Desktop WiFi cards question

[Kishan]

I wanted to know whether the desktop WiFi cards of Dell machine have external antenna? I have a Dell Latitude D600 and I have Windows XP with Service Pack 3 installed in it. Thank you for any answer.

[Hockson]

Dell Latitude D600 has an internal WIFI card. It is accessible with a screw from the bottom, on the left side below the PC Card slots. The card on mine has two cables, one is labeled "Main", the other one "Aux". If these refer to the antennas, it would be enough with cutting the Aux cable and connecting it to an external antenna (I wonder where the Aux cable leads to, since the machine has no external antenna connector). It's an intel card, so there might be some documentation about it available.

[ApPy10]

If you want you can connect WiFi Antennas to desktop pc:
To connect your WiFi antenna to your laptop, you will most likely need a wireless card that has an external antenna connector. You will plug the wireless card (also known as a wireless PCMCIA card) into your computer. Then you will need a laptop adapter cable. Attach the laptop adapter cable to the wireless card. Then attach your WiFi antenna to the cable, and you are all set to use your WiFi antenna. Another way to attach it is to have a USB adapter for a wireless antenna. Then you just need the USB adapter and the antenna. You don't need the cable. You plug the USB adapter into a USB slot in your computer and then attach your antenna to the adapter.

More information here.

[T.J.]

Yes, your unspecified wireless network card must have some type of RF connector. This is one reason that the Senao and Orinoco(Proxim) cards are so popular. The usual way is to attach a short pigail between the card and the antenna. Then, you can use any antenna that has an RF connector.

If you don't have an RF connector on your wireless card, I suggest you either butcher your card to add an RF connector or purchase a suitable card.