Wireless card needed and speed problem

Lady_K

Daughters moving into a student house where the internet is NTL but wireless so they can all share. She doesnt have a wireless card for her laptop, its an acer about 3 years old. Is there any particular one she should get or should she ask anything about exactly what the system is before she gets one?

She really needs to get some ram aswell as her laptop is slow, its always been slow really, I thought it strange as its actually slower than my 7 years old win 98 pc and has been since it was new. When she comes home sometime I'm going to see if anyone on here could help with sorting her start up programs out because niether her or I understand them

viru.doshi

Hi,

Whats the make and model of the laptop? Laptops have an upper limit to the amount of RAM you can upgrade to. Also, how much RAM is already installed?

Which operating system is installed on the laptop?

As for the network card, you can pick up wireless network cards quite cheaply for laptops. They come in several flavours and speeds. You can either by a PCMCIA card if the laptop has PCMCIA slots, or a Bluetooth wireless adapter if the laptop has USB ports.

Also, get a card that confroms to the 802.11G standard. (Other standards are 802.11a and 802.11b).

espresso

viru.doshi wrote:

Hi,

As for the network card, you can pick up wireless network cards quite cheaply for laptops. They come in several flavours and speeds. You can either by a PCMCIA card if the laptop has PCMCIA slots, or a Bluetooth wireless adapter if the laptop has USB ports.

Also, get a card that confroms to the 802.11G standard. (Other standards are 802.11a and 802.11b).

The vast majority of wireless in use at the moment is the 802.11g standard (54Mbs) and this is backward compatible with 802.11b (11Mbs). If the laptop has PCMCIA slot, then one like this is the best option. You only need to worry about the manufacturer, if a higher than 802.11g speed device, is being used to transmit the ADSL signal, as these use different proprietary techniques to achieve the greater speeds.

Bluetooth is not used for networking ADSL and PCMCIA cards are better than USB dongles if you have the choice.

HTH

Lady_K

I know its the Acer Aspire 1353XC, Athlon 2400, win XP Home, (1x)256MB DDR, IE 6 and it has all the spybot, spywareblaster, adaware and zone alarm etc

Which is best a USB one or a card and I think she will need to encript it wont she so no one can get into her pc? (hope thats easy)

Browntoa

if she does not have a PCMCIA slot in the side of the laptop (I suspect it WILL have one) then this sort of thing

http://www.xtsit.com/browse/product_details.php?id=10654&sr=2

otherwise this sort of PCMCIA card

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=NEB-1060&af=50

PCMCIA (802.11g) Wireless Network Card

Lady_K

Thanx

Seems the cards are cheaper too I'll get her to check. She needs to get one now ready for moving in as she cant be without the net for any amount of time right now as shes on a nursing placement

Are they pretty easy to just put in and work or can it be difficult to set up?

Browntoa

Lady_K wrote:

I know its the Acer Aspire 1353XC, Athlon 2400, win XP Home, (1x)256MB DDR, IE 6 and it has all the spybot, spywareblaster, adaware and zone alarm etc

Which is best a USB one or a card and I think she will need to encript it wont she so no one can get into her pc? (hope thats easy)

the 1350 series have PCMCIA slots so that is easier as she can leave it in

encryption is on the wireless Hub if it is turned on but with a good firewall and no file sharing on (it is off by default) then no-one can access her stuff

they more or less install themselves, you put the supplied Cd in the laptop and put in the card when asked, if the encryption is turned on and the Network is using WEP then that key is on a pink sticker on the wireless hub and you just put that number in on the laptop when it asks for it

if you gat a Belkin card like this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190001618408

it comes with free technical support

Lady_K

I just found the book and it says:

your computer features a pc card slot that supports standard type ll or type lll pc card (PCMCIA or cardbus) is that the right one?

Browntoa

yes, thats the same thing

Browntoa

you can double the RAM to 512 for £20 +postage

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/MPartspecs.Asp?mtbpoid=47C54174A5CA7304&WSMD=Aspire+1350+Series&WSPN=CT449341

Lady_K

Thanx think I overlapped a bit with messages but it all sounds clearer now anyway and fairly simple. She can get the card and internet sorted out then sort the ram out a bit later