Wireless network card for Toshiba A60, Advise please!!

little_jem

Basically I have a Toshiba Satelite Pro A60en and am going away for a while so I need to be able to connect wirelessly to Internet Hopspots through work.

I thought I had a built in wireless card as laptop has software to search for wireless devices but think this is just on it as it has infared as where the switch would go on the side to switch wireless on the slot has a blank plastic cover over it, so no wireless card I guess!

So I need to know what I need to buy, I ideally want an external wireless card as I have another laptop that I want to use it on therefore will one of the USB ones do the job? Unfortunatly I have left this to the last minute so will have to purchase from PC world as no time for internet delivery. So any advice on what I need to buy would be very much appreciated.

many thanks, Jem

Toxteth_OGrady

This.

:cool:

TOG

rogerramjet

USB ones will work fine, PCMCIA ones are also hand, but only as long as you have the slot.

I've a Belkin USB wireless dongle and a Netgear PCMCIA card (different laptops) and both work the same on my wireless network and others

rogerramjet

Toxteth_OGrady wrote:

This.

:cool:

TOG

Wow, That's gone up :O when I got mine it was £9.95 from them!!!

Switan

Any PCMCIA wireless card would do.

Preferably 802.11g or 802.11g+ compatable.

If you ask in PC world they should eb able to help you.

Belkin, Netgear and Linksys are reputable makes.

A USB adapter would also do the job, whatever your preference really.

blinky

Most people prefer the PC-Card variety and most laptops have the slots.

However, if you want a USB one there's a few to choose from. Difficult to say which is the best as Wireless is a bit of a hit or miss affair but get one which supports 54G and most do these days. At the end of the day there is only actually a handful of wireless chips

Prices start from £20 for a Belkin USB one (F5D7050UK) or £22.08 via [email="Collect@Store"]Collect@Store[/email] (Reserve the item online then go and pick it up and pay the website price) for a Buffalo one (WLI-U2-KG54-AI). The buffalo one has a switch on it which in one mode it acts as a virtual CD ROM with the drivers one. On the one I tried I couldn't get it to work (tried two machines). The wireless worked fine though.

little_jem

Thank you for everyones help and advise I really appreciate it. basically I have looked at everyones suggestions and as I dont feel comfortable fitting an internal card I think one of the following two would suit me best, presumably both will do the job, just wondered if anyone knew if one is better than the other.

Netgear - 54MBPS Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter

D-Link - 54MBPS Wireless USB Adapter

Many thanks
Jem

Toxteth_OGrady

A Carbus (aka PCMCIA) card, such as the one I showed you at PC World is as easy to plug in as a USB dongle. It's not an internal card, it just plugs in the slot. Setting either USB or Cardbus up for the wireless connection will be exactly the same.

The big advantage of Cardbus over USB is that 80% of the card is secure inside the slot (only the aerial part of it protudes) so it makes it much more physically robust for roaming round with your laptop. The USB dongle is much more inconvenient in that respect.

hth

:cool:

TOG

little_jem

Thank you, took TOG's advice but went for a Belkin High speed mode G notebook network card purely beacuse it was a bit cheaper!! I have set it up and like TOG said it fits in neatly and can appreciate the difference between it and a USB one now.

I cant try and connect to a wireless network yet because I dont have one as will be using it in a wireless hotspot but just wondered if I need to set-up security on it as if I have the card slotted in at the the moment does this mean someone could get on my pc?

thanks, Jem

Toxteth_OGrady

Potentially yes.

Just go into Network Connections and disable the wi-fi (or go into Control Panel, Admin Tools, Services and stop the Wireless Zero Service).

:cool:

TOG