PCMCIA really necessary?

[pablarribas]

Hi guys. I'm about to buy a laptop, but I yet have some doubts and I would thank your help. The thing is that most of the laptops that fit my budget don't have PCMCIA ports (I'm a student and I can't afford too much...). My laptop isn't going to be for mobile working actually, but I'm quite interested in making a Wireless network at home. It does have Firewire, USB and parallel ports. My question is: Is PCMCIA totally necessary for Wireless? (I know there are USB adaptors, but you don't get a laptop for wiring it...) Can you have, in general, a well connected laptop without PCMCIA?

Thanks very much four your help


One more question, out of curiosity, is the Firewire port used for anything else than viedo editing...?

[Telexen]

Yeah, you can work just fine without PCMCIA...but it's still a good thing to have just incase. I personally dont' want to even bother with USB wireless adapters, and I'm going to get a PCMCIA card for my notebook when I start college. So it's really up to you...if you don't mind the hassle of a USB wireless adapter, or missing out if there happens to be any other PCMCIA card you'd want to get (can't think of another besides a Wireless adapter that you wouldn't get built in with any new notebook)...then go ahead and get one without.

There are all kinds of devices that use firewire...most often though they use USB, firewire never became very big, and when it was about to USB 2.0 came out...

[Big Calhoun]

Personally, I am a HUGE advocate of PCMIA. I find that I can live without certain features on a laptop as long as it comes with at least a type 2 slot. With that, I can purchase additional storage and peripherals (sp?). To strictly answer your question, you can network just fine with USB or FireWire; but PCMIA is good to have JIC.

[muno]

There are also laptops with builtin wireless adapters.
-M