wireless g network card

renovation · Posted: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 12:09:34 Post Subject: wireless g network card

i have a linksys wireless router with speed-boost - I'm wondering if its best and easiest to just stay with the same manufacturer equipment when buying wireless pci nic cards or really make not a lot of sense . i know a card with speed-boost will make my connection faster but is it really best to stay with one brand of equipment .
there is like as much as $30 deferents from one company to another's !
and i not seen other then linksys come out with speed boost cards and routers !

help as i need to buy one card by tonight !

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

Technically, I don't think there is.

But if you want to use the SpeedBoost, I believe most of those are propriatary to each manufacturer, as there isn't an official standard for that technology.

On my D-Link wireless router I have, I've used about eight different wireless laptop cards and never had any issues with them. But with the D-Link card I have, I can theoretically reach 108 vs 56, for general internet I see no difference, I see the difference in transfering files across network.

T-shirt · Posted: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 04:33:41 Post Subject:

I'd definatly stay within the same brand, even though in theory any card using the same Broadcom BCM4712KPB chip/design would works as well, if you have a problem requiring tech support and both product are from Linksys, they can't claim "it's that crappy brand X cards fault"

Be aware that 108Mb/s is overly optimistic as Linksys's own site says "real world 35% boost" above 54Mb/s
Best outside info for linksys products are
http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php
and
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/linksys

BeerCheeze · Posted: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 09:42:00 Post Subject:

Doesn't matter. Since they are all using the standard developed by IEEE they will all work together just fine. I"ve never had any problems and here I'm using 3 or 4 different wireless NIC's with my Linksys WAP.

acruxksa · Posted: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 13:24:38 Post Subject:

The only caveat being that anything over 54mbps is not standardized yet, so if you want to use those speeds you need a router/card combination with the same chipset implementation. Not necessarily the same brand since several companies rebrand a couple different throughput enhancement technologies. The only thing is, this requires a little research and often times it's just easier to buy both devices from the same company to simplify things.

If however 54mbps is enough then I wouldn't worry too much about it and buy the cheapest card you can find from a recognized supplier ie, Linksys, D-Link, Netgear, Belkin, Buffalo, Zyxel etc.......

Another thing to consider is that often times range will limit your connection speed anyway, so chances are you wouldn't see a benefit to speeds over 54mpbs. Although some of the newer technologies (mimo) can help, even they extend range at the cost of throughput.

My advice would be to get the most inexpensive 54g pci card you can find that has an antenna with an extension wire on it to allow you a little room to move it around. Something like this but not necessarily this one.

You could also look into getting another router and bridging the two. It's relatively easy to make a point to point connection between two routers over several hundred meters given the right directional antenna's and line of sight.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 14:18:01 Post Subject:

I just got One of these and it works just fine with my Linksys WAP.

acruxksa · Posted: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 14:51:05 Post Subject:

Pretty much any card will do, the only reason I suggested the vendors above is for driver support. Some of the pc cards I've used in the past have been from companies that are no longer around and the drivers can be more difficult to find and are rarely updated. Although if it works you shouldn't need to update them.

To be honest I think the best solution would be to get another wrt54g flash it with DD-WRT-v23-mini put it in client mode, configure it to use a different subnet and enter your other routers ssid, wpa password and connect your desktop via ethernet cable to the client router. This gives you several advantages. 1) you can connect up to 4 computers to the client router 2) The router is free to be placed anywhere in the remote location and you just run ethernet cable from it to your desktop. 3) DD-WRT allows you to raise the transmission power to improve the connection. 4) The WRT54g routers have several antenna options to improve the connection quality and speed. 5) Chances are your desktop already has a NIC so all you would need is the router which costs about as much as some 54g pci cards.

It does have some drawbacks, namely flashing firmware can be hazard prone, but if you read up on it it's not too hard.

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Another note, I've been playing with this for the last couple hours and apparently you can only have one wired connection (not confirmed but it is in the documentation) to the router while it's in client mode, but it can be a switch or hub so you still have the ability to get more than one computer networked in the remote location.
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**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 15:14:44 Post Subject:

BeerCheeze · Posted: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 19:14:42 Post Subject: