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(More customer reviews)This review is written for non-technical people about improving the speed of their wireless access or getting on a laptop that does not have the capacity built in - For very little money!
More and more people own laptop/notbook or the newer and even smaller "netbooks." The idea is pretty straight forward. A computer that is portable and can easily be taken from place to place, unlike our traditional desktop-type computers that are secured by both the sheer mass as well as by the multitude of wired connections they usually require to one place.
The evolution of portable technology led to what we call, descriptively, "wireless" connections. There are connections to wireless system that do not require wired connections. What they DO require is a wireless adapter, often built into to newer notebook and netbook units.
There are a couple of possible complications. One is having access from a portable computer that does not have a built-in wireless card and the other is having one, but wanting greater speed than the now older versions of wireless adapters allow. An inexpensive and entirely satisfactory solution to either issue is the Netgear WN111 v.2, available for about $80. new and for about $20. refurbished. I bought one of the latter and am please to say that it works perfectly.
There are, essentially, four generations of wireless connections. They go by the shorthand designations of a,b,g and draft-n. "a" is the first and slowest and they increase in both speed and range up to the latest draft-n adapters and routers. Of course, for any wireless card or adapter to function, it must be within range and have access to a wireless router. These are ubiquitous at internet `hot spots' and are frequently becoming the connections of choice in peoples' homes.
When I first wanted to increase the wireless download speed of my own notebook (two years old and with a built-in a/b/g wireless card, I mistakenly thought that I would only need to replace that card with one that would receive the faster, `draft-n' signal. Wrong! Turns our that these small wireless cards are often necessarily compliant with the motherboards (the computer heart and brain of your machine) and the card cannot be replaced with a `draft-n' card because it will not work with the motherboard.
I actually thought about replacing the notebook computer - though in all other respects, it performed perfectly. Then I discovered the magic of wireless adapters, including those that received the speedier `draft-n' signals and connected to the outside of a laptop by simply 1) downloading the software from the company's website if a disc did not come with I and then 1) plugging it into an available USB (v2) port. After trying several and doing a good deal of research, I settled on the Netgear NN111 v.2 wireless USB adapter. It works perfectly.
There are other reasons you might want to consider getting one.
If you have upgraded your wireless router at home from the now standard `g' or `a/b/g,' to one that spreads the coverage and increases the signal strength and downloading speed, you will find that if ANY device operating at less than the `draft-n' speed is connected to your network, the entire network will revert to the slower `g' configuration. For the `n' to work, every item connected to that network must be able to use the signal at that level or the whole shebang reverts (`downscales') to the lowest common denominator.
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NETGEAR RangeMax Next Wireless-N USB Adapter WN111 - Network adapter - Hi-Speed USB - 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n (draft)Netgear's RangeMax Next Wireless-N USB 2.0 Adapter - Recertified is fully backward compatible with legacy 802.11b/g wireless standard products. Smart Wizard® allows the setup to be quick and easy, while Touchless WiFi Security makes connecting to secure networks simple and fast. Installation CD is not included.
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