I have a older laptop (maybe 2 years) that doesn't have a built in wireless lan. i am trying to work out what i should do for a wireless lan adapter. Should i get a USB connector or a PCMCIA card?i borrowed a friends PCMCIA card and put it into my laptop so see how the range was! it was really, really bad! my friend also lent me his psp to test the signal sstrength. The PSP could get 100% strength while the PCMCIA card could get nothing.does this mean that the PCMCIA cards are bad? also, i managed to get my hands on a laptop that had built in wireless - the reception on that was just as good as the PSP!so, what would be a better choice, the PCMCIA card or the usb dongle? has anyone tried both before and whats better? Thanks heaps!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yordan 10 Report post Posted January 6, 2007 does this mean that the PCMCIA cards are bad? also, i managed to get my hands on a laptop that had built in wireless - the reception on that was just as good as the PSP!This is really meaningless. This simply means that you should not buy the pcmcia card you borrowed.In a wifi connection there is an emitter and a receiver. This test simply means that the receiver you tried does not fit very well the emitter (which is namely your access point) or that the emitter is a very poor one.If your emitter is really a poor one, almost no receiver will work correctly.Here, in my house, I have three computers, one has an USB adapter, the other one has a pcmcia adapter, and the other one has a Wifi adapter in a PCI slot. All of theme work perfectly, althouth the internal PCI adapter has a slightly better signal.Also, remember that wifi is supposed to be used inside a house, so no more distance than some tens of meters is reasonable.RegardsYordan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimmy89 0 Report post Posted January 6, 2007 does that mean that i should be trying to buy something of the same brand as the access point for my laptop? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yordan 10 Report post Posted January 6, 2007 does that mean that i should be trying to buy something of the same brand as the access point for my laptop?that's exactly what I mean. If you have a Belkin access point, your Belkin PC adapter has to work perfectly. if not, Belkin customer service has to solve the problem.Of course, if you choose a different configuration, you could be lucky and see it working without any trouble, but in case of problem you cannot ask for help from the customer service. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimmy89 0 Report post Posted January 6, 2007 ok thanks for your help! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
seaq 0 Report post Posted January 7, 2007 Also remember that there are different standards for Wifi (802.11 networking). 802.11b is older and slower (10mb) but gives you a longer signal range. 802.11g offers faster throughput but is more limited on range.For range, the antenna is really important. Most notebooks that have 802.11 built in have external antennas built into the case (the screen most likely). PCMCIA cards have the antenna on the end that juts out of the slot. And USB can be anywhere. Knowing the antenna location is important because signal degrades between the access point and the antenna. You can use software like netstumbler that'll let you see the differences in signal as you move around the house. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
issdiscovery04 0 Report post Posted January 7, 2007 Generally, the wireless router should be as close to the center of the house as possible. I've had good experiences with Linksys, D-link, and belkin. Netgear wasn't a very good experience. The router would have frequent blackouts after a month and the adapter wasn't any better (negative ping). Personally, I like draft-n from linksys and belkin. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yordan 10 Report post Posted January 7, 2007 does that mean that i should be trying to buy something of the same brand as the access point for my laptop?In my house I have four Belkin wifi adapters. Two of them are able to see the access point, two of them are not. Precisely from the same point (on the same PC). isn't this strange ? Of course, I'm trying to reach a 811g with 811b adapters, which is slightly challeinging. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
borlafu 0 Report post Posted January 7, 2007 I think the best option is to try out some models and keep the one with the best performance... the interface doesn't really matter unless your computer uses USB 1.1 in stead of USB 2.0... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yordan 10 Report post Posted January 8, 2007 That's my current problem. I need to find a supplier who allows me to borrow his devices, returning them after test and buying only the one who has the best performances... I would even be lucky if I found somebody who allows me to try a PCIA adapter in order to see if it works on my laptop which can currently not see my access point... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
demolaynyc 0 Report post Posted January 9, 2007 I'm currently using a NetGear connection. It's fine but it's not on wireless so I don't know how it runs on wireless. My router is located at the end of the room and not the center but it doesn't matter because no one really uses it around the house.So is NetGear really that bad for wireless? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimmy89 0 Report post Posted January 10, 2007 So is NetGear really that bad for wireless?well my pcmcia card that i tried on my laptop was a netgear and it didn't seem to work at all! i had very bad range and the signal strength kept cutting in and out. Windows seemed to say that i only had 1 or 2 bars of reception, but the netgear client said that it was around 50% plus most of the time, and im not sure which one i should have been following. Fedora Core said that the signal strength ranged from mid 40% to around 60%. this reception was only about 10 meters away from the actual wireless router! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bluefish1405241537 0 Report post Posted January 10, 2007 Windows seemed to say that i only had 1 or 2 bars of reception, but the netgear client said that it was around 50% plus most of the time, and im not sure which one i should have been following. I would imagine that the two might be tracking slightly different things, or in slightly different ways. For example, on my laptop windows rates the connection "low" (from the floor above), but the client says "excellent". Since you can't really have an almost perfect connection from a different floor, I am tempted to believe windows for the signal strength. In the past, however, the client said a worse connection, which often resulted in disconnects. So I would guess that either my client has a lower range for "excellent", or it measures something different (i.e. the quality of the signal as opposed to the strength). It's possible that something somewhat similar is happening with yours. And the card itself would have to be poor to get that low a signal from the same room. But don't worry about the different signal ratings; as long as it's connected, it's all right. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimmy89 0 Report post Posted January 10, 2007 I can still surf the net and copy fiels from computer to computer well its just that the range is not the best. i think that if i went and got a pcmcia card or usb dongle that was the same brand as the AC then i might be able to get better reception! i'll give it a try and see what happens! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
