I have 3 computers in my house, one is the Desktop, the base of the network, where the DSL is, the Wireless router and such. Then theres the laptop across the room, which has wireless, this is the computer I'm on right now. Now, then theres the one in my room. It is a desktop, and I want a wireless card for it. I have a Linksys Wireless G 2.4 ghz Router. If I got an older model PCI wireless card, would it work? Is my router backwards compatible? Also, My base computer is running Windows 2000 Professional. And this latptop is Running XP Professional SP2. My computer is kind of slow, so I HAD Windows 98. Now, I see on all the specs for the cards like on eBay, that I need Windows 98 SE. So I got that from a friend. Why is Windows 98 SE supported, but not just regular 98? And my last question, would my router support 2 wireless connections at the same time?

So you have 3 computers, 2 desktops and 1 notebook. The older model of wireless card for one of your desktop should be compatible with your linksys router. Or rather to say, wireless routers are suppose to connect any brands and models of adapters or client-sided devices without any or much configurations. Wireless router backwards compatibility I assume you are trying to say it between Wireless-B, Wireless-A, and Wireless-G. Sadly to say, if this is the case, that your wireless 2.4ghz router only support Wireless-B standards. Unless being told that your router is a Wireless-A+B type then you can connect between both standards.

Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP SP2 and Windows 98SE have features called "Plug and Play" and "Hot Plugging". I believe that Windows 98 does not have these features and therefore your computer might not be able to detect your wireless adapter. In such cases, you will need to manually install the drivers provided with the wireless adapter package.

You wireless router will be able to accept 256 wireless clients if I'm not wrong, unless you have configured your router to accept in terms of MAC address, filtering or any form of wireless blocking. This is to prevent unauthorised users from connecting to your network from a further distant.




Good luck!

Yeah, between A, B, and G is what I meant with the backwards thing. And I'm pretty sure regular 98 has plug and play, but not support for wireless devices.

The DSL Modem/Router I hooked up today is compatible with ALL protocols of wireless adapters. I don't think it would ever be a problem to have a router slow down to match the protocol of a slower NIC card. I have ran multiple wireless cards, etc. and the slowest one I have ever seen is a 10M, instead of the 100. Oh well!

It should support many wireless computers at a time. mine supports up to 10 wireless computers and 5 corded computers.

Windows 98 SE has different hardware support. I have experience wit this - I once plugged my USB drive in to my old 98 machine (not 98 SE), told it where the drivers are, and the thing crashed and reformatted my USB drive.
Think of it this way - if the device was around for 98, then Micro$**t woould have support for it. Anything older than the device class (ex. wireless cards, which may have been just coming out for 98 SE) won't support the device.

Technically the wireless router can handle as many connection as the bandwidth will allow. If you are running at 100mb, and you have 20 computers on it, your connection speed will slow down considerably, providing they are all on at the same time. Plus distance to the wireless router has an effect on connection as well.

But as for the whole plug and play, hot plug issue, 98se has PnP, everything before it, does not.

And personally, I recommend hard wiring the desktops, and using wireless only for the laptops. Only because the desktop have a larger power supply, and I have seen testes that say it can interfere at times with the wireless singnal. But these are my own findings.