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.