A Little History About Wireless Internet Cards

Those of you that remember ISA and VESA-local Bus expansion slots on computers will remember when wireless internet cards first started to come out. A lot of this wireless technology is older than people think it is and when you try to explain to them that there have been wireless internet cards for years they just don?t seem to believe you. But there has been wireless internet cards for years and they have ranged from the very cheap to the very expensive and back in the old days you did not want very cheap because very cheap wireless internet cards never worked.

Wireless internet cards work on a compatibility system that is based on the IEEE 802.11 wireless network standard. Back in the old days you needed to make sure that all of your equipment was compatible and to do this meant buying a complete wireless internet set up from one manufacturer. There was not cross compatibility and if you tried to get your wireless internet card to work with a different manufacturer?s access point then you were probably in for a long day. Wireless internet connections in the old days were not nearly as smooth and as seamless as they are now and setting up a wireless network took a lot of know how and a long time. It was like any other cutting edge technology that gets released when it is not ready and has to evolve over time.

Compatibility

Wireless internet cards work on the IEEE 802.11 wireless network standard and you can get either an 802.11b compatible card or an 802.11g card. Most people go with the cross compatible 802.11b/g card which is probably a smart move. Unlike the old days, the cards today all talk to each other although you still get what you pay for and lower end cards sometimes have a hard time talking to lower end wireless routers. It is a problem that can usually easily be solved with a firmware update on something or reloading the drivers for something else but the best way to avoid all of that is to buy quality right off the bat.

There are a lot of little tricks and tips that people will give you about wireless internet cards but I think the best tip is that if you are buying a wireless internet card for a desktop PC then get a USB external wireless internet connection. There are a lot of reasons for this but chief among them is the fact that a USB device is going to be more universally compatible with any router and you can move a USB external connection around to try and get better reception from the router. If you install a card into your computer then your chances of moving that around to get better reception are pretty slim. An external USB connection is nice because it is easy to move and adjust.

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