which is faster, the built in wireless in my laptop or a wireless card?

Question

i'm thinking about purchasing a linksys wireless-g notebook adapter it has 2.4 ghz and 802.11g (not sure what that means). anyways, i have an HP laptop with built in wireless and was wondering if i purchase the card will the speed be faster? i have a weak signal in the building i live in and was wondering if my internet would be faster if i purchased this card. thanks.

Answer 1

Good answers above, but understand that your internal laptop antenna is around your display. It is actually larger than you will have using a pc card. I agree that you should look at a new wireless router, or moving the one you have to improve your reception.

Answer 2

some wireless add-ons have a MUCH better antenna
than what comes built in. so yes. signal will improve.
also... depends on where in your building you use the laptop.
(EDIT)
as orlandobillybob said...the laptop antenna is USUALY
around your srceen, but bigger dont always mean
better. some machines produce radio noise that
gets soaked up by the antenna being so close...
bigger antenna = more room to suck in static
also... some cheap laptops use a tiny solder spot
on a chip as an antenna. crazy how small it is.
also... some cards have an external antenna or one
on a wire... a bit of a bother sometimes. but it gets
the antenna away from the system.
(if you wanna see the solder-spot antenna:
look online for the do it yourself car door remore
extender)
(/edit)

as for speed:
802.11b is 11 meg/second
802.11g is 54 meg/second

A wireless "N" card is faster, but some places only give
you 54 meg speed with it anyway.
but in the future it will be faster with this card.
some N goes to 108...some go to 200mb+

there ARE wireless GIGABIT cards ive heard about.
but... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
and im not sure how many are on the market yet...
or where the formats are/are not accepted.

also................
on wireless network....
other users will steal your bandwidth as well.......
so it might not matter what you do.

example.... you card can type 5685529 words/min
and is taking dictation from the wireless router
at whatever hotspot you are at....
and the router studders....badly.......
"oohhh..ohhh... ohhhpen wehhh wehhhb weeh
weehbbsi.. siight site."
fast speed wont do you any good if the people
sending you the info are slow.

-

some apartments and dorms have a T1-T3 connection
sometimes better... if you are lucky.
T1=1mb/sec T3=40mb/sec

if your "building" an apartment you stand a good
chance at some extra speed.

in a dorm........ everyone is gonna be using it...
good luck...

also:
you could use a second wireless router as a bridge....
find the spot where the signal is strongest, and plug
it in. then set your laptop to use the new router as
the gateway. and set the routers default gateway as
the OTHER router... the one outside.
now you can move your laptop anywhere you want.

I also dissagree with second answer.
I went cheap... but my connection is still 6 mb
slowing down to 1mb would not make me faster
Maybe somebody typed something wrong?
I sure hope so.

Answer 3

2.4ghz 802.11g is basically meaningless, except for the letter g (i cant claim to know much about it, but its just frequency stuff, and is the same for everything just about)

what matters most would probably be the mbps number of the cards, I am positive your built in cards number is 54, and the thing you are looking at is either 54 or 108, however, this is only the max speed, in my experience, unless your card is actually maxed at 54 mbps, upgrading to 108 will not make a difference (cards will slow down to compensate when less than perfect signal)

what DOES matter is if the card you are looking at has mimo technology, which basically just means a better antenea, if it does, then it certainly would be better than the built in

however, even if it doesnt specifically have mimo, the antenea of the card is most likely better than the built in, and will be in a better position, and thus would help

but nothing is a substitute for actually trying the card, most places let you return within 30 days even if you open it, so you should give it a spin, i have a wireless network in my house with 4 computers in it, and it took a large deal of trial and error to get it to the perfecta that it is today :)

oh and btw the second answer is very, very wrong

Answer 4

If your connection is atleast 1MBPS then it doesn't matter what card you get, that is faster than most internet providers sell. You can get extended cards, you would have to get something other than what you already have. 802.11g is the standard. Some built in cards are not as good as store bought and vice versa. Make sure the card is rated for 802.11g, because that is most likely what the router is giving you. 802.11g is the type of wireless that is being broadcast.

Answer 5

Wireless card external is definately better IF you get high gain antenna. A standard pcmcia and internal would be the same. Speed goes down dramatically with poor reception.

here's a card with a nice high gain:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/102-7362707-1644150?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Hawking+Hi-Gain+Wireless-G+Laptop+

Answer 6

probably not, if you have a personal router in your house or etc. then you should update the router to a newer model with higher speed. in that case you would also want to get a newer adapter too. should be around 20-30% faster. go with wires if you really need the speed.

Answer 7

buying a wireless card would not help you. they are mainly designed for systems which don't have inbuilt wireless card. try buying a better wireless router for ur internet connection that might help you