Cisco costs more, but nobody every tells me that they don't like reliability and performance. You can get optional antennas for many or get a Cisco AP. I would also suggest improving the access point. I also had better reception where the comparison is putting a NIC in a similar system at similar distance. The Linksys AP bridged a POS controller to the gateway of last resort and I didn't have to deal with any drivers or any compromises with protocols used. I don't think that working well is over kill, and just yesterday I had to wing it in a craptacular job 100 miles from my office with a Best Buy and Staples as the closest resources. Works OK, but signal level is barely acceptable. What Adapter would you recommend? I've tried Netgear WG311v3.

For my application lightning speed is not required. All I need is a wireless PCI Adapter with a My laptop has built in wireless, and it has no problems at longer distances than above, and I'm using XP/SP2's built in wireless support with no issues. Also, in her case, I couldn't get WPA to work using XP/SP2's built in wireless support (which is odd), so I used the Buffalo control panel, which worked fine. Heidi's PC uses a Buffalo Wireless G USB adapter, at the same distance, and her connection doesn't seem as strong as mine. If distance is an issue, then one advantage of most PCI cards over most USB adapters is that you can replace the antenna with a better one (though distance is not an issue for me at only 35 feet, and I'm using the included antenna). I am using XP/SP2's built in wireless support to manage the card, WPA and all, as opposed to RaConfig. I did have some issues with the card dropping connections for no reason when using the (rather old) Belkin drivers, so I switched to much newer Ralink drivers, and the problem was solved. I'm using it at half the distance as the original poster (about 35 feet), and get a solid 54.Mbps connection. I'm using a Belkin Wireless G PCI card, model F5D7000, based on the Ralink RT2560 chipset. I've got a Belkin USB G Wireless Aadapter using the Ralink rt2570

Ralink rt2570 drivers for mac