I bought a WIFI card for my cheap notebook. I got it off ebay at a knock down price and it works well. Indeed it works very well. For a long time I've been cursing my home network when I use my tablet PC with its internal WIFI card. It was always a bit slow and unpredictable, which at the time I put down to the connection itself. I've come to the conclusion that WIFI connections built into computers are not very good at pulling in a signal.

This card, made by Buffalo, has a dirty great big antenna stuck on the side. It is rather ugly, but I don't mind this particularly, because it does seem to mean that I get lovely signal strength and much faster transmission.

I'm not putting this forward as an exhaustive test, but if you are finding that your connection is marginal it might be worth switching off an internal card and slapping in one with an external antenna.

Oh, and perhaps you all deserve a clue for the mystery object:

The number 60 stamped on the base is significant. And as a UK resident I've never had to use this item.