03-05-2007, 07:16
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#1
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Inactive
Join Date: Jan 2007
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wifi laptop or adapter
This might sound like a silly question, but i don't know the answer.
Do i need to buy a wireless laptop card to run at high speeds wireless or will the wi-fi in my laptop be good enough to cope ?
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03-05-2007, 07:21
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#2
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cf.mega poster
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Re: wifi laptop or adapter
Depends what router you have. If you have an 11g 54Mb/s model then your laptop will handle it if it's reasonably new.
If your router uses one of the technologies that gives 108Mb/s then you'll need a compatible card to get full speed communication...
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03-05-2007, 08:30
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#3
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Inactive
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,898
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Re: wifi laptop or adapter
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cobbydaler
Depends what router you have. If you have an 11g 54Mb/s model then your laptop will handle it if it's reasonably new.
If your router uses one of the technologies that gives 108Mb/s then you'll need a compatible card to get full speed communication...
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Exactly so if you have something like 802.11n (preN) then your laptop will connect but only at 54Mbit/s (802.11G)
However if you put an 802.11n card in it would connect at the full speed providing the signal is strong enough.
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04-05-2007, 06:35
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#4
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Re: wifi laptop or adapter
My laptop is a WiFi enabled Dell Inspiron 1501 - AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile laptop. I'm just bidding on routers on ebay at the moment.
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04-05-2007, 06:54
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#5
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cf.mega poster
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Re: wifi laptop or adapter
Quote:
Originally Posted by 12noon
My laptop is a WiFi enabled Dell Inspiron 1501 - AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile laptop. I'm just bidding on routers on ebay at the moment.
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That has 802.11g 54Mbps wireless built in, so if you get a basic 11g router you won't need an additional card. If you get one of the flavours of 108Mbps routers then you'll need a compatible PCMCIA card...
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04-05-2007, 07:38
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#6
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Re: wifi laptop or adapter
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cobbydaler
That has 802.11g 54Mbps wireless built in, so if you get a basic 11g router you won't need an additional card. If you get one of the flavours of 108Mbps routers then you'll need a compatible PCMCIA card...
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Or not, but it just won't run at top speed
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04-05-2007, 07:41
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#7
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Re: wifi laptop or adapter
Quote:
Originally Posted by 12noon
This might sound like a silly question, but i don't know the answer.
Do i need to buy a wireless laptop card to run at high speeds wireless or will the wi-fi in my laptop be good enough to cope ?
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04-05-2007, 07:43
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#8
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Re: wifi laptop or adapter
It depends what you call High Speed Cobby, I find that 108MBit wireless rarely runs at full speed unless you are sat next to the router
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04-05-2007, 08:17
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#9
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Inactive
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,898
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Re: wifi laptop or adapter
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeph
It depends what you call High Speed Cobby, I find that 108MBit wireless rarely runs at full speed unless you are sat next to the router
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I find that 54g is usually fast enough for the internet anyway
Not sure how it handles 20mbit + connections tho.
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05-05-2007, 07:13
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#10
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Re: wifi laptop or adapter
Thanks, i think that answers my question.
If i buy a 54Mbps router, then my wifi laptop will be fine by its self, but f i buy a faster router (108Mbps) i would also need a card to fit in the side of my laptop.
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05-05-2007, 18:31
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#11
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Inactive
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,898
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Re: wifi laptop or adapter
Quote:
Originally Posted by 12noon
Thanks, i think that answers my question.
If i buy a 54Mbps router, then my wifi laptop will be fine by its self, but f i buy a faster router (108Mbps) i would also need a card to fit in the side of my laptop.
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Not quite
If you buy a faster router you'd need a card if you wanted it to connect at 108Mbps however if you were happy with connecting to the router @54Mbps the builtin wireless should still work fine.
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06-05-2007, 08:44
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#12
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Re: wifi laptop or adapter
After reading all this yesterday afternoon, i went out and bought a Netgear WGR614. It should be good enough to surf the net on my 4meg cable broadband.
Thanks for all you help.
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06-05-2007, 12:06
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#13
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Inactive
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,898
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Re: wifi laptop or adapter
Quote:
Originally Posted by 12noon
After reading all this yesterday afternoon, i went out and bought a Netgear WGR614. It should be good enough to surf the net on my 4meg cable broadband.
Thanks for all you help.
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Don't forget to enable the wireless security features, preferably wpa-psk or wpa2-psk
stop other people "borrowing" your connection.
If you want a really secure wireless code try
http://www.kurtm.net/wpa-pskgen/
then save it into a text file or something because the chances of being able to remember it are pretty slim
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