Need pci wireless car that's not a piece of crap

Hi all,

I bought a linksys wmp54g card from wal mart. It seemed to work fine at first, but when I moved the computer from the room that the router is in, it started reporting very low signal levels and dropping the connection. In the same room as my computer is my wife's computer, also wireless. It's using a belkin card of some sort, and it just about never drops the connection. It also consistently reports a signal strength of fair or higher.

The ironic thing is that the piece of crap card had this huge antenna on the back. It looked like it might be designed to actually do something, but that did not turn out to be the case. It was apparently the equivalent of hooking a rooftop antenna to a defective crystal radio set from 1903 and attempting to communicate with aliens approximately half a universe away.

So, what's a reliable wireless card? I need something that will be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Anything that's retarded and generates spurious disconnects need not apply.

I can't 100% remember the model number but I did buy a D-Link USB network adapter for my sister. It came with the extension cradle so it is sitting on her desk (it looks like a USB key with a dock) and she doesn't drop her signal ever. This is in a 1950's style house with very solid walls (I've run into them plenty, no drywall there) and the router is in the opposite end of the house. She normally gets 3-4 bars of reception from a USR 8054 router.

Huh, I've see some recommendations in other threads to stay away from usb wireless adapters. I can't find those threads for some reason, but I remember reading that. I guess not all usb adapters are bad.

Are you running the WMP54G with the latest drivers? I had the same problem with mine until I updated the driver. As of now, the computer with the wireless sits about 60' away from my router and has a signal strength of 78% according to the linksys software, and like 85% according to Windows. Here is where you should be able to find the newest driver, although the model you might have may be the WMP54GS, s meaning it has the speed boost technology built into it. I believe the speed boost is also supposed to help out with the range, but I haven't ever bought any networking stuff from Wal-Mart. Pretty much all of it has come from Newegg, or local computer stores.

deadlysyn said:

Are you running the WMP54G with the latest drivers?

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No, in fact I'm not running the wmp54g at all anymore. It suffered an untimely demise when it began screwing up at the wrong time. Several internal parts became external, and it ceased to cause any more trouble.

v8440 said:

No, in fact I'm not running the wmp54g at all anymore. It suffered an untimely demise when it began screwing up at the wrong time. Several internal parts became external, and it ceased to cause any more trouble.

Click to expand...

Hopefully that was at the fault of Linksys, and not a temper issue. I am sure you could have returned it for your money back, or atleast exchanged it for something else. Wal-Mart will take anything back, I've even seen stories online about them taking back things they never even sold.

got the trendnet 108g one in a xp pro box and it works great. no disconnects and full signal (1 wall between router and card tho @ ~30ft)

Buy an Asus card and get a nice 8dbi RP-SMA antenna from NewEgg for $10. All (almost?) of the Asus cards use Ralink chipsets which have always done very nicely for me and have fully open drivers if you ever plan to use Linux. They also have a 802.11n chipset that actually supports Vista, unlike the crap from other brands that uses a Marvell chip.

Good suggestions one and all-I'll probably buy one here in the next day or two. The asus card sounds attractive, especially with an antenna deal available for $10.

Cisco makes a PCI Wireless card, pretty affordable if you get it on ebay.
Cisco Aironet