Newbie question - USB Adaptor?

I have this is a bit of a basic question, but I wasn't able to find a thread talking about it (or in the guides), so am hoping for some sage advice here....am going to be splurging on a new wireless router at some point (considering the DLink 655 or DLink 825; the 855 is just too expensive!) and will need to get a new adapter for one of the notebooks as well. Query whether it's better to get a notebook-specific adapter or a USB adapter? In the case of the latter, the obvious flexibility is nice (i.e. can use the USB on other systems, including desktops). Is anything lost in choosing a USB adapter?

Hope this question makes sense....thanks in advance for any response/advice!

 

What do you mean by a "notebook-specific" card? Like a internal card? Or like a PCMCIA card or something?

 

I had a USB adapter for my desktop and I will never use it on any system, ever. they have horrible signal and the speeds are very very very slow. a PC card adapter would be better. if your energetic an internal PCI-e mobile card would be better yet.

 

Sound advice yuio

I bought one recently from Newegg... I thought from the reviews that it would work just fine... wow how wrong could I be? My laptop wouldn't even recognize it was there (even though it specifically mentioned vista drivers)... On xp it wouldn't recognize it either until I used the add hardware wizard and found the exact driver on the cd that came with it... Though it may be the brand? Stay away from Encore at any rate!!! Well when it did finaly connect it said 300mbps, but speeds came in around g 1.5 to 2.5 Megabytes per second... worthless for decent video streaming! Plus it would drop at a moments notice... not too mention it ran hot... In my experience avoid usb like the plague!

 

USB works fine if you can get the drivers needed. If you have several USB devices it can be slow due to the way windows manages the port.

But for a notebook get the internal card. You may not have the 3 antennas that some cards require but they will work on 2 if connected properly.

 

Sorry I was unclear. By notebook-specific, I meant an external card such as the Dlink Xtreme N Wireless Laptop Adaptor (DWA-652) (C$90)

The comparison would be a USB one like the D-Link Wireless N USB Adapter (DWA-160) ($100)

The idea is that one of the older computers will need to have an upgrade N-connection, to take advance of the new N-router (655 or 825). WIth a USB, I thought that this gave flexibility so the USB can be used on both an old laptop, but also on an old desktop (i.e. can buy one thing and used for both, though of course not simultaneously)....

From the replies so far, it sounds like that a USB is not worth the effort, notwithstanding the potential flexibility?

Thanks for all your advice!