Wi-fi Upgrade Suggestions?

[jimbim]

I have an aging Acer laptop with xp, a cardbus slot I've never used and USB 1.1 slots.

The laptop otherwise meets my needs, though want to upgrade it to wireless capability, not for any particular service but various free and pay hotspots as I haul it around Thailand and Malaysia.

I assume that I would want to upgrade with a cardbus card, but admit I have no idea which card to buy -- all the numbers and letters mean nothing to me.

If you've done it, or know something about it, suggestions would be appreciated.

[Crossy]

I had a similar problem, ancient laptop

I got both a cardbus and later a USB Wifi adaptor and ended up using the USB more. It has the advantage that you can put it on an extension lead and wave it around for best signal.

If you're only going to be accessing the net then the 'slow' (12Mbs) USB 1.1 will not be a handicap, the same goes for all the fancy letters after the 80211 ( http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/wireles...211standard.htm ) as they are pretty well all speed enhancements. Get the lowest cost dongle you can

Obviously YMMV

[Crushdepth]

Just buy yourself a combined b/g card if you want to use public hotspots, as nearly all hotspots in Thailand are one of those. If you just want general wireless access most of the newer cards should be ok for you.

If you want to set up your own wireless at home maybe you could mess with n, but otherwise I wouldn't bother. One thing to watch is that there are still some older cards sitting on dusty shelves that don't support the newer WPA encryption (ie. they only support the hopelessly broken WEP encryption). But again, that probably doesn't matter much if you just want to use public (unencrypted) networks.

[jimbim]

Thanks Crossy,

Would USB 1.1 also be good for Skype use, since that would be most important to me.

I was considering ordering the D-Link DWL-G650 (Wireless Cardbus Adapter, 802.11g, 108Mbps) from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DWL-G650-Wire...r/dp/B00007LTB6

Cheap, but maybe the USB route would make more sense.

[jimbim]

Just buy yourself a combined b/g card if you want to use public hotspots, as nearly all hotspots in Thailand are one of those. If you just want general wireless access most of the newer cards should be ok for you.

b/g cards generally offer 54 or 108Mbps speeds Admit I don't understand the difference.

Thanks for the heads-up about encryption types.

Edited to say I finally read Crossy's link and understand the speeds a bit better.

Edited July 10, 2008 by jimbim