Wireless Adapter Brand matter?

[Mikepsyche]

I'm on Vista 64. When I had the wireless running in the original room, I was getting 4/5 bars, which I thought was pretty acceptable.

But after I moved my whole setup into the room, the best I could expect was 1 or 2 bars, and the connection was pretty unstable.

My router is on the floor below both rooms, and I tried elevating it a bit. Didn't work too well.

My router is a Linksys WRT54G. Adapter is a Linksys - Cisco (Model number - WUSB54GC).

Only reason I'm posting this is that I have a really long ethernet cord from the router downstairs hookedup.

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to mention I actually got one. My dad picked a USB one up, 54mb limit since my connection isn't nearly that fast anyway. I hooked it up while my PC was in one room like I said, installed the software, and worked fine. Then it didn't in another room that really was about an equal distance from the router, maybe closer.

 

[mikesgroovin]

Network protocols are network protocols. brand doesn't matter. Linksys may have some nifty auto setup utility, but aside from that it doesn't matter. They all have to be interoperable.

I don't think anyone is disputing that zmatt. And no one said anything about auto setup functionality. We were briefly discussing the fact that a hardware device, regardless of brand, will try to interpret which adapter it's getting data from and then, if possible, take advantage of whatever "Speed boosting" or "Range Plus" technology that it has that is manufacturer proprietary. All that being aside from the actual protocol that it has to adhere to.

All hardware acts differently, aside from the actual concrete rules that a hardware device MUST adhere to according to whatever rules are set into play with the protocol. I've seen 95% of the residential gateway/router devices that John Q purchase do OTHER things with data rather than just pass information over. Of course they all have to operate according to a standard protocol. But hardware acting differently and performing other operations than your typical operations that are stapled from the network protocol, can sometimes enhance or adversely affect the interoperability of the hardware. This would include signal strength, signal integrity, and overall speed and performance. This is exactly why 2 adapters using similar chipsets but by different manufacturers may have different receiving results.

 

[zmatt]

I don't think anyone is disputing that zmatt. And no one said anything about auto setup functionality. We were briefly discussing the fact that a hardware device, regardless of brand, will try to interpret which adapter it's getting data from and then, if possible, take advantage of whatever "Speed boosting" or "Range Plus" technology that it has that is manufacturer proprietary. All that being aside from the actual protocol that it has to adhere to.

All hardware acts differently, aside from the actual concrete rules that a hardware device MUST adhere to according to whatever rules are set into play with the protocol. I've seen 95% of the residential gateway/router devices that John Q purchase do OTHER things with data rather than just pass information over. Of course they all have to operate according to a standard protocol. But hardware acting differently and performing other operations than your typical operations that are stapled from the network protocol, can sometimes enhance or adversely affect the interoperability of the hardware. This would include signal strength, signal integrity, and overall speed and performance. This is exactly why 2 adapters using similar chipsets but by different manufacturers may have different receiving results.

I think your missing my point. We are agreeing here. The OP asked if it mattered what brand wireless card he bought, and generally speaking it doesn't. G cards are G cards. I have a disdain for the range max and speed boost things because when they do work the difference in performance over standard G is negligible. They might have cards that can do 128mbps in the lab, but in the real world that would never happen. Not with this technology.

 

[mikesgroovin]

I was just reinforcing my point and thought that you had missed the point as well. It was pretty clear that we agreed, but your point with the "nifty auto setup utility" threw me for a little loop because no one mentioned anything about anything like that. I just didn't want to confuse the op, thats all.