[vegasphil]

I need to get some kind of wireless adapter so I can acess wireless with my new Destop PC.

What is the best product to buy (money no object).

I see you can get both PCI and USB versions - which i best?

I need to get the best possible product as I will be relying on a wireless hotel connection for a month starting next week and need to get the fastest signal possible.

Are there any kind of external antennas that would boost it a little?

Any help much appreciated,

[marshall5]

I was glad to see this question asked, as I was thinking this to myself a little over a month ago...

I recently did some research on the current "best" wireless setups (802.11 devices), and stumbled across a review which compared some of the newest wireless devices. They conducted bandwidth throughput tests amoung the newest devices, and found that the Belkin Pre-N router and Pre-N notebook card achieved the highest speed/longest range out of the group. This would be considered an 802.11n network by the way.

I currently own both of them (you have to for them to be compatable on your own network), and man o man, through a few walls and about 40ft away, the laptop signal is always at 4 out of 5 bars and at a constant 108mb/s. If you have heard of 802.11b or g (g being faster), this doubles 802.11g speeds if you're in the same room as the router, and extends available connection range by something like 800% (they claim).

All sounds great for us home network owners, now for the bad news...

You mentioned you would be connecting to a wireless network at a hotel...ehh, all I have to say is good luck with high speeds. You can buy this card for your laptop, but without the hotel owning an 802.11n router, you will just be connecting to an 802.11g or even possibly an ancient 802.11b network (the card is compatable with them all). My experience with hotel wireless is often very poor. Some of them are only using 1 or 2 routers for a huge hotel, and the fact is, the people whos rooms lie far from the router suffer the most. You may be indeed very upset with the connection speed, also taking into account that many people may be trying to route through the same connection as you, who knows how much bandwidth will be available.

Anyways, you mine as well get the Belkin Pre-N card, that way when you stumble across an 802.11n connection, you'll be able to take advantage.

Here are some links for a start:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...156884&_LOC=US

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...156885&_LOC=US

Hope this helps!

[vegasphil]

Thanks so much for the post - very helpful indeed.

I actually bought the Pre N router from Belkin a week ago because I am getting ready to live in this hotel for a month + as I mentioned and of course was assuming their 'high speed internet' would be a wired connection, and I wanted to make sure I could also use my Aple G4 Powerbook of the same signal so a router would be needed.

Then 2 days ago I find out that the internet in the hotel is wireless so now I need a wireless card for my new PC Desktop.

So I guess as I already have the router and will use that as and when I move on to a wired connection again, I may as well get the card that goes with it.

In general do the PCI cards perform better than the USB cards?

And if it does turn out to be a less than great signal, would I be able to use one of these with the Belkin card to make the best from whatever I can get?:

http://www.cantenna.com/

Are these any good, or is there a better priduct out there.

Like I said money is no object as I simply have to have a good connection for work.

Anyway let me know what you think.

Bye the way I am assuming that the Belkiin stuff also works well with Mac?

[marshall5]

In response to that...

Good job on the Pre-N router purchase. You definitely won't regret it. As for Mac compatability, I honestly know nothing about Macs to accurately comment on that subject.

Hopefully someone will join in here, but I know you couldn't network the two computers from the one with the card (as a host) via an ethernet cable, as they are different OS's.

You did however mention, "...so now I need a wireless card for my new PC Desktop."

If you are setting up a desktop in the hotel room, you would need a CF>PCMCIA adapter to use the card I posted in the link (and that's assuming you have a desktop with a CF slot, which most do not), or you would need to purchase the desktop version w/ card adapter:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...156886&_LOC=US

You also asked, "In general do the PCI cards perform better than the USB cards?"

I have never heard of a USB type of 802.11n connection.

And as for the "cantenna"...it seems like a hoax to me. I know about radio frequency tracking from high altitudes, and typically with more gain there is also more interference involved also. This could mean more info lost/corrupted than gained, reason why you don't see huge extending 3-G network card antennas. It's the source which transmits the radio frequency (wireless router) which would need to be improved upon, which is also regulated by frequency output power laws, unless it's approved as a commercial device.

What you truely need my friend is a repeater (or referred to as a range extender) which simply plugs into an a/c outlet...find a pop machine halfway between you and the source and hide it behind there well, he he.

No, but what I would really do is find out your details asap (room location in relavance to the network source, network type, how many routers, etc). They should be able to find you the details if you ask.

Your room location might just put you out of luck, sorry to say.