pcmia wireless cards - extended range?

hi

some of my friends say they dont bother using internal wireless cards. however they use pcmia cards and the range is fine using them. is this true? thanks

 

Well techinically PCMCIA cards are not any better than the built in wireless because of the lack of an antenna/dish that boosts performance.

So if you get any plain card it won't make a big difference. Actually laptops that have built-in antennas in their screens prolly get better reception due to the fact that the screen is going to be higher than the base where the PCMCIA card is located. But if you can a PCMCIA/USB wireless card that has an antenna or dish then yes you can expect to get a better reception, especially if it comes with an extension cord allowing you to freely move the piece around and farther from the spot to get better reception.

 

r there any range extenders that i can purchase for better reception?

 

Internal cards get better range than external cards. But there are external antennas to make up for this. You can even attach a cantenna to them. This, however, looks awful and is not something you would want to bring with you when you travel. Stick with internal wireless if you can.

 

Yes google is your friend. You will find tons of results if you search "wireless antennas" or "wireless boosters"

 

You know, i thought about this...google being your friend. If everyone searched google for their questions...this site could seize to exist

 

What normally happens is the internal wireless is a different chip set than the router. If this is the case the pcmci card will normally out perform the internal one depending on chip set. Another case is the newer metal cases block the signal on the internal card.

My advise is try what you have. If having a problem borrow the external card and see if it makes a difference.

 

You could do what us Toughbook owners HAVE to do to get a decent signal;
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=126392

I did it to my brother's Compaq and it works very nicely.

You can get a very nice internal card, hook one antenna into the LCD, and the other to an external connector like that.

 

"Orinoco down in Acapulco". Get an ORiNOCO card......REALLY good wireless card that will prob be better than any built in Atheros card. Although if you have an Atheros over a built in Intel wireless card you will be quids in. Shame the alienware m15x is built in intel wireless

 

Not sure if I agree with that. My 400mW Atheros can pull a signal 2 blocks away with the router in a basement surrounded by duct work. (It's a pretty nice router though..)

I'd still like to see what the 600mW card would do.

Though I've never been too happy with any Orinoco cards I've had in my paws either...