Wireless Adapter PCI Add-on Card

[Stryker]

Hiya folks,

My sister-in-law is moving into a new apartment and wants me to get her connected to her roomate's (existing) wireless network for internet access. I will warn you... networks are NOT my strongest topic, so be gentle . The friend she is moving in with already has an existing connection through a wireless router. They won't be file-sharing or anything, it's just for an internet connection.

A few questions:

1. Is it as easy as buying her a wireless adapter card and popping it into a PCI slot to allow a connection to the network, then doing the regular steps for connecting to the internet?

2. Could there be any hardware conflicts with the router and any card I buy her (i.e. should I find out what brand/model the router is before buying her a card, or is it pretty safe they will be compatible)?

3. Can anyone recommend a decent and not too expensive PCI adapter that would get the job done?

Thanks for any feedback!
Stryker

[Statica]

Originally Posted by Stryker 1. Is it as easy as buying her a wireless adapter card and popping it into a PCI slot to allow a connection to the network, then doing the regular steps for connecting to the internet?

Almost, but not quite. Depending on your OS (and version, it is highly recommended that if she's using XP to upgrade to SP2), the steps would be slightly different. Additionally, most wireless adapters come with their own configuration utility that allows you to make the connection. The good news is that if you can read on screen directions, the steps are fairly simple. For example, all configuration utilities (including the XP wireless config utility) will give you a list of available wireless networks, from which you select the one that belongs to the router you are connecting to (identified by the SSID used). Then you select the type of encryption that is being used by the router (as set on the router), and enter the passphrase.
Personally, I've learned that disabling every utility out there and using the Windows wireless zero config utility, I've been able to get the best performance and the most seamless configuration on boot.

Originally Posted by Stryker 2. Could there be any hardware conflicts with the router and any card I buy her (i.e. should I find out what brand/model the router is before buying her a card, or is it pretty safe they will be compatible)?

Standards are standards, pretty much all of them play nice - no matter what the hardware. However, you should note that a lot of the manufacturers use particular "nuances" within the main standard. For example, a lot of the newer routers feature some form of burst technology to take them beyond the 54mbps limit of 802.11g (to 108mbps), it usually helps to be on the same mfger to be able to use it. Having said that, personally, I would use h/w that is of high quality, by a company that is committed to providing good upgrades and driver support.

Originally Posted by Stryker 3. Can anyone recommend a decent and not too expensive PCI adapter that would get the job done?

This: http://www.canadacomputers.com/index...664&cid=NT.541
or
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index...539&cid=NT.541
are fairly decent.

Addendum: As with all networking, I'd stay away from USB.

Just try to ensure that they run a decently secured wireless network.