What Wireless Card

Choosing a wireless card is quite simple really. You need to know three things:

1. Your operating system (e.g. Mepis, Windows XP, etc.)
2. The sockets your PC has (e.g. PCI, PCMCIA, USB, RJ45 Ethernet)
3. Whether you need an antenna socket.

These are quite easy to determine. Your operating system will most likely be displayed onscreen when you turn your PC on. The sockets your PC has can usually be worked out from the age and shape of the PC. If it's a laptop, it will most likely have PCMCIA (or possibly mini-PCI) slot and, if is less than 5 years old, USB too. If it's a desktop machine, it'll have a PCI slot if it's a Pentium and USB too if it's less than 5 years old (Pentium II or newer is the general rule).

Whether you need an antenna socket depends on whether you need to attach an external antenna to enable connection to the network. In general terms, you will need an antenna if you wish to use the wireless card to join the Bristol Wireless network from a room inside your house.

Armed with these bits of information, you can now search the internet for a wireless card that your operating system supports, provides the right connector (PCI, USB, etc.) and has an antenna connector if required. The Linux Emporium now stocks a range of Linux compatible wireless networking products.

More Information at the WirelessHardware page.

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