Wireless card for laptop

[deejames]

Advice please ! Have been using a laptop for navigation for many years, and think it is time to try the wireless / internet / email stuff. Laptop is a Pentium 3 with PCMCIA slot. Any advice on the best card to buy, will I need an additional aerial, and do I need a router or is that only if I want to network with other PCs ???
Have a cat5 network at home, so haven't ever tried wireless technology.
Sorry if this question has been asked before, but did a search and couldn't find much of relevance. Am reasonably PC literate, but I know there are plenty of forumites who have been down this course, and may be able to make recommendations based on experience rather than advertising hype.

 

[ccscott49]

I use a buffalo card, in PCMCIA slot, I have built in WiFi, but it's not much good inside the boat, an external antenna is a must for a boat, unless you intend to use it in the cockpit. I have been looking for a high gain external antenna and have found one with the lead made up for me with the correst connections, at Solwise, try a google search, thats where I found them.

 

[phiggins]

I guess it depends how far you are from the router in the marina. I have 3 computers, a new HP laptop with built in wireless, an old IBM thinkpad laptop with a PCMCIA card (not sure type but think any will work OK) and a HP Pocket PC with built in wireless. All of them work fine in my marina inside the boat with no external antenna.

 

[ccscott49]

I guess your WiFi is a lot more powerful than the one here.

 

[deejames]

Not looking to do anything too ambitious - just to be able to access email and maybe browse the forum from a laptop in a marina which is most likely to be on UK South Coast / C.I. / N. French Coast.

 

[Avocet]

I recently got a "JAHT" IEEE802.11g PCMCIA card on Ebay and have been pleased with it. It supports the later type of wireless network (802.11g) as well as the older, slower sort that I can't remember the name of! I have pretty poor PC skills and it was easy enough for me to install!

 

[Colinl]

Try here http://www.kangaloosh.com/YachtTech/index.htm he give a lot of pc info as well as wireless stuff.

Cheers


Colin

 

[MarkJohnson12345]

This does not answer your question but my solution is to use a PDA and GPRS (via Orange).

I can retrieve emails from my provider (not Orange), surf the web for weather etc.

Whilst the small screen is a bit limiting, the speed is good, battery charging is easy, the phone and PDA are easy to stow, and I am not dependant on Wi Fi spots.

Just a thought

mj

 

[xDinox]

[ QUOTE ]
my solution is to use a PDA and GPRS

[/ QUOTE ]
I too have been doing this, but have gone back to using dialup ( which is within my inclusive minutes deal) as I found GPRS very expensive.
I admit it's very slow for web browsing but I find it fine for email.

 

[TrueBlue]

Jusat my twopennyworth - agree with most of the postings You can get the whole kit and caboodle from www.solwise.com and their products are not only good value but work as well. If yours is an old laptop with Windows 98, you may have a problem if you've not lot of memory, however I have tested the Solwise kit with WIN98 on a box with 98Meg of memory.

You will need an external arial, unless you are prepared to hoist yourself and the laptop above in a bosun's chair (haha).

Ther are loads of threads on these fora - I suggest you do a search on WiFi and do a lot of reading. Wireless access is by no means universal and the range between you and the "host" is poor - so you may be wasting your money. Again read the discussions.