Around 3/25/2006 5:45 PM, RG wrote:

Kewl. Do you need a specific wireless card? Or is it protocol
sensitive?

Any laptop built recently will have wi-fi built in as standard equipment.
For an older machine cards can be purchased for the PCMCIA slot. Any card
with "G" protocol is what you want. "G" is backward compatible with the
earlier "A" and "B" protocols, I believe.

Nope, G is only backwards compatible with B.
A is a completely different animal. For one, it operates in the less
crowded 5GHz band vs. the B/G's use of the 2.4GHz band. You can get
cards that will do both A and G, but they're not very common.

Most Wi-Fi these days is either G or B. Get a good G card, and you'll be
set. Here's the one I use, and it serves me well:
http://www.dlink.com/products/?model=DWL-G650
The Extreme G is nice if you're hooked up to a compatible router.

One other thing: NetStumbler is almost a must if you're into wireless.
It'll detect all sorts of info about any network in range (even "hidden"
networks), and it'll even hook up to a GPS and mapping software to chart
hotspots:
http://www.netstumbler.com/


--
~/Garth - 1966 Glastron V-142 Skiflite: "Blue-Boat"
"There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing about in boats." -- Kenneth Grahame
~~ Ventis secundis, tene cursum ~~