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Viewtiful-Chris

Tech question

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I have a computer in my room, but it is not connected to the Internet due to some wiring impossibility, so the majority of my time spent on the internet is on my parents' computer.

There are many obvious reasons why this is undesirable. No, porn is not the first one on the list.

Anyway, my birthday's coming up and I've been looking into getting a device for my computer that will receive our house's wireless network. Anyone have any suggestions for a good wireless receiver / card?

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If your house has a wireless network then surely someone in the house has a wireless card, why not just ask them?

Anyway I would imagine they're all pretty much the same. Same chipset, same boards, same antenna, same factory in Taiwan. Check what encryption your network uses and what slots your motherboard has, and go buy one.

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Not D-Link. They're useless. Also nothing USB. Get a real card. They cost a bit more, but USB dongles are just pain.

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I've been using cheap wireless PCI cards with realtek chips, never had a problem with them.

My only suggestion is don't go near netgear.

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Okay, fuck USB. Get a card.

You just plug it into the motherboard? Nothing else required?

I've watched my stepdad install components to my computers... the thought of unscrewing my computer case and doing it myself mildly terrifies me - but given my obsession with computers it would be retarded if I didn't try this.

Hold your hand on the case to ground yourself, right?

Our network uses WEP, also. Any card should be compatible with that.

Any specific recommendations?

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I have a LinkSys USB jawn and it works fine for me. Dunno what anyone else is talkin about. It was $60 but I stole mine.

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40oz said:

I have a LinkSys USB jawn and it works fine for me. Dunno what anyone else is talkin about. It was $60 but I stole mine.


Thank god. Now I can safely chicken out.

Have any relevant links? I Googled "LinkSys USB jawn" and just got a hit... a forum post by someone saying they stole a router from Walmart.

Curious...

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Only issue I can see with a USB Wireless dongle is the poor reception they get (typically due to being stuck in the back of a pc, often buried in cables, besides walls etc). I used a cheap ass one on my first laptop which didnt have wireless - never really had a problem until I accidentally snapped the connector off.

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USB dongle's are fine if you have a medium-to-strong signal and an extension cable. Try to avoid mixing & matching wireless hardware from different manufacturers, that can lead to compatibility issues - especially if parts of the network are using manufacturer-specific features.

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The Internet said:

Sorry, I'm taken


Obvious worthless post and username registered today is worthless, not to mention linking to Lemonparty in your homepage is not a very good idea here.

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Viewtiful-Chris said:

Okay, fuck USB. Get a card.

You just plug it into the motherboard? Nothing else required?

I've watched my stepdad install components to my computers... the thought of unscrewing my computer case and doing it myself mildly terrifies me - but given my obsession with computers it would be retarded if I didn't try this.

Although you've apparently gone with the USB option already, I'd just like to comment that installing an expansion card is trivial stuff. You have nothing to be scared of. At all.

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His parent's might object to holes being drilled in the walls and/or floors. Having Cat 5 cable snaking under doors and down hallways is hardly an option either, after being stepped on a few times the lost packet count will start to become an issue.

fraggle said:

Although you've apparently gone with the USB option already, I'd just like to comment that installing an expansion card is trivial stuff. You have nothing to be scared of. At all.

Meh - Don't know what Wireless-N cards are like to install but do know that A and G cards can be fiddly, even when you follow the instructions to the letter. Belkin's back-to-front install procedure doesn't always work first time and a D-Link card I had wouldn't install successfully - unless all you wanted it to do was reset the PC before Windows had finished loading.
While USB dongle's are far from ideal, they're a worthwhile option for people who haven't discovered the joys of upgrading their own hardware.

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I use a Broadcom 43xx type card.

03:05.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Belkin Device 7c0a
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
Memory at faffe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: ssb

I also suggest you not use WEP. It's easily cracked. However if they won't let you on your own network, crack it.

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