Wireless options with Dell Laptops

I have a friend that has a couple to three year old Dell laptop, it
seems to just love hooking up to any wireless signal it can find. It
sees wireless at my house, and can attach to them, and my own laptop
with a PCMCIA wireless card can't even see.

She just purchased a new DELL Vostro 1700 laptop and I think she got
the Dell fancy get all wireless card, wireless N. She had talked to
the Dell sales people and they suggested that card. But now we find
that her old laptop is much better at picking up wireless than the new
by a wide margin.

Question, any experience here regarding the best wireless card to get
when purchaseing a Dell laptop? I'm looking at getting a new one in a
couple months and am trying to find which one seems to work best with
wireless and I'm finding a large variation in performance. BTW, her
old runs XP, her new Vista Ultimate.

Thanks

On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:15:56 -0600, someone@anywhere.com wrote in
<mbllr3huulnld9a7tfgsjn263sqaidbgjn@4ax.com>:

>I have a friend that has a couple to three year old Dell laptop, it
>seems to just love hooking up to any wireless signal it can find. It
>sees wireless at my house, and can attach to them, and my own laptop
>with a PCMCIA wireless card can't even see.

Better antenna, which matters much more than the wireless adapter.

>She just purchased a new DELL Vostro 1700 laptop and I think she got
>the Dell fancy get all wireless card, wireless N. She had talked to
>the Dell sales people and they suggested that card. But now we find
>that her old laptop is much better at picking up wireless than the new
>by a wide margin.

If it's a PC Card, the antenna is the issue.

>Question, any experience here regarding the best wireless card to get
>when purchaseing a Dell laptop? I'm looking at getting a new one in a
>couple months and am trying to find which one seems to work best with
>wireless and I'm finding a large variation in performance. BTW, her
>old runs XP, her new Vista Ultimate.

Go for a standard internal "g" mini PCI card on a laptop with good
antennas in the LCD lid.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

<someone@anywhere.com> wrote in message
news:mbllr3huulnld9a7tfgsjn263sqaidbgjn@4ax.com...
>I have a friend that has a couple to three year old Dell laptop, it
> seems to just love hooking up to any wireless signal it can find. It
> sees wireless at my house, and can attach to them, and my own laptop
> with a PCMCIA wireless card can't even see.
>
> She just purchased a new DELL Vostro 1700 laptop and I think she got
> the Dell fancy get all wireless card, wireless N. She had talked to
> the Dell sales people and they suggested that card. But now we find
> that her old laptop is much better at picking up wireless than the new
> by a wide margin.
>
> Question, any experience here regarding the best wireless card to get
> when purchaseing a Dell laptop? I'm looking at getting a new one in a
> couple months and am trying to find which one seems to work best with
> wireless and I'm finding a large variation in performance. BTW, her
> old runs XP, her new Vista Ultimate.
>
> Thanks

I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron laptop with a wireless card (Dell
Wireless 1505 Wireless-N minicard). I had problems with this card and
ultimately Dell resolved the problem by sending me (without charge) an
upgrade to the Intel 4965AGN Wireless-N Mini-card. I may have some problems
related to my wireless setup, but am pretty much convinced that it isn't
related to the wireless card. I'd suggest that you just order the Intel
wireless card (the upgrade charge is pretty small).

dave