I currently own a Dell Inspiron 6000 with an Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG internal wireless card in it. I'm having issues connecting to the wireless network in the apartment complex I live in, the connection is intermitent and slow, 1-2Mbps on average. I've been looking into possibly getting a PCMCIA network card with an external antenna that I can replace with a high gain one or possibly a card with MIMO on it. My problem is that I don't really want to go out and spend a bunch of money if it won't get me anywhere.....
So here's my question. Which gets better reception, an internal card with an internal antenna, an external card with MIMO (multiple in, multiple out) and no external antenna, or an external card with a high gain antenna?
I have had this problem to, I have the Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG internal wireless card in my Toshiba and it is very good because it has diverse antenna build into sides of the screen the screen, the only problem is that it is only about 30mW. This means when I am away on business i can see the hot spots but can't transmit to them. Last time i tried a Cisco 100mW PCMCIA card with and it was hopeless because of the small internal antenna. I suspect the MIMO card would only make a difference if the Access Point you were connected to was MIMO as well. Your best option would probably be to get a superrange 100 or 200mW PCMCIA card with external antenna connections a one of those desktop directional 5dBi antenna. Get one with a short cable, around 1 metre or so because the MMCX connectors normally use RG174 or similar cable which has quite high loss.
Internal WIC or MIMO PCMCIA card? 
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