Hi i have an old pc that i want to use wireless broadband on. what can i use to make it wireless. is a usb...?

Question

....usb wireless better than a wireless card. it's a pc and not laptop. all advice appreciated.

hi yogi- yes my pc is 5 years old. it is pentium 4 1.5ghz with 512mb ram and 60gb hard drive. it was the best spec for it's time. i have wireless router but will usb card work well with wireless router. will it pick up the signal.

jojo- thanks. i would give you thumbs up but cant :(

Answer 1

Hi ashley the question you asked and the way you asked it tells me you need a lot of advice and that is, your pc would be to old too slow for broadband you need a good computer for the internet and your computer I don't think you would get value for money.

Answer 2

USB wireless is very easy to install but there are two standards of USB Ver 1.1 and Ver 2.0. Version 1.1 only works at 11-12Mbps whereas most modern wireless networks work at 54Mbps . USB Ver 2.0 works at 480Mbps so it does not suffer this problem. I only mention it as you say it is an older PC so this may be a limitation.

Though you wouldn't probably notice any difference surfing the web if you do transfer large files it is noticeably slower.

As the other person comments above if your aim is for wireless broadband you would also need a wireless router to attach to your broadband connection. In fact any kind of wireless network benefits from a router/access point as you can set up your network in infrastructure mode rather than ad-hoc which tends to be more reliable and also allows you to set up a DHCP server so allocating network IP addresses to PC's becomes much more manageable.

Answer 3

Does it have a USB port? USB wireless is easier to install than a PCI wireless card. I'm currently running with a Netgear WG111T USB adapter on my desktop machine and it's been fine so far. As far as signal strength goes, a PCI card might get you better reception, but you'll have to decide how far away your machine will be from the router.

Answer 4

I would say that your idea of USB is better (a wireless NIC card would not really be usefull anywhere else...)

I would only go with the nic card if you could get one really cheap

I would say that USB may not perform as well (but I assume you will have a good signal) (wireless nics usually have antennas that seem to work better.

Answer 5

your computer is not old,pentium 4,s are still being sold in p.c,s to this day,ok maybe not at your clock speed but the processor is still around
as for the answer which says your p.c wont run broadband,,mmm,,,my first p.c i used with broadband was a pentium 2(266mhz) 128mb ram,6gb hdd and it was fine,infact it was one of the most reliable p.c,s ive evr had,but pentium 2,s were good processors in their day
as for you going wireless,your options are vast,first you could buy a wireless usb device which just plugs into any free usb port and then just install the supplied software and then thats it,just run the program and configure the connection
your second option would be a pci bus wireless network card which fits into a spare pci bus slot and similar to the usb device ,just install the software and configure the card
if you are using the usb device you may find that your p.c is still using the old usb 1.0 version which is much slower than the newer version 2.0,but for around £10 you can buy a pci bus usb 2.0 pci card which again slots into a spare pci slot,however you must make sure you have avalible pci slots
here are the components you will need
1. usb wireless device...http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6766647/Trail/C%24cip%3D50277.Office%2C%2BPC%2Band%2Bphones%3EC%24cip%3D50298.PC%2Bperipherals%2Band%2Baccessories%3EC%24cip%3D50309.PC%2Bnetworking%2Baccessories.htm
2. pci usb 2.0 card...http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6750347/Trail/C%24cip%3D50277.Office%2C%2BPC%2Band%2Bphones%3EC%24cip%3D50298.PC%2Bperipherals%2Band%2Baccessories%3EC%24cip%3D50309.PC%2Bnetworking%2Baccessories.htm
3. if needed a good wireless broadband router...http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6750763/Trail/C%24cip%3D50277.Office%2C%2BPC%2Band%2Bphones%3EC%24cip%3D50298.PC%2Bperipherals%2Band%2Baccessories%3EC%24cip%3D50304.Modems%2Band%2Brouters.htm
i hope this has helped you
good luck

Answer 6

i would use a PCI wireless network card to contect to your wireless modem, this will give you a better speed that USB as old PC's are only USB 1 and have slower USB ports than newer ones so the USB device will be working slower than it can.

good luck!

Answer 7

Why don't you get a usb wireless dongle? it's similar to a blue tooth 1 and available from any good PC and electronics shop.

Answer 8

A PCI WiFi card is better than USB. The PCI card will have a better antenna so you'll have better reception and that means faster connection.