Wireless Card for HP Pavillion ZE5700

At

is a review of this notebook. It says that there was a "FREE UPGRADE TO 54g(TM) Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN", which was likely to be a BCM4318. If hers doesn't contain that card, I would suggest getting a PCMCIA 802.11G card from E-Bay. They are considerably easier to install than the mini-PCI version would be.

Larry

Thanks for the reply, Larry.

How can she tell if she already has the card? I'll need to walk her through this over the telephone, and since I've never had a PC with wireless, I'm not sure what (or where) to look for.

Look under device manager\\network adapters. If a wireless card is installed, then it will show up there, of course along with the Ethernet nic.

I'll walk her though this on Tuesday. Thanks again, and I'll post back if necessary.

Daave, is she looking for a wireless nic or wireless internet? If wireless nic then any pcmica or usb will work, but only if she is in a hot wifi spot that she has rights to join ( etc; office, home, wifi cafe). If she wants wireless anywhere internet, then she should check with Sprint or Verision for a cell PCMICA card or USB as they offer unlimited broadband access for about $60 to $70 a month. I am on Sprint with a Pantech PCMICA card. And a Dlink N DWA- 142 USB for my personal wireless network.

The Pavilion has Firewire, Hardwired Lan, Wireless G or B, and Infered connections built in ( Mine is Pavilion ze5000 /w wireless B)

Is there something wrong in going to the horse's mouth and asking HP?

>

I believe she's interested in a wireless NIC so when she travels, she may use her notebook to go online at hotels and wifi cafes.

I walked her through determining if a wireless card is installed by looking at Device Manager | Network Adapters, and the only item listed was the regular NIC. Do *all* Pavilions have wireless (G or B) connections built in? If so, shouldn't this show up under Network Adapters? So far, from what I understand, she'll need to purchase something like a PCMCIA 802.11G card. But are there other options?

As I wrote earlier, the HP web pile says that the wireless adapter was optional on that model.

She could add the mini-PCI cardto the computer, but that would require some disassembly. A PCMCIA card would be easiest. E-bay lists 114 entries for a Linksys WPC54G at varying prices, including a "but it now" entry for $25 plus $8 shipping. I have used these cards for several years and have been very pleased with them. Another option would be a USB dongle as long as that laptop has USB 2.0 capability.

Larry

>>> There's a brief mention on p. 2-7.

Yes, I know. I took TeddyBare's post to mean that *all* Pavilions had the wireless connections built in. Perhaps I'm confusing connections with cards.

So it looks like she should get either something like a Linksys WPC54G or a USB dongle. If she opts for the former, where can I find instructions on how to install it?

Physically, it just plugs into the PCMCIA slot. The Linksys software consisting of a Windows driver and the configuration utility should come with the device. If not, it can be downloaded from the Linksys web site. I'm not sure, but I think that Windows XP SP2 has the driver built in, and no Linksys software will be needed.

Larry

Yes, there are USB nics made by the manufacturer of your choice.