Short answer:
Get this - it's good.
Or the Rosewill one that comes with a separated antenna and a cheap
Deal Extreme omnidirectional antenna.
For the internet side get a name brand wireless router - I like Linksys / Cisco ones. Many ISPs supply decent ones with their service. I've been using an old Linksys WRT54G for years and never had any problems. I don't like D-link routers but they're cheap and will work.
Choosing a router:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Best-Wireless-Router-2010
http://www.firewallguide.com/wireless.htm
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wire ... router.htm
tl;dr version:
Because I've been doing a lot of research on this stuff to increase the efficiency of my new business and haven't really told anyone yet, here's some mostly probably right information.
Having a good wireless adapter is important. Any way you connect it to the computer is fine - the SNR filter built into it is also pretty important, tho most adapters use the pre-built software made by the people who designed the wifi system, with only little tweaks.
What's far more important (since most adapters are using very similar designs that are generic by now) is having the right antenna and mw (milliwatt / power) output to get the signal strength / dBm you need for whatever remote access point you're trying to connect to. For long distance connections both sides of the connection need a good antenna and transmit power. Most USB type adapters and laptop internal adapters just have a small square piece of metal fused to their circuit board instead of a real antenna, and rely on the access point to have an omnidirectional (aerial) antenna in their range - the longer the antenna the further the signal radiates. That design is intentional, and avoids signal interference while keeping the connection inside the building it originated from. Also, an adapter with an antenna (access point or client) usually has it's power source (transmit power) throttled to way below what it's capable of without modifying the firmware/software driving it. It's usually throttled to a fairly low mw level. For example a WRT-54G wifi router defaults (locked to) to 45 mw, but with it's supplied antennas it's optimum transmit power is 70-85 mw - a custom firmware can enable it to output that power or even over 120 mw (tho at that level it's a noisy signal with no real gain in signal quality).
Using cheap hardware (
Deal Extreme has lots) you can easily go up to or over the legal levels of wireless power (the ham-radio operators might complain if you blast out too much noise) and wire it to whatever adapter hardware you use - the power source and antenna can make connections over great distances if you choose them right. Unless you're using a standard omnidirectional antenna (the ones that are typically used for wifi) you can make a good connection to an access point miles away if you have line of sight.
Wifi is a 2.4ghz
radio wave signal. While it's outside the range of visible light, and can pass through solid objects, it still makes a better connection without anything solid interfering with it's connection. Having a tree with water drops on it's leaves in between the Access Point and Client machine can destroy a wifi signal - as can thick metal or a running electric motor. For best results have your transmit and receive antennas higher than any obstructions.
Think of the transmit power (in mw - milliwatt) like the brightness of a light bulb / flashlight.
Think of the antenna like a lens (magnifying glass) or a dish shaped reflector behind the light.
Together they're measured in
dBm signal strength.
Antenna Types:
Omnidirectional - the standard wifi antenna - white plastic stick. Works like a light bulb in a lamp without a lampshade - radiating the signal/light in all directions around it but mostly horizontally.
Yagi - Works kinda like a flashlight, long distance in one direction.
Parabloic Dish - works like a flashlight pointed through a magnifying glass or a dish shaped reflector focusing the light to a specific point . The strongest signal is gained at the focal point. It's highly directional and needs to point exactly to the place you're trying to connect to for the strongest connection. With some math and experimentation you can make a direct really-good connection over a very long distance with this.
Here's some good cheap stuff I bought a while back and have tested to verify that they work well.
This one is a great deal and comes with some interesting software (WEP crack). It's transmit power is high, and it's already high-gain antenna is removable so you can replace it with better ones if necessarily. In a hotel that I could only get 1 bar on my laptop and frequently got disconnected I plugged this one in and it fixed everything.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/wifly-city ... pter-27541
Here's a smaller one that's plug and play. Easy to use and seemed to work well the last time I used it (also has a detachable antenna for putting a better one on).
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/usb-54mbps ... enna-24886
Here's a cheap Yagi antenna to connect to your adapter.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/2-4ghz-16d ... -sma-33016
Purchased but haven't tried this one yet. Adding 2000mw (possibly only 500) to your signal should greaty increase your connection strength (or melt your face)
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/2-4ghz-200 ... ster-33915
Check the related products for more ideas.
I haven't tested this yet, but I hear you can easily make a "
cantenna" for almost nothing and if made to the right specifications it might be better than any of the antenna types I listed earlier (I read a few reports of stable connections made over 5 miles away). Check the references for construction guides.
Or see here:
http://www.freeantennas.com/
For more professional (expensive) stuff, I've ordered a lot of good stuff from here - their dish antenna prices are decent and their selection is great.:
http://www.wlanparts.com/
Wow, for real?
