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Posted by Barry Watzman on August 18, 2008, 9:18 am
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Use a USB 1.x WiFi adapter ... tiny, about the size of a USB flash
drive, and doesn't take up a PC Card slot.
I think that both USB 2 and WiFi PC Cards that are "flat" do exist, but
are not common. However, using a USB 1.x WiFi adapter will solve the
problem with commonly available components.
Martin Slaney wrote:
> OK - so we have a PIII-ish era laptop that we know and trust - and/or
> got real cheap ... e.g. IBM T2x series, Toshiba-made Toshiba's etc.
> Quite often they have better build quality/durability - less heat etc.
> RAM might max out at 512MB or so - enough for many of us, HD can be
> upped to 100GB+ no problem etc etc. ....
>
> _But_ we _do_ want stuff like wi-fi, usb2 etc. Sooooo ... obvious answer
> is Cardbus cards - right ? Available very cheaply and usually behave
> quite well. Usually we have 2 Cardbus slots. Snag though - the way the
> slots are laid out mechanically is such that when using cards with
> "bumps" on the top surface, you can't utilise the bottom slot when
> there's a card in the top slot. Persoanlly I want to leave a usb2 card
> and a wi-fi card in there as pretty much permanent fixtures. Having to
> eject one and plug-in the other is very tedious - intertupts smooth
> workflow IMHO when doing stuff like download from internet -> copy to
> usb memory stick.
> The manufacturers of the Cardbus cards seem to design the things
> (mechanically) on the assumption that theirs is going to be the only
> card in use. Grrrrr .....
>
> USB2 adapters have a good "excuse" for the "bump" - obvious meachanical
> requirement wrt the USB sockets. (Although I just discovered this
> ebay item no. 110278992926 ) - anyone used/tried one ?
>
> Anyway, to the wi-fi ....
>
> Now there _do_ seem to be one or two older 802.11b wi-fi cards that are
> "flat" ... but often these don't support WPA (personally I can live with
> 11b speed, but I want WPA). Usually the pics on the web don't show the
> profile of the card clearly. Seems there might be one ot two that fit
> the bill - (coincidentally ?) seem to be 5V 16-bit cards - will these in
> general draw more power and generate more heat (and maybe cook the card
> above ) ?
>
> Sooooo .... anyone know of any (ideally 54g) WPA-supporting cardbus
> wi-fi cards that are either "flat" or have their "bump" on the bottom ?
> Are there any using an "external" plug-in antenna ?
>
> Anyone got around this problem ?
>
> TIA.
>
> P.S. I know an alternative is to use a USB wi-fi dongle, but then its
> mechanically "fragile" if sticking out of the cardbus->usb card, and
> will usually need a power-input cable to supply enough bus-power - which
> is all quite fiddly/cumbersome/irksome - as well as using up one of our
> "precious" usb ports.
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