My home "broadband" is Google's (free) local wireless service, and so
I experimented with one or two desktop wireless cards, including one
that supported an external antenna.  I've abandonned that approach for
two reasons:

  1.  I prefer to use a router to share the connection, instead of
enabling ICS.

  2.  It appears that wireless adaptors built into computers, or powered
via something like a USB port, typically limit their broadcast power to
a (large) fraction of what the FCC regulations permit for the WiFi
frequency bands.  The wireless router ("modem") I use now goes up to
around 95% of that limit, and there are enough other wireless devices in
my neighborhood that that can be the difference between getting a usable
connection, and not.

  The first several laptops I used got Ethernet AND, later, WiFi, via
PCMCIA or PCCARD modules.

> I have yet to see a laptop without Ethernet, and it sounds like a bad
> idea.

David Gillett

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