Wireless card for desktop

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

Whats the story with wireless cards for desktops? Can most desktops take them and where could you get a decent one?

I have a wireless card for a notebook but I presume thats no good.

Jonathan

What you are looking for is a "pci wireless card".

Dabs have a selection.

calex71

there are interal pci cards and usb stick type ones available,

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

Cheers.

Do all desktops have a wireless slot? Mine's a dell inspiron 530 and when I checked last night it wasn't too obvious where a wireless card would go.

Jonathan

The place labeled number 2 in the diagram.

calex71

desktops are not going to have the same slots for expansion cards as laptops, on a desktop cards are mounted inside the case in a free slot and and are accessed from the back of the desktop, for example a graphics card
will have a vga port for your monitor to plug into on the back of the desktop.

here your wireless card will have a little antenna poking out of the back after its installed. It's an easy job to install it but if your not happy or sure about installing one of these you could always just go for a USB based wireless card. like this one http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=343018

Voodoo2

As calex71 said - Each desktop is different, What you need to look at is what available slots you have. You can get both PCI (Usually White) & PCIx (usually black) wireless cards - It doesn't matter which you get as WLAN doesn't use a huge amount of bandwidth, it what slot you have available. I develop WLAN cards for Notebooks & Desktops - Make sure you get a card with an External table top antenna. Or if your are getting a USB stick type one get a usb extender that can put the antenna on top of a desk or on your case. The back plane of a desktop emits large amounts of interference through the slots & fans etc so having the antenna away from the back is the key feature!

deadwood

Voodoo2 wrote: »

The back plane of a desktop emits large amounts of interference through the slots & fans etc so having the antenna away from the back is the key feature!

I'm piggybacking here, if you don't mind, but please redirect if necessary.
Voodoo2, was browsing and came across your post. I'm a p.c. novice and put a wireless card with the antenna out the back of the p.c. (on the floor cluttered with cables) I'm using an eircom broadband wireless router which is about 20 feet away (other end of the hall).
Seems to work okay although "signal strength low" pops up when I switch on. I posted here before to ask if I could/should do anything.
Would I be better off using a USB+antanna on the table?

Voodoo2

deadwood - To explain a little, a typical USB dongle type WLAN card's internal antenna has about 3dB's of gain, which for the most part should be ok all going well. On the 2.4Ghz band which Wi-Fi is on noise/interference reduces this sensitivity, in lay mans terms extra noise on the band causes this low signal, because of AFH or frequency hopping it sees a part of the band has interference and avoids it reducing the amount of band width - You are seeing this low signal because of interference from the back of you PC, and also because these antennas are surface mounted on the PCB on the inside of the plastic and are slightly directional, meaning its like pointing a tv antenna away from its signal. I would suggest you get a USB extension lead bring it from the back and tape it to the top of your case, mess around with the way you point it and you should be ok. Also the usual suspects are if you have TV wireless extenders in your home - they are on 2.4ghz and play havoc to WLAN signals.

Update your drivers too go to the manufactures support site and download
the latest.

Also people should not worry about low signal strengths its the rate at which your connect make the difference each manufacturer has different ideas on what they call a low signal. Remember if your broadband is say a 1024kps line and your wifi give you 2-3mbps @ low you have more than enough to surf the web!

deadwood

Thanks Voodoo2.
I'll have a go.