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What are those nifty PCI PCMCIA adapters called?

S

SinfulWeeper

Diamond Member
In my computer I have a PCI PCMCIA adapter that allows me to put in Type I cards. However after upgrading my enitire household to 802.11G, the new cards do not fit in these adapters. I also regularly upgrade my family's computer stuff, so having a couple more spare would be nifty. I am opposed to just getting a straight PCI wireless card though.

So what are they called? All the stickers on the two I own are missing and I bought them years ago... so I forgot what they are called. Also any links to stores that sell the would be nifty 🙂

Thanks in advance.
 
To be honest, you'll usually get better performance and range from a USB adapter. With USB 2.0, you have plenty of bandwidth and you're not limited to placing the adapter right behind your PC on the floor, right behind a lot of interference from the PC. Waaay cheaper than buying PCMCIA cards AND the adapter.

- G
 
To date, I have never once seen a USB wireless adapter that comes even remotely close to performance and signal strength both transmitting and recieving than a card itself. Given it has been a month and a half since I last ordered one and tried... but I doubt a new USB wireless adapter came out yet that fixes that. Beside's USB takes more CPU cycles and I like doing crunching for the TeAm 🙂 Price will not be a concern over quality. USB adapters just are not made that good as their slide in counterparts. Doing misc benchies, they are just much slower and their transmit/recieve signal strength leaves way too much to be desired.

And my puter is not on the floor, It's about 3½ feet off it on a nice stand I build for easier access to the guts and the misc ports/drives on it. It might get some intererence from the innards of the box, but it still performs better for some reason, which has not been proven wrong yet.
 
I really like it when Neurowares psychology tries to rationalize Hardware.😉

When it comes to Entry Level Wireless Clients almost all of them are based on PCMCIA cards. (Even the Wireless Routers and Access Point radios are PCMCIA cards).:shocked:

The so called USB is PCMCIA card connected under the plastic to a USB interface.

The so called PCI is PCMCIA plugged or soldered to PCI interface board.

Since the PCI and the USB are PCMCIA with additional interface circuitry and different buses the performance resultant is some what less (about 5%-10%) than pure PCMCIA.

What shell I use?

For Laptop the regular PCMCIA is the best solution,

For Desktop (or tower case) USB Wireless Client Card should be considered as the preferred solution.

Why?

Wireless is depending on signal propagation.

PCI Wireless Client Card ends up been stuck behind the computer's case, resultant in obstructed transmission and poor performance. USB is connected to the Port with 2-3' cable allowing the Antenna to be placed above the System for better Transmission.

However a PCI card is a good choice when a powerful external Antenna is needed for long distance. Many Wireless PCI cards come with a removable Antenna.

The adaptors were conceived in the time that PCMCIA cards cost $100 and an adaptors was around $25.So there was a thinking that people with Laptop and desktop can save money by buying one PCMCIA and an adaptor (BTW, the idea never really took of market wise).

Todate, PCMCIA cards can be found $10 and Up. In theory if the price of these adaptors was less than $3 might make some sense to use. However these adaptors still cost over $25. In addition there is No standard design in these adaptors, thus in-between Brand compatibility is a problem.

Type into a Google bar PCI to PCMCIA adaptor you will get your wishes (do not be surprise if most of them are sold out of the USA in places were Wireless hardware is much more expensive and thus people have other consideration than the above).

:sun:
 
Originally posted by: JackMDS

The so called USB is PCMCIA card connected under the plastic to a USB interface.
Click to expand...
I seen that when I opened up a USB wireless adapter and found a Orinoco Silver in there. The USB adapter worked very poorly @ best. To make sure there was not something wrong with the card itself I slid it both into our desktops and laptop. It worked as well as it is supposed to. There are a number of other USB adapters where I found PCMCIA cards in them. The story all ends in the same situation. They work very poorly as USB.... I do not know why. 😕 And BTW, I did not stick an antenna in it. None of my PCMCIA have one with the exception of one, which is built in and goes along with my laptop.

The so called PCI is PCMCIA plugged or soldered to PCI interface board.
Click to expand...
Agreed, but I do not want a straight PCI card. I want a PCMCIA card that slides into a PCI adapter.

Type into a Google bar PCI to PCMCIA adaptor you will get your wishes (do not be surprise if most of them are sold out of the USA in places were Wireless hardware is much more expensive and thus people have other consideration than the above).

:sun:
Click to expand...

When I did that search, all I got were broken links 🙁
 
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