Wireless adaptor?

CathJ

CathJ

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Hi

This is a rather vague question, and I'm not really sure if I'm even in the right forum, so please bear with me :-)

I'm moving to the UK next week, and one of the things I'm most looking forward to is decent internet access. I've been looking at flatshare sites, and a lot of them mention that they have wireless access. What would I need, in terms of hardware, to be able to make use of this? I have a laptop which doesn't have wireless support - would a wireless PCMCIA adaptor be what I need? Or do you get USB wireless adaptors? I'm a software developer, so I'm a bit lost when it comes to hardware ;)

I know when I considered Sentech MyWireless last year they said that a wireless adaptor wasn't sufficient, and that I'd need to buy their modem as well - do things work differently in the UK?

Thanks
 
get a pcmcia wireless adapter if you need one. i know the linksys ones are good, but it does really depend on the wireless router they have. then again broadband is so cheap there, get your own 8 meg line for next to nothing - and do what you want, forget the prehistoric setup we have here..... :)
 
Cathryn said:
I know when I considered Sentech MyWireless last year they said that a wireless adaptor wasn't sufficient, and that I'd need to buy their modem as well - do things work differently in the UK?

Thanks
Click to expand...

you don't need a MyWireless modem. it is a completely different thing.

What you want is a wifi certified 802.11b/g PCMCIA or usb adapter

I would think that PCMCIA is more expensive but is neater.

you want to get a wifi certified one as this will guarantee it to work with wifi certified Access Points (AP)

802.11b/g is the current standard and will work with most APs however you can get adapters with pre n or 802.11n which if you happen to stumble on one then get it

but stick to the basics and you cant go wrong


Hope that helps
 
skydog said:
802.11b/g is the current standard and will work with most APs
Click to expand...
What is the difference between 802.11b and 802.11g? Sometimes I see hardware that only support one of these standards. Which is the preferred one and why? b or g?
 
In simple terms

b = 11mbps = 1.375 Mbytes / sec.
g = 54mbps = 6.75 Mbytes / sec.

So G is faster.

An 802.11g card will support will support both b and g.
An 802.11b card will only support b.

For browsing the internet and email, and 802.11b card is more than sufficient.
 
Crash said:
In simple terms

b = 11mbps = 1.375 Mbytes / sec.
g = 54mbps = 6.75 Mbytes / sec.

So G is faster.

An 802.11g card will support will support both b and g.
An 802.11b card will only support b.

For browsing the internet and email, and 802.11b card is more than sufficient.
Click to expand...

Correct but those are theoretical speeds.

and i would think that most cards would be B and G
 
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