text: can any wireless card go with a router? i have an rca router cable modem, when i got it, it came with a 11mbps and my wireless on my laptop has 56mbps. so i want to get a card that is 56mbps so my laptop can get to it's maximum connection speed at 56mbps. so i want to know if i get any card that is 56mbps if it will be compatible with rca router i have or i need an rca wireless card? nope, not just any card will work. you don't give enough information to be sure from this distance, but here's the background you need.  there are currently two different wifi networking standards. one operates in the 2.4ghz frequency band, and the other in the 5mhz band. the first began with 802.11b (max speed 11mbps max) and continued with 802.11g (54mbps max) and will sometime soon be extended again with 802.11n (probably about 110mpbs max). all are backwards compatible in that earlier hardware will work with newer standard hardware, albeit at the slower speed. note: in no case will you ever get the entire maximum data rate. there will always be handshaking and error correction and link recovery overhead, as well as automatic backoff in the speed attempted in the face of excessive error rates.   the other is 802.11a, operating at 54mpbs (like 802.11g). 802.11a has many more usable channels, but much more limited range. it should not be expected to work at much more than a few tens of feet, as for instance across a room.  ======== other factors affecting data rate in practice.   signal strength: this is reduced in all cases by distance, obstacles, inappropriately oriented directional antennas, mismatched signal polarity, low radio signal output (on transmission),  etc.   other factors: rain, hot weather, inappropriate antenna connections or excessive antenna cable lengths, low radio sensitivity (on reception), multipath reception (caused by reflections -- buildings, airplanes, ...), ...  an older 802.11 radio standard (no longer commercially supported) operated at 700mhz, though at lower max data rates. the lower frequency gave greater range (all other things being equal) and better resistance to signal loss due to obstacles.