Garth Almgren wrote:
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/

One of my employees showed me some maps his son made while "war
driving" around Vallejo, CA. Using a GPS and "Netstumbler" (or
something like it) the maps showed wireless access just about
everywhere he went. Many of the access points in their residential
neighborhood were unencrypted and unrestricted. The system even mapped
out the estimated usable range of each access point. You don't have to
go far in most neighborhoods to see the SSID "Linksys" pop up in the
list with easy access.