What replacement wireless card for Vostro 3550?

Can someone recommend me a wireless card I can buy to replace my Intel Centrino Wireless - N 1030?
It only shows 2.4Ghz bandwidth in device manager and gives me half or usually less than half of my wired connection speed, around 30 to 50Mbps. Whereas if I connect the laptop with the ethernet cable, I'll get my full speed of over 100Mbps. My phone makes use of 5Ghz bandwidth and gives me the same 100Mbps wi-fi speed as my Vostro does when using ethernet.

I've downloaded the latest driver for the N 1030 direct from Intel but it made no difference. Unless anyone knows of a way to increase my wireless speed using the N 1030, is there a specific card I could buy that fits inside the Vostro that uses 5Ghz? Also, are those wireless USB adapters any good?

 

The N1030 is a PCIe half mini card module and it should be possible to replace it by a newer card of the same size, using two antennae and supporting Bluetooth.

I would expect the newer Intel 7260 to be compatible and is reasonably priced. There are some different versions so check that whatever you plan to get is the right size with dual band and Bluetooth.

John

 

Thanks very much John. Can you take a look at these, they're 7260's varying in price and wondering if the first one at £17 looks ok to you? That is to say, do any on that list look non genuine to you?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_o...=m570.l1313&_nkw=intel+7260+802.11ac&_sacat=0

Here is a picture of my N - 1030 when I last opened up the laptop. Do you think those 7260s should fit ok? And are the white and black wires on mine acting as the antennae?

http://s22.postimg.org/9nvnkbmb5/image.jpg

 

Yes, those two wires are the antennae cables. Be forewarned that it can be very fiddly to plug them in. A pair of small pliars can help.

The 7260HMW is the card you need. I don't know if the dual band antennae are designed different to work properly on both frequency bands but the newer card should perform better, even on 2.4GHz.

I would also note that I had driver problems when I tried updating an Intel WiFi card a few years ago. The generic Intel WiFi driver may still think it is the old card which has developed problems. Sorting this out may be more difficult than swapping the card and may need a driver uninstallation and clean-up before putting the new card in.

John

 

Thanks John and thanks for the forewarnings. The HMW cards on my ebay link are all from china. I don't mind waiting longer to receive one as it always takes a couple of weeks from there, but anything from china is usually cheap and makes me wonder if they're genuine and will work properly? I'm assuming you're referring to this one for example:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-726...869125?hash=item27fbe5d945:g:SR8AAOSwtvtVVbyF

It's not expensive though and I don't mind giving it a shot if you think so.

Regarding the driver, on your advice, yes, I'll do a complete uninstall of the N 1030 drivers first.

This driver should work though I presume or have I selected the wrong one?
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...Bluetooth-technology-for-Windows-7-64-bit-WP-

 

This one says that it is in Edgeware. However, some of the Chinese sellers somehow get the goods into the UK and post from here. Or what about this one? Not new, but no reason why it shouldn't work. WiFi cards don't tend to die unless they have been very overworked and overcooked.

The driver looks to be the right one. It's a generic package covering most/all the Intel WiFi products. Somewhere there should also be a smaller driver-only package without the ProSet software.

John

 

Thanks John, much appreciated! I'll buy one of those, probably the first one as it's AC-7260.

Regarding the second one you linked, it's listed as an 'N' 7260 and the photos show that, but in the description lower down, it says
"Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260HMW 802.11AC BT 4.0 Wi-Fi Card" But clearly it's not AC.

I think I need 802.11ac rather than 802.11n right? Or maybe they both work but that AC assures better 5ghz speeds?

 

The table here throws some light on the different flavours of the 7260 and the results of the tests in that article show that the AC 7260 does give better performance. However, they were using an AC router.

If you don't have an AC router then the benefit of the AC WiFi card will be less certain. In your situation I would get the AC card which should then match the throughput of your other devices. Then, if you want even more throughput it's time to get a more potent router.

John

 

Cheers John. I just received an upgraded router from my ISP Virgin Media to replace my Superhub 1; it's called the Superhub 2. It seems there's two versions of the Superhub 2 that look identical but one is a newer AC version.

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/networks/wireless-routers/1402804/virgin-media-superhub-2ac-review

I'm currently awaiting an answer on a network forum I post at to find out if I have the AC version. I suspect I don't. But yeah, if the AC 7260 works with either, then I'll buy the one in your first link.

 

I would suggest you get the AC WiFi card so that you have the option to get an AC router even if the Virgin superhub doesn't oblige.

I've got the original Virgin superhub but only as a cable modem and have never used its WiFi to find out how bad it is because I already had a better router when the superhub was installed. I recently bought a TPlink Archer C5 because my previous Asus RT-N66U was starting to drop WiFi connections. A further considering in my case is that the superhub and my main router are in different rooms and are connected by a network cable (put in many years ago before WiFi was commonplace - I'm waiting to see how the nominally 100Mb/s cable handles the 150Mb/s that Virgin promises I will get soon).

John