I am confused about setting up wireless cards in laptops?

Question

PLEASE HELP ME FOR I AM LOST. I HAVE A VERY OLD DELL LAPTOP THAT DOES NOT HAVE A WIRELESS CARD BUILT IN SO I WANT TO PURCHASE ONE AND INSERT IT INTO THE SLOT. I GO TO HOT SPOTS TO USE THE INTERNET, WILL THE WIRELESS CARD BE ABLE TO DETECT THOSE SIGNALS? DOES IT MATTER WHAT BRAND THE WIRELESS CARD IS? FINALLY, IS A WIRELESS CARD AND ADAPTER THE SAME THING? PLEASE HELP ME AND PROVIDE LINKS TO GOOD QUALITY WIRELESS CARDS. THANKS!

Answer 1

First off, when you buy your wireless card get one that supports wireless G because that is now becoming more popular than wireless B. The wireless G card will be able to detect but B and G signals.



It makes no difference on what type of card you buy and if your Dell computer has a USB port you can buy a USB wireless adaptor (I bought one off of ebay for $10 and it works great.



I would like to be able to provide links but there are just so many cards to choose from and I don't know which version of PCMCIA card slot you have.



There are slight differences in the terms of wireless card and wireless adapter, an example is PCMCIA card and USB adapter, since the adapter reads the USB port to read the wireless signal where the card contains everything.

Answer 2

A wireless card will allow you to connect to any Wi-Fi hotspot. An adapter is connected through the USB port (much easier to setup and move between computers) while a wireless card plugs into a PCI slot on the motherboard. I personally suggest an adapter even if they tend to be a slight bit slower than the cards for the sole reason that getting into the inner workings of a laptop is way harder than getting into a desktop.

Answer 3

Yes they are the same thing. The adapter or card will receive those hotspot signals. The best thing to buy is a "card" that looks like a usb stick because it could be used on a desktop computer too. Here's an image which is an adapter. The second image is the wireless card.

Answer 4

If your laptop is very old, be careful when purchasing just a USB.



Your laptop also comes with PCMCIA and may be better than using USB on your laptop.



Depending on the age, you most likely do not have USB 2.0, or perhaps, not even USB.



Also, make sure that you are not purchasing a PCI wireless card, you will want to choose either a PCMCIA (similiar in size to a credit card) or a USB.



Lastly, as far as wireless standards, there is A, B, G, and N.

"N" is the most recent and is backward compatible with the previous standards. Any card should be able to work with these signals. Brand should not matter.



USB Dlink

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=656&sec=1



USB Linksys

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1175243256159&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=5615933028B32



Dlink PCMCIA

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=532&sec=1



Linksys PCMCIA

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1175243256075&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=5607533028B30