In connecting the computers to a wireless network, there are many choices of the wireless network adapters you can install including the USB Wireless Adapters, PCI wireless network adapters, or card bus adapters (for your notebooks). Well, when you come to decide - which type of adapter would be your choice? My recommendation is USB, why?
There are many reasons why you should choose USB wireless adapters for the wireless connection. If you manage more than one computer in home or in office that need to connect to the wireless network environment, choosing USB adapter would give you many benefits.
Easy to Install
The first benefit you can get by deploying the USB wireless adapters is easy installation. Installing the USB adapter is relatively much easier than PCI adapter. With PCI adapter, you have to open the computer case to install it; inserting the adapter into one of the available PCI slots of the computer. For some people who do mind with the hassle of opening the computer case, USB adapter would be the perfect choice. Besides, only computer engineer may open the computer case for maintenance reason. With USB adapter, you can easily install and insert the adapter into the desktop computer or laptop with USB enabled without opening the computer case.
Helps Troubleshooting
With USB wireless adapters, you can easily remove the adapter off the computer and installing to other computer or laptop for troubleshooting reason. In networking environment, there will come the time you need to troubleshoot the network connection problem in one computer. The easiest way to determine if the adapter is faulty is by swapping it with the one that is proven to work on the other computer ?again without the need of opening the computer case. Swapping the computer components for troubleshooting reason is the easiest way to justify that the component is still functional or not. Unlike USB adapter, PCI adapter can only work with the desktop computers with PCI slots enabled. Similarly, with the card bus adapter you can only install it into the notebooks or the laptops. USB wireless adapters are versatile; you can install them both into the desktop computers and the notebooks. Thus, helps you troubleshoot the network connection problem.
Compatible with Next-Gen USB 3.0
Digital technology changes very fast. In 2007, Intel demonstrated SuperSpeed USB (aka USB 3.0) at the Intel Developer Forum. USB 3.0 is the next generation of Universal Serial Bus to dramatically simplify the connection between host computer and peripheral devices. Up to this year 2010, USB 2.0 has been firmly entrenched as the de-facto interface standard in the PC world. In the next several years, the next generation of the computers will be embedded with this new generation USB 3.0. One of the promises feature of USB 3.0, besides its higher transfer rates up to 4.8 Gbps, it is backward compatible with USB 2.0 wireless adapters you currently invest now.
Which USB Wireless Adapters
In considering purchasing the USB wireless USB adapters, you should select the latest version available at the market today. Choose the adapter which supports the next generation of the wireless technology standards: wireless 杗 (draft 2.0 802.11n). Wireless 杗 is the future of the wireless technology available in the market you can taste today. You don抰 need to worry with the compatibility issues with the legacy wireless b/g devices, mostly the wireless 杗 devices are backward compatible with 802.11b/g devices (with Wi-Fi Certified label). If your wireless environment supports dual-band both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands, it would be much better if your USB adapters support dual-band as well. Is the USB wireless adapter the best choice in all cases? Off course not, in a situation where the computers are placed in public area and can be accessed by public users, the deployment of the USB wireless adapters is prone to stealing. USB adapter is easy to unplug without being noticed. Therefore, the wireless PCI adapters would be the best choice.
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Tue Nov 08, 2011 3:41 pm