Wireless Network Cards

All computers nowadays come with at least one conventional 100 Mbps cabled LAN port but you will need to add a wireless network card on each computer if you want them to be connected to your network wirelessly. Laptops nowadays, however, usually come with an embedded wireless network card.

If you want to save some money, you can connect your desktop PCs to your router using standard network cables. Even though the wireless broadband router has wireless capability, you can still connect computers to it using regular cables. We will talk more about this option on the next page.

There are two types wireless network cards available: USB and add-on. Usually add-on cards are more stable. Add-on cards for desktops are provided for the PCI slot (and probably for the PCI Express x1 slot in the future) and add-on cards for laptops are provided for the PC Card (a.k.a. PCMCIA) slot or for the Express Card slot. If your laptop does not have an embedded wireless card, you will need to check whether it has an expansion slot  (PC Card or Express Card) and buy one add-on network wireless for it (Express Card will probably be the choice, as Express Card slots accept PC Card devices).

On Figure 2 you can see a PCI add-on wireless network card for desktops, on Figure 3 an USB wireless network card, which can be used by desktops and laptops, and on Figure 4 a PC Card add-on wireless network card for laptops.

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Figure 2: A PCI add-on wireless network card.

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Figure 3: An USB wireless network card.

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Figure 4: A PC Card wireless network card.

You should buy a card compatible with the same wireless standard used by your router and that you decided on the previous page.

The installation of the card should be done following the card manual. Usually it is very simple step: just connect the device to your computer (if you are installing a PCI card on a desktop computer, you will need to turn it off and open its case), turn it on and install its drivers.

Just a tip, with our PCI card portrayed on Figure 2 (a D-Link DWL-G510) we needed to install the drivers before installing the card to the PC.

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