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Wireless Card Adapter for Dad's Laptop

B

bigben2wardpitt

Senior member
MY dad has an IBM laptop (dont have the model number right now) and the built in wirles card will not work with our connection. Right now we have a windows computer with a Bell Atlantic InfoSpeed DSL modem made by Westell, with the apple wireless thing-the airpoirt because we have a mac in the back of the house running wirelessly. I would like to buy him a wireless adapter so he can go around the house with the card wirelessly. However, i dont know which ones will work! Can you help? if you need any more info, please tell me.


thanks
 
Buy a Linksys Wireless G router WRT54GS and a Wireless G notebook adapter WPC54GS.

The numbers are model numbers.
 
yea i dont want to buy a new router and all that though, if we were starting over i would do that, but i dont want to buy a new router. Westell sells them im just not sure if they will work.

thanks
 
please guys i want to buy one tommorow, does it have to be a westell or can it be just any old wireless card? I am not sure if a verizon store would have them, and circuit city prob. wont have westell if it has to be westell, all i see now are linksys
 
Go to IBM.com and try another driver for your onboard adapter. There's 10s of 'em at the site; you just need to figure out which one is right for your model. If you had the model number I'd bet someone around here would even supply you w/ the link for the download.
 
I had the same problem with my laptop (a Compaq).

It turns out there was a button that turned the wireless card on and off on the side of the lappy that comes on default off position. Boy did I feel stupid going through the litanny of troubleshooting items before I realized it.
 
ok well no one seems to understand what i am asking. I need to buy a wireless card for my dads laptop so that he can roam around the house wirelessly. I was thinking the card should be the same company as the modem. I am also thinking that if i want ot go wirelessly, do i need to have a router as well? right now i have the westell modem and an airport setup, but i dont htink we will keep the airport because we are getting rid of hte only mac in the house this christmas. So, any help now that i have explained myself a little better?
 
1. Wireless adapter (card) for the laptop does not need to be the same brand as your router.
2. if your dad's laptop already has one internally it will work with any router/access point that is within the same standard, such as 802.11b/a/g I am not sure what the airports use, I believe that it is 802.11b
3.Do you have any encryption setup on the airport? or MAC address filtering?
4. Is the modem you got from your DSL provider also a router, meaning does it hand out IP addresses automatically? If you can provide the subnet for the IPs you get from the modem, and that will let you know if it is handing them out from it's own internal DHCP server or if it is assigning you an internet IP.


After all that if you find that it is handing out it's own IP's from a DHCP that means the modem is also a router, you just need a wireless access point, not a wireless router. Most DSL modems have built in routers. So once you find that kind of info out we can help you better.
 
This is the part I never understood
MY dad has an IBM laptop (dont have the model number right now) and the built in wirles card will not work with our connection.
Click to expand...
AFAIK that card should work with that router. I have read about some older problems configuring an Apple router with PC wireless utilities. This seemed to be solved with a 3rd party program. More accurate info is the key to helping you.
 
ok well his built in wireless adapter is outdated, thats really waht it is. i think im gonna try the westell wireless adapter and if it doesnt work then we will see, i will also look at the AFAIK card that old hippie is talking about
 
AFAIK card that old hippie is talking about
Click to expand...
AFAIK = As Far As I Know. You're gonna have a hard time finding an AFAIK wireless card.
Let's try this again. The Wireless card in your Dad's IBM laptop SHOULD work with your Apple wireless base station. It may just need a software upgrade. Find the info about your dad's laptop. Find the info about the wireless card in your dad's laptop. Come back with the info. Post that info. More information is needed to give you specific help. It's getting a little closer to Christmas. If you want to be sure about having your father connected to a wireless network on Christmas Day, buy both a wireless router and matching card. If not, the card you purchase, may have the same problems.
 
Why waste money when you don't have to? If it's an airport you're connecting to and your dad's laptop has wireless built it it will work with it.

Search on google for "windows wireless on apple airport" or something like that and do some searching for information.

If it's got wireless built in, even if it is older, who cares, it'll work just as well as whatever card you're about to buy. Also, you're going to have to configure the new wireless card with the airport anyways, so just save money and do some research.
 
Originally posted by: bigben2wardpitt
NO IT WONT, I KNOW IT DOESNT. PEOPLE HAVE COME TO MY HOUSE, LOOKED AT IT AND SAID, HIS WIRELESS ADAPTER WILL NOT WORK.
Click to expand...

Patience, patience bigben...

As previous posters have indicated, wireless routers and PC cards or built-ins all work together provided that they use the same protocol. Most recent devices support wireless-G (802.11g), and these usually also work with 802.11b. I suppose it's possible that your dad's PC could be old enough to have 802.11a, in which case adding a new wireless card could work.

If you're saying that you want your dad'd PC to work with a MAC Airport, then there are sites liek this that might help.

The people here are just trying to make sure you don't buy something that doesn't solve the problem. You haven't given us much information to work with at all. It doesn't sound like you know a whole lot about this; getting some advice from those "people" who looked at your dad's PC seems like your best bet.

Good luck...
 
The biggest problem here is that you have NEVER provided us with any thing concrete, no model numbers, nothing. We can't help you unless you give the information we need to do so.
 
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