best non-PCMCIA wireless/wep/802.11b/g option

My music player is an old VAIO laptop that only has one PCMCIA
slot. Currently that slot is occupied by an RTL8180 based card.
In addition to the fact that the RealTek drivers tie me to an archaic
version of Linux, I'd like to free up the slot in order to plug in
a CD player.

Bandwidth is not a big concern since the S/W caches music locally,
but 'g' would be nice since putting a 'b' device on my wireless LAN
causes some degradation in throughput for 'g' clients.

The laptop doesn't get moved around so something that requires power
and/or is cabled to the laptop is not really a problem.

The laptop (pcg-z505ls) has on board Ethernet so something like a
game adapter would be great. Too bad they're so expensive. The other
alternative looks like USB. (I'm not aware of any Firewire options
and if available, they would likely be expensive anyway.)

The laptop has pre-2.0 USB (1.1?) Is that adequate for 'b' or 'g'
wireless?

The processor is a 750 MHz Pentium and seems to have cycles to spare
in the case that USB takes a lot to manage. I've always shied away
from USB networking because of this, but for this application that
would be less important.

Suggestions for a cheap Linux supported wireless adapter?

thanks,
hank

Hank Barta <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

> My music player is an old VAIO laptop that only has one PCMCIA
> slot. Currently that slot is occupied by an RTL8180 based card.
> In addition to the fact that the RealTek drivers tie me to an archaic
> version of Linux, I'd like to free up the slot in order to plug in
> a CD player.
>
> Bandwidth is not a big concern since the S/W caches music locally,
> but 'g' would be nice since putting a 'b' device on my wireless LAN
> causes some degradation in throughput for 'g' clients.
>
> The laptop doesn't get moved around so something that requires power
> and/or is cabled to the laptop is not really a problem.
>
> The laptop (pcg-z505ls) has on board Ethernet so something like a
> game adapter would be great. Too bad they're so expensive. The other
> alternative looks like USB. (I'm not aware of any Firewire options
> and if available, they would likely be expensive anyway.)

I just bought the following (but it hasn't arrived yet) to replace my Linksys
wireless router with a bridge device. Given it has an option to recieve
wireless and convert it to ethernet, it should work:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...ATT=Networking

USB wireless devices are probably cheaper, but you get into the whole
compatibility arena.

> The laptop has pre-2.0 USB (1.1?) Is that adequate for 'b' or 'g'
> wireless?

I believe USB 1.1 can roughly do 'b' level wireless.

> The processor is a 750 MHz Pentium and seems to have cycles to spare
> in the case that USB takes a lot to manage. I've always shied away
> from USB networking because of this, but for this application that
> would be less important.
>
> Suggestions for a cheap Linux supported wireless adapter?
>
> thanks,
> hank

--
Michael Meissner
email: (E-Mail Removed)
http://www.the-meissners.org

USB 1.1 is too slow to make effective use of an 802.11g adapter. I
suggest a Netgear MA101 or MA111 (111 is pen-style), Belkin F5D6050,
D-Link DWL-120+, all of which I have used very successfully.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> USB 1.1 is too slow to make effective use of an 802.11g adapter. I
> suggest a Netgear MA101 or MA111 (111 is pen-style), Belkin F5D6050,
> D-Link DWL-120+, all of which I have used very successfully.

Thanks for the info. WRT USB 1.1 not being able to take advantage of
'g', that's not really my concern. I just wonder if it would even
work. The benefit would be that *other* 'g' devices would not slow
down due to the presence of the 'b' device.

thanks,
hank

Michael Meissner <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> I just bought the following (but it hasn't arrived yet) to replace my Linksys
> wireless router with a bridge device. Given it has an option to recieve
> wireless and convert it to ethernet, it should work:
> http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...ATT=Networking

Keep us posted. I tried to go the same route some time ago but it
turned out the AP that I bought was constrained (by the firmware) to
only work with a couple of APs not including the one I had. My AP
could see it but the client would never try to associate. Luckily
I sold it for $5 more than I paid for it.

> USB wireless devices are probably cheaper, but you get into the whole
> compatibility arena.

That's why I'm asking here.

thanks,
hank