 85242 |
 35212 |
|
|
||
|
|
|||||||
| Welcome to the Exploding Garrmondo Weiner Interactive Swiss Army Penis. |
|
GFF is a community of gaming and music enthusiasts. We have a team of dedicated moderators, constant member-organized activities, and plenty of custom features, including our unique journal system. If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ or our GFWiki. You will have to register before you can post. Membership is completely free (and gets rid of the pesky advertisement unit underneath this message).
|
 |
|
|
Thread Tools |
|
Larry Oji, Super Moderator, Judge, "Dirge for the Follin" Project Director, VG Frequency Creator
 Member 12639 Level 1.86 Sep 2006 
|
First of all, make sure you get a PCI wireless card for your desktop. They usually have an antenna, and offer better range than the average USB wireless stick. Basically, only go for the USB version if you feel uncomfortable with opening your computer case and installing a PCI card, or if you want your USB stick to be interchangable between computers (not likely the case here).
If you don't know what router you'll be connecting to, then I would just stick with a 54Mbps 802.11g wireless card (for all you know, the router could be reasonably old and not even support 802.11n). It saves you some money, when compared to a 802.11n card. 802.11n isn't really that interesting for the average internet user at this point of time. The 'g' standard offers enough speed for internet purposes, and is cheap because it has been out for a while now. The 'n' standard hasn't fully matured yet (still an early generation of products -- you know how it is with electronics, the early generation still isn't perfect yet), and it is more expensive at the moment. Make sure the card supports the most recent common encryption protocols: WPA, WPA2. Only WEP doesn't suffice. As for brand, they used to say that getting the same brand is a safer (and faster) bet. I think that's especially true for first generation-ish products, but as the products mature it becomes less and less of a factor. Stick with any decent network brand (Linksys, Belkin, Buffalo, Netgear, D-Link, US Robotics, Zyxel, and so on...), and you should be fine. Brand only becomes a real issue when the router uses a brand-specific protocol to improve network performance, and if that performance can only be attained by using related products from the same brand. Hope this helps. Jam it back in, in the dark. |
Kajun