Wireless internet

[garyk/nm]

As a follow on to my DSL post, this new modem is a "wireless gateway".
Any ideas on an inexpensive wireless card for my daughter's laptop? This totally foreign territory for me.

[charby]

Most of my laptops have a built in card.

For PCMCIA I have had good luck with Orinoco Silver

[Dave Markowitz]

I've had better results with Netgear than Linksys or SMC.

[Azrael256]

You might look for the Microsoft card.  There was a package called the MN-820, I believe.  It came with the MN-700 router and a wireless card.  I don't recall what the card's designation was, but I think you could buy it separately.  I mention this because MS discontinued the card, and I remember seeing the package deal for ~$40.  That's even cheaper than the router by itself from any other manufacturer.

Most of the wireless cards use the same radio set, so it doesn't matter *that* much which one you use.  Netgear will work fine, Linksys will work fine, in fact, they're all pretty much the same.  The difference is that Netgear's software is (as of the last time I checked) easier to use.

[J.J.]

Just don't buy in the store buy online.

I have used several different brands (microsoft, intel, an offbrand called blitzz and linksys) and really haven't noticed that much of a difference.  But thats just me. The main differences are in the software to set it up...   Blitzz being the major offbrand seems to get a little less in the way of reception.

I know www.txmicro has some good prices.  
(yes i have plugged them in the past but they have some great prices..)
right now i don't see a card for a laptop. but they update the selection often.

[garyk/nm]

Thanks for the replies. As I mentioned before, this is foreign territory; Router? Do I need one of those too? My modem has an antenna thingy on it, won't that just broadcast to whatever wireless card I'm using?

[Werewolf]

I just set up a linksys wireless router so my wife's laptop could use our cable modem.

Contrary to what the docs that come with it say you don't need to use their software to set it up. Windows XP has everything built in.

I tried over and over using the linksys stuff and it never would work. Called my son in law (an IT guy). He came over uninstalled all the linksys crap. Created a wireless network with the XP wireless network wizard. Reset the router. Loaded up netscape on my PC and went to the router set up IP address which is on a linksys at 192.168.1.1. The default login is username blank and password admin. We changed this. Logging in brought up a web page where you have complete control of the router and in about a minute my wife's laptop was connected to the internet. Works great. Took all of about 5 minutes.

Now we've got both a hardware (router) firewall and on my PC Zonealarm and on hers Norton Security. Probably overkill security wise.

Which brings up the question - security encryption is currently disabled on the router. Should I enable it and if so with what protocol.

I don't think anyone from outside can get on the router without knowing the router key which is 12 digits long - is that true?

[mtnbkr]

It doesn't sound like it will be, but if IPSEC VPN is one of your possible uses, get a wireless router that properly supports IPSEC.  Linksys works, but Netgear is the best (of the consumer options).  DLink sucks.  I don't have experience with others on the market.

If the above acronyms don't mean anything to you, then you probably don't need to worry with it.

Chris

[Werewolf]

I disabled IPSEC VPN - no need for it.

Still wondering whether or not I should turn on WEP or WAP encryption though.

[mtnbkr]

There's VPN that can be built into the wireless gateway, then there's support for IPSEC VPN passthrough (useful for remote access VPN users behind that gateway).  The latter is what I'm referring to.  Routers without the passthrough don't play well with VPN and many of the ones with passthrough don't work correctly either.  

Chris