Wireless Card!

Wireless Card!

by shovain Nov 17, 2004 12:35PM PST

hi guys!
hello ken and ryan and other computer gurus who would be reading this

i had another question on wireless caards.
the thing is i really want to use my laptop wireless connection in college campus so i need all the range / strong signals i can get.
now i believe i need pc card to get that? what is the best range i can get out of pc card? and if there is another way please show me the way.
thank you

Discussion is locked

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Re: Wireless Client!

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Nov 17, 2004 1:19PM PST

To get the max range we resorted to this (link) and an antenna (second link).

http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=36&prid=603
http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SCB10&cat=NET

or

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SMCHMANT-4&cat=NET

You can get quite a boost this way.

Bob

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Re: Wireless Client!

by Ryan T Nov 17, 2004 9:21PM PST

Do any of those attach to a notebook adapter? Because as he says, he wants to use it on campus so he's pretty much at the mercy of his university's choices for Routers and Antennae.

And unless you want to walk around campus with a "cantenna" . . . your choices are pretty limited.

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The smaller antenna then.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Nov 17, 2004 10:40PM PST

I noted 3 parts which we have in use in various places.

Remember that we (my office team) have to solve such issues and can't give up!

So, it is possible for a bright engineer to help you modify your internal wifi card to use the smaller antenna noted. The smaller antenna is also better suited for a backback since its pretty crushproof.

Bob

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Re: Wireless Card!

by Ryan T Nov 17, 2004 9:18PM PST

Well maybe ken knows something about integrated vs. PC Card wireless connections, but from what I've seen, be it a card or integrated, the band is what matters.

Wireless-B works at a 2.4 GHz band and transmits information at 1-11 Mbps. As the speed goes down, the range goes up. Wireless-G works at 5 GHz and transmits at speeds from 1-54 Mbps. Oddly enough the ranges are quoted the same.

Things change from outdoors to indoors of course. Inside, the computer has to deal with steel in the walls, cordless phones at 2.4 GHz, electrical panels, and so forth.

Both Intel's ProSET integrated wireless and most non-integrated solutions quote a range of 100m or about 300 feet. However, this is not the range AT the maximum speed. This is the range at the minimum speed.

Being a college student and using wireless on campus I can tell you that you never get 300 feet. Especially not indoors.

Now, Wireless G SEEMS to have a greater effective range and my guess is this. Wireless G operates on the (I think) less crowded 5 GHz band. Since in my experience there are less devices operating at this frequency, it faces less interference and yields something closer to its effective range.

Count on 75 Feet. Basically if you are in a building that offers wireless then you can usually get it.

But, for example, FAU is built on an old Air Force Base and our buildings are exceptionally endowed with concrete and steel. So in one building that has the router on the 4th floor, when I'm on the 1st floor I barely get any signal.

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Re: Wireless Card!

by KenSanramon Nov 18, 2004 2:39AM PST

Just make sure you get a notebook that has a 54G (backwards compatible to the slower B) built in minipci card -- that will give you the G which has a longer range than b and also is up to 5x faster (but many people can't take advantage of the speed increase as DSL for instance is only downloading at 1.5kp/s.

But the G wi-fi gets you a better signal than b.

It is more important to bet a quality wi-fi router to transmit a stronger signal -- your built in Intel 2200b/g or equivalent should pick up any of these.

If you are at the mercy of the school transmission (as opposed to your own wi-fi router) you could try buying an external card but not only is that wasted $ if you don't need it but it sticks out of the side of the notebook and can be broken off and defeats the portability aspects of the notebook if you don't need it.

As Ryan states, concrete or other more solid obstacles will cut down on the transmission but I have no problems going from a 2nd floor room to the 1st floor and outside on the rear porch using a D-link wi-fi router (mine if the 108mps model but I am not using that yet as you need an external card -- it works great at the standard 54g my built in wi-fi Intel 2200 has (Pentium M Centrino).

Note: Some people have been able to find a 108mps internal minipci card and have upgraded from the b (if they bought their notebook before 2004) or the 54G card but the bioses of many notebooks (at least IBM and HP/Compaq) cannot be updated without the official card so in my notebook (HPZT3000 / Compaq X1000 series) people have had to stay at the F34 bios to be able to use the faster internal wi-fi card -- if they go up to F42 or the new F50 bios (provided free at hp/compaq website when the upgrade the bios on all new shipping notebooks) the people without the original internal minipci card can not upgrade the bios.

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