Recommend a wireless adapter?

[razorboy5]

My friend has a old Pentium 4 Pc and wanted to get it working again and wants to be able to go wireless. I never personally used a wireless adapter, and was hoping the ubuntu community can recommend me a good one. Looking for a USB plugin and one that is easily compatible with XP

thx :P

[desnaike]

I installed edimac EW-7727in on my P4 worked with ubuntu,opensuse,mandriva out of the box there out of stock now but this is just as good EW-7728in http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315078

[Khakilang]

I use an Aztech Wifi adapter which is recognize by Ubuntu, Fedora and Open Suse but some Distro like Debian, Slackware, Slitaz and Tiny Core doesn't recognize it. It work on Window XP as well. Just install the CD driver that come with it.

[doorknob60]

I've used 2 Rosewill cards, both work great in Linux, and they're very cheap on Newegg. Since I assume you live in Toronto (your location thing), here you go: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166021 $14.99 EDIT: Oh, XP, it works fine in there too.

[chessnerd]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833340013

It's been set up on a Pentium 4 computer with XP for several months now and it works great. Whenever there is a problem, it's with the router and not the card. The computer is often on for days (sometimes even weeks) without rest, and downloads/installs anti-virus and Windows updates at night, so this card sees a lot of uptime, yet it hasn't failed.

If you just need it for XP, you'll be fine. If you want it for Ubuntu, I hear that it works fine for wireless G, but that you need to mess with some config files for the wireless N to work.

Also, it's on sale at the moment.

EDIT: re-read your post and see that you are looking for a USB card, sorry.

I used a Netgear USB adapter in the past and it recently died so I wouldn't recommend that. If I were to be buying another one (which I might) I'd go with this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166041

It has a good rating for a wireless adapter and it offers 150 Mb/s N wireless. There is another that offers 300 Mb/s (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166025) but it's $10 more and I question whether or not you'll actually see that speed going through a USB port. Also, you're friend probably doesn't have a 300 Mb/s router anyway...

[razorboy5]

thx for the links. Was originally lookin for a USB plugin but these seems pretty good too (was thinking to put one in would be more expensive) does the wireless cards fit most motherboards? I know with other cards u have to be careful which ones to buy

[doorknob60]

It will work in nearly every desktop motherboard, unless it's something weird like some tiny HTCP or nettop (dunno what they're called) or a Mac mini or iMac or something weird like that. You might want to check to make sure the slots aren't already taken though (highly unlikely), but basically every motherboard has PCI slots.

[chessnerd]

thx for the links. Was originally lookin for a USB plugin but these seems pretty good too (was thinking to put one in would be more expensive) does the wireless cards fit most motherboards? I know with other cards u have to be careful which ones to buy

Actually, PCI cards are generally equal in price and more reliable.

You probably don't need to worry about compatibility with PCI cards. I put a card in my family desktop a few months ago and that desktop is from 2002. It works splendidly. Just get a standard PCI card and, unless all the slots are filled, you'll be fine.

If you are worried about the size of the card, most wireless cards are pretty small and should fit in even "compact" cases. It isn't like a graphics card where you might need a monster case to fit it.

(See my above post for the card I'd recommend)

[cariboo]

Please bookmark help.ubuntu.com (https://help.ubuntu.com), there is a lot of useful information there, including this (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported).

[chessnerd]

Please bookmark help.ubuntu.com (https://help.ubuntu.com), there is a lot of useful information there, including this (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported).

The OP is talking about setting it up for a friend using XP. I don't think it needs to work in Ubuntu.

However, I will bookmark the WiFi card link. That looks useful. I want to get a card for another desktop and that will help me...

Thank you! :)

[kahlil88]

I try to go for whatever has free/libre chipset drivers. Ralink (http://ralink.rapla.net/) chipsets are known to be very good.