I've recently moved house & want to go wireless broadband on my PC (I'm using my laptop at the moment).

The PC in question is an ageing Packard Bell iMedia 5051 probably about 9 years old. At my old house I had Virgin cable broadband, so I plugged the modem into a wireless router & then plugged the router into the PC via an ethernet cable.

I've now got Sky broadband & a wireless modem/router & wanting to use both PC & laptop wireless.

The physical location of the phone sockets prevents me from using the ethernet cable now.

Is it possible to plug in a wireless card? If so, what sort of card to I get?

I'm planning to upgrade the memory at the same time as it's only got a single 256MB card at the moment!!!

Edited 25 March, 201016 yr by Jon TDI

What OS is it running ???

If it's less than XP you may run into problems with drivers

What OS is it running ???

If it's less than XP you may run into problems with drivers

It's running XP.

If the PC has USB 2.0 (it might have) then you could use a USB wireless dongle no problems. If it has a spare PCI slot on the motherboard then you will be able to use a PCI wireless card.

All cards are supplied with XP drivers so as long as you can make the physical connection they will work. The drivers don't put any real overhead onto the OS so there won't be any sort of performance hit.

To make things less complicated when you get the wireless working disable the on board Ethernet in Windows so there are no conflicts.

Now to reality with only 256MB of RAM the PC is marginal at best and it's unlikely that you will be able to buy more RAM suitable for a 9yo PC so my advice is to dump it and get something newer it will be much better al round in the long run.

Edited 25 March, 201016 yr by K1W1

You should be fine then, I find netgear fine for home use, although I expect someone else will come along and say its all crap.

Do have any cards in mind ???

If the PC has USB 2.0 (it might have) then you could use a USB wireless dongle no problems. If it has a spare PCI slot on the motherboard then you will be able to use a PCI wireless card.

All cards are supplied with XP drivers so as long as you can make the physical connection they will work. The drivers don't put any real overhead onto the OS so there won't be any sort of performance hit.

To make things less complicated when you get the wireless working disable the on board Ethernet in Windows so there are no conflicts.

Now to reality with only 256MB of RAM the PC is marginal at best and it's unlikely that you will be able to buy more RAM suitable for a 9yo PC so my advice is to dump it and get something newer it will be much better al round in the long run.

Thanks for the advice.

A wireless dongle is another option, but would rather go down the card route first.

I've checked to see if the motherboard has a spare PCI slot & it has 3 spare.

With regards to the RAM......... there's a site called crucial.com which can check what sort of RAM upgrade you can fit, by typing in the make & model of your PC.

This site suggested I could take mine to 1024MB by adding 2 x 512MB cards.

You should be fine then, I find netgear fine for home use, although I expect someone else will come along and say its all crap.

Do have any cards in mind ???

The wireless router I used at my old house was a Netgear. No complaints with it. Surplus to reqirements now though.

In fact ,the Sky router I have now is a Netgear item.

Netgear are cr*p in my opinion, but will be just fine for light home use.

Netgear are cr*p in my opinion, but will be just fine for light home use.

Ha ha

Told you didn't I !!!

Netgear are cr*p in my opinion, but will be just fine for light home use.

but that's exactly, what it'll get used for.

There's one on ebay for £16.

Try 7dayshop for the card - I get loads of stuff from them and it's usually good. If you want to try a USB dongle I have one spare as I got two dongles and PCMCIA card a while back but only use the card now).

I have no idea if this is the sorta card that you need or want, but I have one of these kicking around unused in my room if you want it? Got the driver disk somewhere too I think. It came with the modem, as it was cheaper to buy a bundle than seperatly.

It's a Linksys WPC54G ver. 5 PCMCIA card.

If it's of any use to you then drop me a PM.

*Edit* Just seen Skomaz's post - I'd contact him first, didn't mean to step on anyones feet!

Edited 26 March, 201016 yr by TriggerFish

Triggerfish, is that for laptops only or will it be compatable with a desktop PCs?

Errr. . . not got a clue TBH. Although guessing by the 'Notebook adaptor' I'd assume laptops. TBH, I've never seen anything with that style of port on it laptop wise, and haven't had any dealings with tower units at all for ages.

I just re-read your first post though, didn't realise you were after something for a tower PC, thought you wanted a laptop adaptor.

Ok, a quick google later shows that PCMCIA card is for a laptop, but adaptops can be got so that it meets desktop port standards if that's of any use/ interest?

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&q=pci+to++PCMCIA&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=9594797355571911089&ei=OyOtS9nzMpj80wSz0bGLDg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBoQ8wIwAg#ps-sellers

http://snippets.com/whats-the-difference-between-pci-and-pcmcia.htm <- bit basic, but maybe of interest.

I use a USB dongle on my desktop. It's about 7/8 yr old.

It's a cheap DLink model but works fine.

i have one of these ones and find it very good.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?TabID=1&criteria=usb&ModuleNo=260623&C=SO&U=Strat15

Just been to Maplin at lunch time.

I gave in & bought a wireless USB dongle for £20. Needed to access some stuff on PC tonight, so hopefully this will get me up & running.

Tried the USB dongle last night & it worked a treat!

Tried the USB dongle last night & it worked a treat!

Result

Amazon is your friend for these -thing called Bluenext -£6.95 -got one for the wife's laptop -(ancient old thing ,-the laptop) and son can see her laptop across road ( likewise I can see his router at about 50% sig ).That's through two 1920's walls and an ancient road .Got two for daughter's laptops -she's had no problems -just stick in the CD and follow prompts-accepts WPA-security too) .Memory - try a google for computer fairs in your area ,or perhaps Aria.co.uk -( a lot of times they want shot of older stuff -so it's on special) I found that I could get away with a speed or two up with same sort of memory - ( i.e DDR 400 in place of ddr333 - ) ,PC FSB runs at slowest speed - and the nice thing about higher speed is that it's a bit cheaper ( and possibly easier to get ) -any of our Gurus comment .

Wish MS would stop this idea that XP runs on 256 - it does -if you've got days to wait ( unless the CPU is dual core) - for speed - jack your RAM up to max ,ditch XP and put in Win 7 .

Dunno about Win 7.......I've just got used to XP!!

This is what crucial recommend for an RAM upgrade:-

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=9E36082CA5CA7304

Edited 1 April, 201016 yr by Jon TDI

Dunno about Win 7.......I've just got used to XP!!

This is what crucial recommend for an RAM upgrade:-

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=9E36082CA5CA7304

Think Aria are a bit cheaper - but lok at your motherboard - and see what's max it'll take - mine's 2GB - TRY SYSTEM INFO ,then go to maker's site with board data . PC2700 ( =DDR333 , CAN BE REPLACED WITH DDR 400 ,I've done it ,-as it gets newer and faster ,it gets cheaper ).If motherboard is getting on in years -now is time to bite bullet and either replace or go for maximum ram .