Wi-Fi Recommendations?

[kame]

Which Wi-Fi do you use? LinkSys? 3Com?

~sim

[penguin_hash]

Well, for the AP, I've read that Linksys is "recommended" because they allow you to hook up different antennas (hence better reception). I've found a lot of the 3com products (not all!) are just generic ones with the 3com name on it.

For pccards, only get Lucent or Cisco. Everything else is crap (and I'm not trying to insult anyone else here). The Cisco cards cost a bit more than the Lucent ones, but it's well worth it if you want to use your laptop around the house.

[LPMiller]

I've had good experience with Belkin.

[rajatQ2]

i'm using a lucent pcmcia wifi card right now and i love it

[ribitch]

Airport!!!

(if you have an apple)

I am an apple user, and I have yet to have problems with the airport or base station. Apple cards are just lucent cards, so I guess for a pc my bet would be lucent, but I have never tried it on a pc.

[Jeffbx]

Originally posted by penguin_hash
For pccards, only get Lucent or Cisco. Everything else is crap (and I'm not trying to insult anyone else here).

Yes, Lucent & Cisco are good cards, but I've had good luck with 3Com, SMC, Netgear and Linksys as well. I don't know what your definition of crap is, but all those cards worked without a hitch for me. I'm not insulted, but if you have a reason to call everything else crap I'd be very interested to see the stats you're basing it on.

(I'm not trying to be a smarta**, I'm really interested in seeing any stats you have on individual card/WAP performance)

[PoloM1]

I currently use a netgear card and it works great. I also use a Belkin AP, it was definately easy to use and also works great.

Honestly, I don't like 3Com, I've had too many bad experiences with thier products in the past.

[penguin_hash]

OK, so maybe "crap" is too much. Other than "professional" reviews, my friends and I have a chance to try different cards in different households. It's been my experience that most cards will have deadspots around the house and cannot get a signal in rooms on a different floor. I guess that would be the main point: if I can't get a signal, then the setup is worthless. The Cisco cards performed the best, though they drain the battery somewhat. Considering you can get Cisco cards for ~$80+ on eBay (cheapest other ones I've seen are Belkin, which go for ~$50), it's worth it.

I would like to know how cards work when a 2.4GHz DSS cordless is in use (as I don't have a landline).