NIC Card Knowledge

While most laptops come with built in Wi-Fi cards that allow users to connect to wireless networks, they are limited by location and availability of Wi-Fi networks. Air Cards are the solution to this problem, Air Cards are portable modems that allow the computer in which they’re plugged into to connect and use wide area networks like 3G or WiMAX. As long as there is cell phone coverage by your service provider you are able connected to the internet. Air Cards are especially useful for people who travel frequently but need to stay connected like journalists and business people.

Air Cards are usually provided by the ISPs that offer the service, but it is possible to also buy them as separate devices. They are usually categorized by the type of interface they use, the most common ones are: USB, PCMCIA and Expresscard.

The most common and easy to use are USB cards, they are simply plugged into the USB port, the drivers are installed and depending on your ISP, additional configuration steps may be required to make them work with that specific network.

The speed of the connection you get depends on several factors like the infrastructure of the network you’re using, which technologies are used by the provider, the coverage and so on.

When using Air Cards on the go you might experience changes in the speed levels, this is normal because most ISPs don’t have high speed coverage over all areas so your Air Card has to switch from protocol to protocol depending on availability.

In recent years so-called MiFis have become a very popular alternative to Air Cards. A MiFi is basically a very compact wireless router. The device connects to a cellular data network and creates a Wi-Fi network through which other devices can connect to the internet. Most MiFis have a range of 30 ft/10m and provide connectivity to several devices simultaneously. The advantages of MiFis are obvious, they are small, portable and provide connectivity to multiple devices at once, potential problems include short battery life and unlike Air Cards they need to be charged on a daily basis.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 5th, 2011 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Air Cards, NIC Card. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.