Wireless laptop or laptop with wireless card?

soon2bjobless

You'll have to forgive me as I simply cant figure out this wireless business at all!!!

I have a computer with broadband - want a laptop (so theres no more fights over getting on the net!)

Is it better to get a wireless enabled laptop and a wireless card thingy for my desktop......or a cheaper laptop and buy 2 wireless cards?

Or a router thingy for my desktop?

My broadband is with Wanadoo.

albertross_2

There are various permutations that you can setup..

If you have a BT phone line and not cable, then you'll need a wireless broadband ADSL router, (e.g. Netgear DG834G, or any other make, Linksys, Belkin, 3com etc..), an ethernet network card in your main PC (if you don't have one already), and a laptop with a PC-card or USB wireless dongle (but most new ones would be wireless enabled anyway). Ebuyer sell what you need for around £65 (or £75 if you need the card for an old (non-wireless) laptop)

Chippy_Minton

I'd buy a wireless-enabled laptop. You'll need a wireless modem router whichever option you go for.

albertross_2

agree with chippy, it's certainly neater..

BobToo

A wireless USB device costs about £25 and will do the same job therefore built-in wireless is worth £25 plus the value you place on the neatness factor (which would be zero for me in this case).

espresso

BobToo wrote:

A wireless USB device costs about £25 and will do the same job therefore built-in wireless is worth £25 plus the value you place on the neatness factor (which would be zero for me in this case).

A good USB dongle can easily be purchased for half of this price (see mymemory etc.) but I would definitely buy a WiFi enabled laptop/notebook if buying one new now. When Wifi is built in, they usually have twin aerials hidden inside the top corners of the screen, which when in use, are situated at the top.

A better bet rather than a USB dongle, would be a PCMCIA WLAN card which fits into a slot in the laptop/notebook.

:santa2:

albertross_2

ebuyer sell both usb and pc-cards for £10-15, a 3com router + card for £58, or the netgear router + card for £75. Usb would be my least favourite option, as it is a bit more prone to damage, because it hangs out of the laptop too much.

Curry's are selling the netgear+usb dongle for £69

soon2bjobless

Thanks everyone for your replies - went to Comet and got a spanking laptop with wireless built in and the netgear/usb dongle package as well....all i now need to do is figure out how to set it up!!!

albertross_2

ooh new toys to play with.. don't forget to setup wpa-psk encryption with a long key (https://www.grc.com/passwords), see wireless security posts/sticky thread if you need help

John_Gray

At last an enthusiast for WPA! My hero...!

John