The Best Wireless Internet Card

Wireless internet card or wireless network adapter connects a computing device to the wireless network. The Device could be called WNIC or wireless network interface controller. On the web you could find the alternative names WiFi card and wireless network card for this kind of WiFi equipment. There are WiFi cards for laptops, desktops, PDAs and other devices that need a wireless network connection.

Wireless network card uses the WiFi antenna and communicate with the radio signal. It connects devices to the wireless LAN network or the WiFi network. Wireless network cards support one or more 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g or 802.11n WiFi standards. WNIC except these WLAN standards also uses Bluetooth protocol for interconnection with other devices.

Wireless network adapters exist in several different forms:
- Wireless card for laptop
- PCI Wireless Network card for desktop computers
- PCMCIA Wireless Card
- USB Wireless Network adapter
- WLAN compactflash card

There are also devices which are not traditional computers, but they use the wireless cards:
- Xbox 360 wireless network adapter
- Nintendo WiFi
- Wireless credit card terminal
- Wireless internet printer adapter
- Wireless internet camera
- Wireless internet radio
- WLAN compactflash card
- PDA WiFi
- Archos 605 WiFi
- SD WiFi


There are many different vendors producing WiFi cards:
- Linksys
- Netgear
- Belkin
- D-Link
- Medialink

Wireless network adapter operates in two modes ad-hoc mode and infrastructure mode.

Infrastructure mode
When wireless network runs in infrastructure mode, wireless access point or wireless router also need to be present. Transfer of all packets between wireless network adapters or WNICs doesn’t go directly, because all data is going through the access point.

Ad-hoc mode
In the ad-hoc mode there is no need for an access point. Data traffic goes directly from one WNIC to another. All devices need to have the same channel and SSID.

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