Newbie Wi-Fi questions ...!

[green_day21]

Hi everyone,
I am considering getting a CF wi-fi card for my axim x5. I think I'm gonna go with the Dell TrueMobile 1180 CF card, probably from ebay.
My question is, how do you set up a wireless network?
1) wireless routers....are they all compatible with all Wi-Fi cards?
2) USB wireless adapters? I know nothing about these, can someone explain how they work, or how they are different from a wireless router? and will they connect to a CF wi-fi card?
3) Wi-fi sniffers or something....what do those do? in non computer language ?
Any help would be great thanks alot!

[bearista]

1) wireless routers....are they all compatible with all Wi-Fi cards?
Well as long as the router works as an access point as well then all Wi-Fi cards should be able to see and connect to it, yes! As long as the devices are the same wireless standard. For instance, all 802.11b devices will talk to each other, but an 802.11a router will not talk to an 802.11b WiFi card. 802.11b is the current standard.

2) USB wireless adapters? I know nothing about these, can someone explain how they work, or how they are different from a wireless router? and will they connect to a CF wi-fi card?
A wireless router is a stand-alone device that handles the network and forwards packets that need to go onto the Internet onwards, while a USB adaptor is a device that connects to a wireless network. Wi-Fi PCMCIA, CF, SD cards also connect to wireless networks in the same way.

WiFi adaptors also have the ability to work in a "peer-to-peer" mode, eliminating the need for an access point/router. So - if you want a cheap way to connect 2 devices, simply buy 2 WiFi cards for the 2 devices (CF, PCMCIA, USB - whatever. As long as they're the same standard- e.g. 802.11b) and they can connect to each other directly fine.


3) Wi-fi sniffers or something....what do those do? in non computer language ?

A WiFi sniffer is a piece of software that captures "sniffs" each packet going across the network and can figure out the packet's destination, source etc. If the network is WEP encrypted then the sniffer can't immediately see the contents of the packet.