Wi-Fi card.

[sixthwheel]

i have a 5 year old Toshiba laptop with an internal wireless card. ( intell corporation Pro Wireless 2200 BG)
Lately it's been dropping signal about every minute, even with a good wi-fi signal.

Would buying a USB wireless card help?..and if it does which one would work good in PCLOS.

I also have a slot for a card on my laptop, where I use to insert a Verizon card when I had the service.

[parnote]

sixthwheel,

I've had incredibly good luck with the DLink WNA-1330 PCMCIA wifi card. It's 802.11 b/g, and uses the Atheros based chipset. It is recognized by PCLinuxOS right out of the box, and I've never had it fail me.

You can pick them up (brand new) on EBay for around $12 each.

parnote

[sixthwheel]

Thanks for your fast reply Parnote.
I will take your advice on the card. I appreciate it.

One more quick question though. Should I turn off the internal card (via little button on the front) so there is no conflict, or it doesn't make a difference?

[sixthwheel]

BTW, looking forward to the July issue of the mag.

[parnote]

I dunno if it'll make much difference, but it'd probably be safest to turn off the wifi switch for the internal card.

As for the July mag ... any day now ... any day.

parnote

[sixthwheel]

What do you think about this USB version?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3321383&CatId=2688

[parnote]

To me, it would be a crap shoot. There's no info there specifying which chipset the adapter uses. At least with the aforementioned PCMCIA card, that is a known, and it is well supported in PCLinuxOS. Plus, by using the PCMCIA port -- a port that otherwise is not utilized -- you free up a USB port for other uses.

parnote

[sixthwheel]

Thanks.

[ka9yhd]

As for turning off the internal wireless, should not need to.  As both wireless cards will show up in the network manager.

I have tried this and yes they both will show up in the Network manager.  Just click on the one you want to use.

[Kukaraja]

I also had a problem with toshiba laptop and internal Intel 2200BG wifi card. I removed it from the laptop, erased all the electrical contacts with the erasing gum, cleaned residues with alcohol, and put the card in laptop again. After the cleaning there were no disconections and the signal quality also went up. You can try to clean the contacts also with some contact spray (WD40)

[ka9yhd]

Uh WD 40 is a Water Dispersant hense the WD.  It is basically a light weight oil.  Any electronics shop should have contact cleaner spray.