Washy Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 Should I get a WiFi Dongle? I have an Orange box for ADSL and recently when visited by two teenagers they asked if they could use their laptop, and they switched a switch on the Orange box, entered a code, and sat upstairs using their laptop at the same time I was using mine downstairs all attached with wires?????I have seen on www.amazon.fr a "Dongle" Wifi to stick in a USB port to make my old laptop Wifi compatible. Is this really all I need? I thought I was up to date.....but it takes a 13 year old to put me right!!!!From a 'Silver Surfer' in the Pyrenees............................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 [quote user="Washy"]Should I get a WiFi Dongle? [/quote]Well you could do - lots of people use them successfully but IMHO the better option is to have a network card installed in your laptop; that is if it hasn't already got one. How old is your laptop?Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Coeur de Lion Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 Didn't your livebox come with a usb dongle? Ours did. Well worth it, as long as your laptop has usb ports that don't flop around like my old laptops did!But if you have a PCMCIA slot on your laptop, get a wifi PCMCIA card instead. You can pick them up on ebay for less than a tenner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 I'm no expert on the computer part, but the advantage of a dongle as opposed to a card is that in areas of your house with poor reception (and ours has a lot!) you can wave a dongle about on a USB extension lead and find the RF sweet spot. Very necessary here, not so important in a smaller moderner house.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Washy Posted April 13, 2008 Author Share Posted April 13, 2008 No my Livebox didnot come with a Dongle. I will contact Orange if that is who we are talking about. Seems they change their offers daily.....I have had a network set up with the computer upstairs. My laptop is a Toshiba, and is 6 years old. It does have a card slot so I suppose I could get a card rather than an USB dongle as I do not have that many USB slots.Thanks all for your help. I just can't bear to be behind the times.......We still have too much renovation dust here for me to think about upgrading my laptop yet!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted April 13, 2008 Share Posted April 13, 2008 PCMCIA cards with external antenna connections such as THIS can be the ideal solution to getting decent range without hogging your USB slots.Suitable antannas with 1 or 1.5m cables can be found quite cheaply.EDIT:If you were interested and fancied THIS one and were QUICK I could pick it up for you as I'm going to Colchester next week !EDIT:And the ideal ANTENNA to complement it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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