For those looking for a PCI card for their desktop running 64 bit Vista

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127075

In my recent struggles to find a wireless card for my desktop, this is the card that I found that works with Vista 64 bit. Surprisingly enough...there's a lot out there that say "Vista compatible" and even might have drivers for 64 bit...but they only work with 32 bit Vista.

Trick to this one as I found is to install the drivers first before installing the card. Works excellent...just like it was plugged into the modem. Wireless G though.

Hope this helps others out there looking for a card for their desktop with 64 bit Vista (once again assuming it will work for 7 as well).

 

Interesting. I have an old Linksys in my desktop, which does not have x64 drivers. The other desktop has an Asus Wifi motherboard, so x64 driver support wasn't hard to find.

 

also interesting...... There are probably a dozen or fewer makers of wifi chipsets. Those chipset makers probably maintain one or two different versions of their drivers. The people who make the name-branded cards in whatever interface rarely re-brand the driver software and if they do, the original software from the chipset maker works just fine (and is updated more often).

Sooooooo, when looking for a wifi card, look firstly at who makes the chipset and then look to see if there are current drivers available for your operating system. Now you shop on price.

This little 'technique' is something that everyone learns sooner or later. The sooner you learn how to shop by technology instead of brand-name the farther your money will go when actually buying stuff.

 

Desktop card selection is very poor: mostly no-name G cards, many are outdated, poor performers, shoddy/incompatible drivers, no 64bit etc.

Good luck finding pci-e versions, or newer N revisions...in fact, I will state it emphatically having looked over the last few months:

There are no desktop wifi cards worth a spit.

Solution: use a laptop card, they are cheap, plentiful, well-supported and always being updated for the latest stuff.
A great example is the intel 5300: dual band 3x3 N for under 20 bucks!
If you prefer more open cards, there are some souped up atheros out there typically used in WISP gear.

All you need is an adapter that starts around $20 barebones (try fleabay):

http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/MP2W.html

Then choose antennas for the job...if a simple house lan, the standard cheap walkie-talkie style stub will usually do fine, even for 5ghz.

But if you are like me and want several hundred megabits outdoors on a decent LOS shot, thats an option as well. 3 quality antennas per node isn't cheap but at least you can hook them up to a card worth using!

Its also an easy upgrade in the future, laptops will be using pci-e minicards for quite awhile.

 

use a wireless usb dongle. And a long USB cable Then you can place the dongle where it is likely to get the best tx/rx performance.