I need a Wireless NIC

[Byan]

I am going to be moving to my grandfather's house cause he offered me a job for the summer

he has a apple airport (wireless router) connected to cable.., which I am undoubtingly going to have to exploit, but I am going to need a Wireless adpater for that.

I noticed that TRENDnet's stuff is alot cheaper then everything else, how is their quality compared to other brands like linksys?
I really don't plan on using it often, just for the summer..; so I don't want to pay too much

I want at least a connection of about 5mb at least from about 10-15m indoors..
if I get a TRENDnet card, I think I will pay the extra $6 and get 802.11g for the heck of it, but I don't think I need anything more then 802.11b..

[ecross]

Hi Byan,

I think you'll be better off going for 802.11g. It's backward compatible and will work with 802.11b and is a little faster.

I don't know about Trendware but have you looked at CompUSA?

[Byan]

I was planning on ordering at newegg unless I could find cheaper prices else where.

this is the trendnet card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833156141
this is the linksys
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124104
this is a foxconn, I thought looked nice cause of the external atenna (anyone know anything about foxconn?)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833194001

if I go brand name and 802.11g then I end up paying upwards $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124115

[ecross]

If I had to choose any of those links I would go for the third link. Whether or not your equipment can handle WPA security I would move into that direction. I don't know of any of those others have drivers available for WPA support. The other wireless cards only support WEP. I'm sure wireless security will be important to you.

[Byan]

how important is that really?
I'm sure everyone will want to look at my data cause I have such important stuff going through it, my main concern is quality of connection

[ecross]

The quality of a wireless connection can be many factors due to how far and whether or not there are objects you'll encounter like walls and other obstructions.

Using wireless encryption is important. Let's take this as an example. If I was an intruder who would be near your unsecured network with no encryption on your wireless router (because there's no encryption, or after breaking your encryption) I would automatically get an IP address and have full network access.

[Byan]

hmm.., k, I guess that if I am going to use this card in the future at all, I should probably get one that is more secure

I still havent been able to figure which brand names are most reliable..
I don't want to get the cheap card if I am going to have to replace it in the near future...; yet I don't want to play 2 to 3 times as much for a card that is just as good as the cheaper one

[ecross]

I really cannot give you a stright forward answer. There are so many manufacturers and so many network cards available. Almost any network card will work just fine. I would go for either NetGear, Linksys, or D-Link but that's my opinion.