The "Which card shall I buy" million dollar question....

[Re@lity]

This question always seems to be asked, over & over.
I posted a brief guide in the old forum, so maybe it'll be of some help here too.

So here's some basic advice, for what it's worth.....

There’s no quick and easy answer to “what’s the best card to buy”. It depends a lot on what you want to do with it!

This also all depends on if you want only “b” or if you want “b” & “g”, or even “a”, “b” & “g” ?

For “b” only:

For “b” only, the prism 2.5 chipset cards are best to go for. Something like the Senao 2511CD Plus Ext2 is a very nice card, very high power at 200mW, and with excellent receive sensitivity too. It is external antenna only though. It comes with 2x MMCX type connectors.
There is also a model available with built-in antenna instead, just without the “ext2” in the model number. Although I would go for the external antenna model personally.

The thing to watch with this card though is that there’s a newer model which has “M” at the end of the model number. Thois stands for “Mercury” and is a Prism3 chipset. These aren’t very good cards, they have crap receive sensitivity. Stay away from that one!

For “b” & “g”:

If you want “g” as well as “b” then go for something with an Atheros chipset.

A good all-round card for “b” & “g” with Atheros chipset is the Proxim 8470-WD. This has a built antenna, but also has an MC type connection for an optional external antenna to be added. This is an excellent card for using with Aircrack, etc.
A cheap and easy to find Atheros “b” “g” card would be something like the Netgear WG511T. This has no external antenna option though.

For “a”, “b” & “g”:

In my opinion, the best “a”, “b” & “g” card, with Atheros chipset is the Cisco AIR- CB21AG-E-K9, but unfortunately this card isn’t available with any external antenna option.
Probably the easiest to find “a”, “b” & “g” Atheros card is the Netgear WAG511. This is a good card for using with Aircrack, etc but again, no external antenna connector.
I found an NEC WarpStar once, which has an external connector, but I never did find out the type of connector it has. Also, I’m not entirely sure the external antenna option works for “a” as well. It may only be for the “b” & “g” modes.

Aircrack:

Again, the Atheros chipset cards are probably the safest purchase, for using with the Aircrack suite.
Having said that, the best chipset for Aircrack, in my opinion, has always been the PrismGT chipset.
The problem here, though, is that they are quite hard to find and don’t usually come with external antenna connectors.

One of the most available PrismGT cards to look for is the Netgear WG511, but you must get a V1 card, with silver antenna casing. Any V1’s with different colour casings have what’s called a “soft-mac” chipset and are no good! Also, all other versions (V2, V3, etc) of this card have different chipsets and are no good!

Senao also make a high power (200mW) PrismGT card, the 3054CB Plus. But again, they’re quite hard to find now.

I have only ever come across 1 PrismGT card with an external antenna connector, the Waveport WL54G. Again, there’s different versions of this card that don’t have the PrismGT chipset, so it can be hard to find the *right* one”.
A good friend of mine, from the US managed to get me one of those direct from the factory eventually, but even then he was sent the wrong one twice!
I don’t think they’re available brand new any more though.

And if money is no object??:

If you don’t mind spending the cash, then probably the best Atheros card to buy would be the extremely high powered 300mW Ubiquiti card.

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So, realistically, the best bet, if you really don’t know what card to buy and just want to simply go and buy one without all the hassles, is probably to just go for the Proxim 8470-WD card. This is a very good all rounder, mid-priced Atheros chipset card, so you can’t go far wrong, and can always add an external antenna if you want to, via the MC type connector.

Hope this is of some help!?!

[bugmenot11235]

Got my 8470-WD last week, works great. The internal antenna is a little weak, but like Re@lity says, it has an MC connection for an external antenna.

[KibeLeet]

Nice tips on how to choose a nice card!

But what would you do if you were stuff to either USB or Expresscard?

No PCMCIA avilable...

Well, can't complain that much since my Dell was a gift I received from my wife...

[seanothan]

I have the 300mW Ubiquiti, and I have to say it is the shiznit! HIGHLY recommend it.... hell, if you get the wrong card or a card that doesn't function the way you want it to, you may end up spending just as much as the Ubiquiti after buying a 2nd card to replace the first!

[baalpeteor]

aircrack-ng's version of which card to buy

can't go wrong if you get the exact model they have there ^.^
i'd say Proxim Orinoco 8470-WD though.

[Berry]

I have here major doubt what to buy :

- Linksys WUSB54G, USB (Ralink 2570) == 45 EUR
- D-Link DWL-G122, USB (Ralink 2570) == 29 EUR
- Netgear WG511T, PCMCIA (Atheros) == 40 EUR

Any user recommendations - do they work with Final version, do they inject?

[etherbunny]

I would also like some advice in buying a usb wireless adapter.

It has to be usb because my laptop only has usb and expresscard (and there are no expresscard adapters yet).

I can't find any dwl-g122's that are rev B1. I don't think they're making them any more..

Please let me know if you have gotten injection to work with another usb adapter.

The computer store people are probably getting frustrated with me buying and returning 8 different adapters because injection doesn't work and I'm getting frustrated with the fact that there seem to be NO current usb adapters that can inject!

Please help me out here.

[hulldj]

I found this store on ebay selling the Proxim card, offices in Spain and the UK.

May help in this thread.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-Wifi-Shop

[Si2006]

ah the wifi shop that where i got my 511T atheros from. great card works fune in BT final ,plug n play

[debratd]

Hey, what about the MSI CB54G2 card, has anyone used it? Its being recommended by the aircrack website, its quite cheap, has the Ralink chipset and also supports WPA, I am planning to get this one, I really dont need something with an external Antenna, what do you guys think?