Wireless Card

There are many different types of wireless cards available to consumers to get their notebooks and laptops connected to the internet while they are out and about.  There are however several different types of wireless cards out there and its important for the average user to understand the types and limitations of different wireless cards so that they can find the device that best fits their data and portability needs.

Know Your Network

Just like any other wireless device with wireless cards that quality of your connection is highly dependent on the wireless network that you connect to with your device.  Although download speeds well over ten megabytes a second are common at times this highly dependent on the traffic load of the cellular network, your signal strength to the cellular network and the weather.  You should ask around in the area you will be using your wireless card to find out the best provider for your region.  Do not always rely on the coverage maps provided by cell phone networks as these are seldom accurate.

Different Styles of Wireless Cards

There are many different styles of wireless cards.  The original wireless card known as a wireless modem connected to your computer through a serial port.  These devices were very slow and cumbersome with speeds less than what you would get on dial up. 

Then there were wireless PCMA cards.  These cards slid into card slots on a laptop or notebook computer.  The speed of these highly varied on the technology used by the wireless PCMA card and they are still in heavy use today by people who wish to keep their notebook computers connected to the internet while they are out and about.
USB Wireless Cards and even Bluetooth wireless cards are the newer types of wireless cards used out on the network today.   USB or Universal Serial Bus Wireless Cards connect to your computer through A USB Port and Bluetooth Cards connect via a wireless blue tooth connection.

Cost

Wireless Cards often cost upwards of five hundred dollars without a 2 year contract.  With a two year contract they are often subsidized down to fifty to one hundred dollars.  If you wish to go without a contract it is often much cheaper to get a used or refurbished wireless card off an online auction site such as eBay and go on a month by month basis with the cellular provider. 

There are also several companies that are offering plans on a prepay basis for wireless cards.  They are a bit more difficult to find then normal wireless card providers however they usually are always on an existing large scale cell phone network.    Virgin Mobile is owned by sprint and offers pre pay connections on the sprint wireless network.  These data plans are actually quite expensive and there are many other cheaper options available such as Millenicom which offers pre paid data plans on the sprint wireless networks.  You should shop around and get some quotes if you choose to go with these options as prices often change.