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11-15-2005, 10:05 PM
Interoperability between various manufacturers 802.11 products will almost never be a problem if the products are both actually Wi-Fi certified.
[url:28359]http://www.wi-fi.org/OpenSection/index.asp[/url:28359]
For example, I run a 3Com access point (l337) behind a netgear firewall and have intel, linksys and buffalo wireless connections running to it constantly without a problem.
I'd suggest running a bandwidth speed test on whichever PC you have wired to the network. Then run the same test (preferably immediately after) on the 802.11 connected machine. Compare the results and make sure that there is a great disparity between the two before you blame your wireless connection for slow speeds.
Unless you have an OC3 into your house, its likely that you aren't experiencing speed troubles as a result of your wireless connection limiting available bandwidth.
Also, please post a more detailed description of your network please. This may help clear some things up.
USB network adapters can be picky. The advantage of a PCI 802.11 card is the ability to run a short n-type cable to an external antenna to get improved speed and reception. I only know of one USB adapter that gives the option of using an external antenna. It's made by a company called Hawking (who isn't that great of a manufacturer) and is difficult to come by. Antennas built into PCMCIA or USB cards are cheaply made and typically have a gain of around 2dbi, which is very low and even a little interference can disrupt the signal. This may be the problem, but I wouldn't say it is definitively the culprit.
Finally, make sure you flash/upgrade the firmware on all of your network devices
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