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I have a Fujitsu P1620 (CNET Review, 2008) that I want to add the Broadcom Crystal HD (Amazon) board to. That means I have to re/move the mini PCIe Wi-Fi card. The P1620 has a PCMCIA slot, so I've been looking into finding a flush Wi-Fi card where the antenna doesn't stick out. The problem is, I can't seem to find one.

I am looking for a PCMCIA (aka CardBus) Wi-Fi adapter that meets the following criteria:

  • Fits into a PCMCIA slot
  • 2.4 GHz b/g/n support
  • 150 Mbps
  • flush with the edge of the slot, or very close to it
  • Reasonably priced
  • Windows support/drivers

Nice to haves

  • 5 GHz support
  • 300 Mbps
  • Cheap
  • Well supported on Linux
  • Promiscuous mode

This Ubiquiti on Amazon appears to fit the bill, but it's really expensive. Which probably stems from its high end name.

Alternatively a series of parts and adapters (PCMCIA, Expresscard, mini PCIe, etc) to fit into the slot would be fine. The Wi-Fi antenna is still in the chassis (could be reused), or I could run a new one in the chassis.

USB PCMCIA + USB WiFi

I would prefer to not use USB, but will do so as a last resort. USB is supposedly heavy on the CPU and I don't know if I will have enough room/ports for a suitable USB adapter and card in the case. If you think you can make it work, feel free to suggest that solution, but be detailed.

If I were to do something like this, I would want to modify the card adapter so the USB Wi-Fi adapter sat further in, and potentially rig up some form of external antenna or connector.

Edits/additions

This would be a perfect form factor and antenna management system. This particular card uses a different networking standard than is common today, so it won't work for my purposes. This type of antennae seems popular for the cell cards, but I can't find any for Wi-Fi G or N.

A Wi-Fi version of this would be awesome. Sadly, I was unable to locate one.

I snagged a cheap Ubiquiti (listed above) on eBay, but I would still like to hear other solutions. The Ubiquiti seems to be supported by Linux, but I will have to engineer a protector for the antennae connectors, but that won't be too bad.

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    Something worth considering is Cardbus is essentially dead - and has been for quite a while, which may explain the lack of slots. Coulda sworn my thinkpad of the same era had express card rather than PCMCIA tho Mar 17, 2016 at 14:46
  • I realize it's an older technology, but that's what I have. It IS an older machine... Mar 17, 2016 at 20:48

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