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what is a good internal wireless nic for laptops?

R

relaxandreflect

Senior member
i see a lot of the oronico floating around. i'm looking for a mpci wireless network card to go in a laptop. what's a good one to get?
 
It's my understanding the D-Link 520+ PCI card can actually be installed in a mini-PCI slot once you remove the excess "junk" and it's alot cheaper than an actual "mini-PCI" card. I would have gone this route but I could not find the antenna leads in my Gateway 450SX.
 
I went this route with my Inspiron 8200 and it works flawlessly. Prior to this, I had a D-Link 650+ PC card. The internal card performs the same if not better. Actually, I didn't even have to install new drivers, since the new card worked with the existing drivers.

For the 520+, all you have to do is remove the metal casing from the PCI card and pop out the miniPCI card. Then clip one of the wires (which connects the miniPCI card to the external LED I believe), disconnect the external antenna and you're good to go. Make sure as PCAddict mentioned, that you have an minicoax (?) antenna lead on your laptop so that you can connect the card to it.

Hope this helps!

I know other people have done this mod with Linksys cards and also 802.11g cards as well. Depending on the model of laptop that you have, you can probably use a 802.11g card in place of a 802.11b one and it should work fine.
 
What brand and model of laptop do you have? You could probably find out from the technical specifications listed on their website.

If you don't have wires, you have one other option but it is rather crude. You could open up your laptop and place a metal strip along one side and solder a wire from the end of the strip to the antenna connection on the card. I think that would work. In my laptop, the antenna is actually a metal strip done in the same fashion, if I'm not mistaken; just without the soldering but with a real connector.
 
This is an interesting mod. Would love to do it sometime this summer.... with a cheap 10 buck wireless card...that would be so sweet.
 
Originally posted by: hamburglar
Would this work for a Portege 2000? The wireless on that is very weak.
Click to expand...

It probably would work, if the existing card that you would replace is 802.11b. The only thing that might limit it is the actual antenna in your Portege. If the antenna is weak, then that is your bottleneck. :frown: Only way is to look inside and see what's going on in there...
 
Originally posted by: hamburglar
Would this work for a Portege 2000? The wireless on that is very weak.
Click to expand...

The antennas on the 2000 are situated along the sides on the base of the unit. Has it been serviced? I only ask because Toshiba has a alert about making sure the antenna leads are precisely positioned to make sure that the signal reception stays good. That said, you shouldn't have any problem with a 802.11g card working in that laptop.
 
Originally posted by: jschuk
Originally posted by: hamburglar Would this work for a Portege 2000? The wireless on that is very weak.
Click to expand...
The antennas on the 2000 are situated along the sides on the base of the unit. Has it been serviced? I only ask because Toshiba has a alert about making sure the antenna leads are precisely positioned to make sure that the signal reception stays good. That said, you shouldn't have any problem with a 802.11g card working in that laptop.
Click to expand...

my Portege 2000 hasn't been serviced yet (for the antennae at least). Does this mean I should service it to get better reception?
 
My vote for orinoco/avaya MiniPCI cards.

Some notebooks has 2 antennas while others have only 1. The 2nd antenna is for backup in case the reception is weak on the main signal antenna. open the miniPCI cover to see if your laptop has 1 or 2 antennas, there are 2 coax connectors that are very easy to spot.
 
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