I just got a laptop that came with this wireless network card. Here’s what I need to know:
How the hell can I tell which wireless routers it will be compatible with?? I can’t find any listings of the wireless routers it will be compatible with, is there some sort of standard where I could use any wireless router, or something? I need help picking out a router that works with this card.
Also, I need two computers to share the DSL connection. One is my laptop (duh) with the wireless card, and the other is an ancient PC that doesn’t have a wireless card that will need to connect to the router by wire. Do all routers have ports in them for wired connections too, for computers that don’t have wireless cards?
Also, how does it divy up the connection, does it allot the bandwidth that one computer needs (like say one computer is playing yahoo spades, and using 1% of theoretical max bandwidth, does the other computer get %50 maximum bandwidth, half, or does it get the other 99%?)
If you guys could tell me how to shop online for a cheap wireless router that will allow me to connect one PC to it with a wire and the other PC wirelessly that will work with my specific card, I’d really appreciate it, as I only have basic computer skillz.
Your card should be compatible with any 802.11b or 802.11g router. The B is slower, 10mbps to the G’s 54mbps, but for all practical purposes it will be as fast as nearly any broadband connection so you can save a few dollars if you get one. I have one of each and see little difference though I might if I was tranferring a lot of data between computers locally. When downloading from the WAN the router is never the bottleneck. Virtually any wireless router will have wired ports, typically four. They are extremely easy to get up and running but you’ll need to take a few extra steps to keep unauthorized people from stealing your bandwidth.
Your supposition is correct. In B vs G there’s a very substantial difference in the speed at which you can transfer data from one PC to another across the wireless connection. Realworld, G is much, much faster in moving data. There’s little if any perceived difference (to me) between B and G in basic browsing.
The difference is only in transfering files between computers.
Even in a work environment, you are unlikely to get an internet connection faster than 3 or 4 Mb/s (that’s about what a cable modem, fast DSL, or (2) T1’s would give). You will be limited in internet browsing/downloading speed by the slowest link in the path to the destination server, this is often either your internet connection, or that of the server.
Keep in mind that even “B” is pretty fast, many corporate networks are still running on 10M/s infrastructures. Many hubs that are still out there are limited to 10M connections.
Granted, there isn’t much of a price difference any more between B & G, so if I was purchasing now, I’d go with a “G” router, which is also backwards compatable with both A & B wireless cards. If you got a G compatable card, it might not work with an older B type router.
In theory, this would depend on the router, but in practise, all wireless routers(aka Access Points or AP) work in exactly the same way. Whenever a computer on the network wants to transmit, it will wait until no computer is transmitting, and then ask the AP for permission to send something. When the AP says yes, the computer will send the data. In short, the other computer will get close to 99% of the bandwidth(some of it will be lost to the overhead of asking for permission to transmit).