Reccomendation wanted

['97ventureowner]

Verizon is coming to my house next Friday to install FiOS. (I cannot wait- going from my current speed of 31,200bps to 10Mbps.) They are giving me a wireless router and told me I need to supply a "pci card" for my son's computer, so that he can get the signal and be online as well. I'm looking for reccomendations as to a good pci card at a decent price. I need to get it by Friday so I'm planning on getting it locally. I looked at WalMart.com to see what they offered and they carry brands like Linksys, and Belkin. Ar these reliable brands? Here is a link to one that interested me. Is that a good choice, or overkill? Thanks in advance for your responses.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=2579700

[Oz]

Linksys has a very good reputation, however I've never used their PCI wireless cards so can't personally comment.

What brand of wireless router are they giving you? Does it offer some sort of proprietry 108mbps functionality? If so, you're best off getting a PCI wireless card of the same brand with the hope they'll be compatable and function at the advertised speed of 108.

If the router is just standard 802.11G 54mbps wireless, then just about any wireless card will do, but stick with a major brand like Netgear because they get their drivers digitally signed and you can download updates for them through Windows Update quite easily.

My 2c.

['97ventureowner]

Thanks for the info Oz, I'll give Verizon a call to find out which brand router they use. I see in our Sunday paper sales flyers that Staples Office Supply has Netgear brand wireless routers and cards on sale this week at good prices.

[DylanTrott]

Linksys is what I use. I have never had any problems. They have good prices and great products. Belkin and D-Link are also good brands.

['97ventureowner]

Contacted Verizon today and found out they use ActionTec (sp?) brand routers. Don't know that much about them and a web search on them didn't turn up much useful info. I think that Verizon is probably using these because they got a good deal on them , probably through a contract. The customer rep. told me they were DHDP WEP encrypted, and I might have to go to a bigger RPSMA antennae in my house for a stronger signal. She also told me to have the service guy change the channel on the router so it won't interfere with our 2.4 GHZ phone in the house. She said it (the router) was compatible with most pci cards and that they offer one year technical assistance on it. We are free to change the router after the service guy leaves, but I think I'll stick with it at least for the year to see how it is.

[Oz]

In that case, you'll only need a 802.11G 54mbps card.

[ericn1300]

The ActionTecs are o.k. thats what i have, but you should be able to use any brand you want to.

Go to dslreports.com for lots of hardware reviews. the also have speed tests and tweaking suggestions under the tools tab. you can compare your speeds with other users of verizon and othe comparable services.

[bjboertje]

i use linksys. i also have a network blaster from creative, but i think the linksys i have is better.

[Toksin]

We have a Netgear router and I have a matching Netgear PCI card in my desktop.

No real complain of product, except the router is tricky as hell to set up and fiddle with, and occasionally our network just dies. Still trying to figure out why.