Pcmcia vs Usb wireless nic

[WildGorilla]

I need an opinion on which you prefer? I plan on getting a wireless nic for my daughter’s laptop, but I don’t know if I should I get usb wireless nic or just get a regular pcmcia wireless net work card.

Are there any success stories about the usb adapters or horror stories? I just want to know before I spend my money.

[Enmore]

I've got a pcmcia card and it works fine. Harder to lose than a USB NIC.

I've got a tiny USB Bluetooth NIC which is so easy to lose it's ridiculous. Not helped by being in a transparent plastic case.

[Mjölnir]

I'd go for USB. USB is far more more versatile. It's backward compatible and you can use it on any PC with a free USB port, provided you have the drivers.

A PC card (PCMCIA) may not be backward compatible. Lots of PC Cards are 32-bit, while some older laptops only have 16-bit slots. If I were you, I'd be looking at the laptop's manual or Googling the card controller's name (try in Device Manager) before going on the market for PC Cards.

In any case, I've owned Netgear 802.11g NIC's in both PC Card and USB. Both were equally easy to use and were very dependable. I've had the chance to compare them against at least four other brands of wireless NIC's. If you see yourself meddling with stuff like this:
Google Search: poor man's wifi - you should either get a USB NIC or a PC Card that has an antenna connector on it.

The last reason that I'd recommend USB is that the number of connected USB devices can be expanded with a USB hub. PC Card is limited to the one or two slots on the laptop. What does your daughter use in the way of USB devices at the moment?