Hi all,
i have just recently upgraded my home network to a wireless connection. I have a older laptop (maybe 2 years) that doesn't have a built in wireless lan. i am trying to work out what i should do for a wireless lan adapter. Should i get a USB connector or a PCMCIA card?

i borrowed a friends PCMCIA card and put it into my laptop so see how the range was! it was really, really bad! my friend also lent me his psp to test the signal sstrength. The PSP could get 100% strength while the PCMCIA card could get nothing.

does this mean that the PCMCIA cards are bad? also, i managed to get my hands on a laptop that had built in wireless - the reception on that was just as good as the PSP!

so, what would be a better choice, the PCMCIA card or the usb dongle? has anyone tried both before and whats better? Thanks heaps!!

This is really meaningless. This simply means that you should not buy the pcmcia card you borrowed.
In a wifi connection there is an emitter and a receiver. This test simply means that the receiver you tried does not fit very well the emitter (which is namely your access point) or that the emitter is a very poor one.
If your emitter is really a poor one, almost no receiver will work correctly.
Here, in my house, I have three computers, one has an USB adapter, the other one has a pcmcia adapter, and the other one has a Wifi adapter in a PCI slot. All of theme work perfectly, althouth the internal PCI adapter has a slightly better signal.
Also, remember that wifi is supposed to be used inside a house, so no more distance than some tens of meters is reasonable.
Regards
Yordan

does that mean that i should be trying to buy something of the same brand as the access point for my laptop?

that's exactly what I mean. If you have a Belkin access point, your Belkin PC adapter has to work perfectly. if not, Belkin customer service has to solve the problem.
Of course, if you choose a different configuration, you could be lucky and see it working without any trouble, but in case of problem you cannot ask for help from the customer service.

ok thanks for your help!

Also remember that there are different standards for Wifi (802.11 networking). 802.11b is older and slower (10mb) but gives you a longer signal range. 802.11g offers faster throughput but is more limited on range.

For range, the antenna is really important. Most notebooks that have 802.11 built in have external antennas built into the case (the screen most likely). PCMCIA cards have the antenna on the end that juts out of the slot. And USB can be anywhere.

Knowing the antenna location is important because signal degrades between the access point and the antenna. You can use software like netstumbler that'll let you see the differences in signal as you move around the house.

Generally, the wireless router should be as close to the center of the house as possible. I've had good experiences with Linksys, D-link, and belkin. Netgear wasn't a very good experience. The router would have frequent blackouts after a month and the adapter wasn't any better (negative ping). Personally, I like draft-n from linksys and belkin.

In my house I have four Belkin wifi adapters. Two of them are able to see the access point, two of them are not. Precisely from the same point (on the same PC). isn't this strange ? Of course, I'm trying to reach a 811g with 811b adapters, which is slightly challeinging.

I think the best option is to try out some models and keep the one with the best performance... the interface doesn't really matter unless your computer uses USB 1.1 in stead of USB 2.0...

That's my current problem. I need to find a supplier who allows me to borrow his devices, returning them after test and buying only the one who has the best performances... I would even be lucky if I found somebody who allows me to try a PCIA adapter in order to see if it works on my laptop which can currently not see my access point...