Laptop without wireless card dock - can I WiFi it?

[S Works]

Hi all,

Have been asked by GF's Dad to investigate WiFi for his house. Currently they have a PC, 2 laptops with plugin slots for WiFi cards and one laptop without a slot but it does have a LAN connection port and (I guess) a network card to support that. It also has USB, Firewire etc.

I advised him to get either a Cisco/Linksys or Netgear pack for the router/access point and PC/Lapdog cards, but any suggestions on what's best to sort out the troublesome laptop without slot?

Cheers, Tim

[fazz81]

How about a USB wireless adaptor.....

http://computing.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/c_100342823_wirele

[S Works]

Never seen one of them before. Anyone use on? Any good if you don't have USB 2.0 (which I'm guessing the machine in question doesn't)?

[Raify]

I would be surprised if the lapdog doesn't have USB 2.0, especially as it has firewire (almost the same thing I understand).

Here's where I buy all my Bband bits: www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk

with some useful advice sections.

>> Edited by Raify on Thursday 29th December 15:41

[fazz81]

Never used one, but looking through the list it seems USB 1.1 will use 802.11b @ 11Mbps...which should be fine for email and web browsing I would think.....

[S Works]

Cheers chaps!

[GreenV8S]

Even the slowest wireless link is still an order of magnitude faster than broadband, so speed shouldn't be an issue is long as you have adequate signal strength. I think the main advantage of 11G is that it offers better range. The actual usable range seems to vary enormously from system to system and house to house, so this might matter to you or it might not.

[m1spw]

Good luck if you have to set it up! I only need to connect two computers, and its 2 days since I started the install and still only one computer has the internet. Don't believe their easy set up lies!

I'm using a USB connector in a USB1.1 plug, seems to be working fine, XP doesn't mind it. Although maybe thats why it won't connect...

[victormeldrew]

I've used USB adapters with no problems. Failing that most wireless routers also have ethernet ports, so you could use that one laptop with - dara I say it - an ethernet cable!