12-inch 867 AlPB, w/AE card.
Base station is a NetGear WGR-614 Router/54g AP, using 1126 firmware which support Burst Packet transmission mode.
The PC has a D-Link G-Extreme 108g PCI card.
All three talk together with no problems.
In fact, my ex-15" Titanium with old AirPort card and Belkin 11b AP/Router had a very limited range. With Belkin AP on 2nd floor office, the 15-Titanium could not be used anywhere on first floor.
With the NetGear WGR-614 and AE, I can use the AE-12" AlPB anywhere on the 1st floor.
In most cases, except for the 15-inch Titanium which was reknown for a short reception capability, the issue of 'WiFi range' lies within the Access Point (ie: base station). Many firms use dinky and fixed low-dB antennas with low-power transmitter. The WGR-614 has low-dB Fixed (cannot be unscrewed) antennas, but several other brands have antennas which can be removed (including a higher-end NetGear and D-Link) and replaced with much more capable dB antenna(s).
If range/reception strength is of importance to you (ie: one AP for 2-storey house), then you may want to consider an Access Point with an external antenna option (such as the more expensive Apple AirPort Extreme Basestation w/ Antenna port). However, again, there are several strength antennas on the market, and even more confusing, about 2 dozen gender-specific antenna connector standards.
eBay is a great place to buy antennas, and there's tons of retailers that accept paypal and eShopping etc that sell antennas of varying power, and purposes. There's 'OmniDirectional', which means that the signal radiates outward from the antenna, like waves from a rock dropped into a pond, and the signal drops down from the antenna location/height, the further away from the antenna, and there's a Directional antenna, which targets a tight-angle cone in one direction only. The latter is a bit more secure, but precision may work against you in a home environment.
Last but not least, as stated, most AP/Router antennas are about -4dBA in power, and some are -6 or -8dBA in power. Others have two, etc. Ideally, you'll want to aim for a -6 to -10, but you could look at getting a -12 to -18dBA external antenna kit. I have a -16dBA antenna that I hookup from time to time, jacked into the NetGear via a series of rather expensive gender-bending cables and pigtails. A pigtail is the cable that goes between the antenna and the connector on the AP or card. They're gold plated, shielded, and cost about $50 US. Ka-ching, but it can help extend, with a good antenna (which can cost $40 to $1000) your signal from 20 feet in a heavily walled abode to over 500 feet in an building and up to several miles in open air.
Anyways, I'm rambling on here, but it should give you something to consider, as the laptop/desktop computer's WiFi card is only as good as the base station's or Access Point's antenna(s).
N.
