What's new
  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

A good PCI-card that isn't Dlink or Zyxel?!

e2zippo

New Around Here
A few days ago I bought a new router and a PCI card for my desktop computer just to avoid wiring from hell.

The router is a Linksys WRT54GL and it works great!

The PCI-card on the other hand (ZyXEL G-302) works like shirt!

Problem 1: I can't even connect when I use Zyxel's own drivers, (G-302 v3_6.00). But the chip on the card is apparently a Realtek 8185 and that's the driver Win7 64bit uses as default, so i downloaded the latest from Realteks site. The card installs fine using these drivers, however....

Problem 2: The signal strength is quite useless, and strangely enough it never goes beyond 11mbit (windows own speed rating). To compare i have a HP laptop with an Intel 3945ABG, which is standing about 1meter from the desktop computer and it works great, which somewhat excludes interference and long distances.

I also tried placing the router approximately 5m from the desktop comp with a clear view and it varied between 5.5 and 11mbit. Where is stands now, I get no signal at all, even though the laptop is working perfectly.

What is the deal with the Zyxel drivers, shouldn't they be preffered over Realteks?

Could be that they do not have full support for Win7. But since the card installs fine when I run the Realtek drivers and still works like shirt I'm starting to believe that the card is simply broken or just plain worthless.

Problem 3: What card should i buy?

The more I read the more confused I get! It seems to be really difficult to find a good wireless PCI card.

My criteria are:

- Prefferably a PCI card since i've read that USB versions tend to get overswamped when you use a lot of connections.
- D-Link and Zyxel aren't a choice because of the amount of problems i've had with both brands.
- Must be able to use WPA2 and that rules out Linksys WMP54GS :/


Intel 4965ABG looks like a great card but it's only avaliable in mini-pci. Are there any downsides using a mini-pci to pci adapter?

A lot of questions and I'm sorry if I posted in the wrong section, i just wanted you guys to have the full story! :o
 
Wireless PCI cards are a dying breed and I've never used one.

Go with a USB adapter. Don't believe the "conventional wisdom" about the alleged limitations. What do you mean a "lot of connections", anyway? Any network adapter makes one connection at a time.
 
Similar threads

Similar threads

Latest threads

Support SNBForums w/ Amazon

If you'd like to support SNBForums, just use this link and buy anything on Amazon. Thanks!

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Back
Top