Wireless Desktop Card Recommendations (1 Viewer)

[Colin Davidson]

Greetings,

Need some advice from the "crew" on which wireless desktop card to get.

Here is my story thus far:

Due to my wife's quarterly "lets move the furniture around" drill my desktop PC which was located in the dining area next to the cable modem has now been moved to an empty bedroom and I now need to connect wirelessly. I currently have a LinkSys WRT54G connected to my cable modem which works great for my work laptop and daughters laptop connection needs.

I purchased a LinkSys WMP54G (PCI card) and spent about 12 hours trying to get it to work. It would connect to the WRT54G but I would never get an IP address. I tried everything I know of to get it going with no success. LinkSys' web site has plenty of complaints from people who have had the same problem with this card. The only set of drivers was in November 05 and they are not WHQL. I also tried installing the card only and using WinXP for the wireless configuration but I was getting an error that said that some other software was controlling the wireless configuration - and this was even after I uninstalled the LinkSys software and rebooted.

I will be returning it as defective and getting something else that will hopefully work. I would appreciate any recommendations on what to go with that you have had success with getting it installed and working.

Thanks,

Colin Davidson

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I haven't had a good experience with one, but I do have one to stay away from:
Netgear WG311T. I got it as part of a Black Friday package deal with the Netgear 108 Mb router (which works absolutely great.) Unreliable would be putting it mildly. Her connection is down more than it's up.
My recommendation (and I know this isn't ideal to your situation) would have to be getting a lengthy CAT5E patch cable and just run it through the walls. I've had really good luck with http://www.yesmicro.com.

 

[Marko Berg]

Do you aboslutely need to buy a wireless PCI card, or would USB be acceptable? I use a USB dongle wireless adapter for one of my computers; it works fine and there's less hassle in setting it up.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Never tried one myself, but a friend had success with some D-Link PCI cards that worked well.

I think it's a bit of a crapshoot, frankly. Not only do the cards need to work, but they need to work with your access point too. Sometimes it can easily be the access point that won't work with a given bit of gear that might work superbly on another access point...

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I've used two different Dlink PCI cards (can't remember the model numbers offhand). Both were installed in PC's in my wife's upstairs office/craft room, while the wireless router (also a Dlink) is down one floor. The first adapter, installed in an older eMachine PC, would drop its connection quite often. The newer adapter, installed in a newer Dell desktop, has been very stable communicating with the same Dlink router.

As Kimmo pointed out, different card/access point combos will yield very different results. Finding a compatible combination, including compatible firmware on each, can be a pain in the rear. We run into these same compatibility problems at work, too, with Cisco access points and certain older Intel radios built into older model Dell laptops.

 

[ThomasC]

I use a D-Link DI-524 Router and a D-Link DWL-G510 Wireless PCI Adapter. I haven't had any problems since installing them six months ago.

 

[Colin Davidson]

Thanks everyone for the responses.

Marko - I have considered USB but was concerned regarding the distance between the PC and the wireless router. Guess I could give one a try and see what happens signal wise.

I hate to have to discard a perfectly good and operating wireless router to go to some other brand to get it to work. And as I said in my initial post the wireless PCI card I purchased was LinkSys so you would think that making a connection with it's router counterpart would be a no brainer. The wireless on my work laptop is a builtin Intel 3945ABG card and it connects just fine. Guess I will give the USB way a shot and see if I have any better luck.

Colin

 

[JohnMM]

My situation is similar to what others have said - each installation seems to be finicky about what works well.

I got a package like Adam - a Netgear wireless router with Netgear wireless desktop adapter. The router works great. But I couldn't get the adapter to work. Netgear's support is the pits - I wasted hours with them with no success.

I ended up buying a Belkin desktop adapter and it worked flawlessly with the Netgear router. I was pleasantly surprised that it worked so well because I had read a lot of negative reviews about it. But on sale it was much cheaper than any other adapter so I figured I'd give it a try.

 

[Eric Samonte]

Colin...in order for the Win Xp wireless software to take control, u have to get into the Wireless Zero Config thingy. Do a search on the Windows site which has step by step instructions. That actually worked for my son's laptop with a built in wireless card connecting to a Zyxel 550.
I have an observation however on the wireless G connectivity. I tried the Linksys WRT54g, a Buffalo router and now a Zyxel 550. The connection was always fluctuating. I just switched everything to wireless b and evrything worked rocked solid.

 

[Brandon Hines]

The D-Link DWL-520 is a fantastic card. The D-Link driver, however, is not. Pick up the card and then use the latest Atheros (the card's chipset) drivers. If you need some more configuration beyond the basic Windows setup use the Gigabyte Atheros package. You won't be disapointed.

For what it's worth, I use the Gigabyte driver.

 

[Colin Davidson]

Thanks to all for the advice. I went with a LinkSys USB model and was able to set it up and get it working within 10 minutes. Signal strength is about 80% and seems to be alright.

Colin

 

[Parker Clack]

Colin:

Sorry I didn't see this sooner. What you ended up with is exactly what I have on two PCs. One is for my daughter and the other for my wife and both are hooked up via the USB wireless and I haven't had a dropped connection yet. I swear sometimes that they transfer data faster than my own PC that is connected directly to the router.