Cheap, effective USB WiFi?

[Slammy1]

I found a Wireless router for a friend at a yard sale, I'd like to find him a cheap USB WiFi adapter to connect his PC or laptop to his main PC for internet sharing and networking. The router is a Dell, the model # escapes me but I'm going by there tonight so I can post back. He doesn't need great distances, but basement to main floor would be the objective. Any recommendations?

 

[Slammy1]

Sorry for the bump. Would this be a decent adapter?

AZiO AWU254 IEEE 802.11b/g USB 2.0 802.11g 54Mbps Wireless Pen Adapter

 

[JackMDS]

If he can install PCI this would be much better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16833315041

 

[Slammy1]

Thank you for the advice. The problem is that he has both a laptop and PC which he'd like to use this on.

 

[JackMDS]

Well PCI would not work with laptop.:shocked:

Start with the one that you chose and if it Not working well with the Desktop, you can try a USB extention cord to put the thingie high above the desktop, or get an additional PCI card.

Skipping few trips to buy "unhealthy combo meals" can finance the card. .

 

[Slammy1]

I got the impression from reading the reviews that the extender was pretty important (plus from what research I've done all of these type of units get pretty hot, so isolating is nice to allow you to disconnect without the burning of fingers). Thanks again for the help, I'm a bit outside my expertise here.

 

[0roo0roo]

no frys? they generally have cheaper ones pretty damn cheap.. 15-20 dollars.
i've used the cheapie pcmcia versions and they work fine.

 

[Slammy1]

Sorry to bump, no fry-love here in the mid-Midwest. It's Wally World and Best Buy, items such as this are practically a mandatory mail order as their marketing scheme seems either shoddy and cheap or expensive but only decent stock only. I miss having real stores. My friend is on an economic down-turn of late, which is why I bought him a $5 wireless router from a yard sale. I figure that eventually he'll get a better laptop and a pci card for his main system, this is more meant for a stop-gap measure. These also seem like an interesting gadget, something worth having around. His laptop and second PC are very old, I think the laptop is an Athlon 1500 and the PC is... 400MHz. The PC is primarily just a music jukebox he connected to some speakers, it will be interesting to see if he can stream on USB 1.0 or if it'll just be slow file transfer..

EDIT: The device works great for wireless net, but had trouble setting up a network. I think it's related to the ZoneAlarm he has installed on the main PC, we'll try that next.

 

[kakee]

Try using Linksys wireless usb adapter