1520: aftermarket 802.11n minicard. Use existing wires?

I know this topic has come up before. I've searched and didn't really find an answer to my specific question, so here's a new thread...

My 1520 came with the standard Dell 802.11b/g minicard. I'm upgrading my home network with an N-capable router, and so I've got a Gigabyte 802.11abgn minicard for my 1520 on order.

I know that 802.11n will function with two antennas, and that some people with the Dell 802.11n cards report that they only have two antennas connected. But it's a fact that three antennas are desired for maximum N range & speed. So that's what I want to do.

I opened up my 1520 and the current card has two antennas connected to it, as expected for a b/g card. One is black, the other is white. There are four more antenna cables bundled up in there. According to the service docs, they appear to be for use with the WWAN or PAN cards. A grey one, grey with a black stripe, a blue one, and another white one (I think). The service docs mention connecting the grey wire in an 802.11N setup. But it also mentions using the grey wire with one of the WWAN/PAN cards (I don't remember which).

I have neither WWAN nor PAN cards, so I'm curious if I can use one of these as the third antenna for the 802.11N card. The connector and wire material looks to be the same, and there's plenty of wire length there to make it work. Is an antenna wire just an antenna wire? Or is there something special about the other wires in that they should not be used for 802.11N?

I ordered an extra notebook antenna with my card, just in case. But if I can just use one of these existing ones it would be easier than fishing the new one up behind the screen.

Thanks!

 

Bluetooth (PAN) uses 2.4GHz just like 802.11g, so you can use the Bluetooth antenna for 802.11 if you don't have a Bluetooth card.

 

The Bluetooth module doesn't use any of the antennae - just the BT card itself.

Op - you should be fine using one of the unused antenna and its the grey one you should be using.

 

I do have the built-in bluetooth. The manual shows that its module is located under the keyboard and it doesn't appear to use any of these antenna wires.

And thanks! Good to know the grey wire should work.

Thanks to both of you for the advice.

 

1.how much better is it to have 3 antennas than 2

2. WHERE the heck can you buy extra internal antennas?!?!-ive been looking for hours!! -please help

 

1. I would love to offer advice on 2 vs 3 but I can't yet. I received the new card, but the company (OxfordTec) sent the wrong one. They sent me a 2-wire ABG card instead of the 3-wire ABGN. I know that some shady companies do this on purpose. But on the other hand, it's easy enough to make a mistake and maybe someone just grabbed the wrong box. But they're sort of leaving me in limbo as to how the process works for replacing it with the correct one. They claim to be working on sending me the correct one, but no real solid answer/procedure/tracking # yet. In fairness though, it's only been about 24 hours. Time will tell.

That said...

2. http://www.oxfordtec.com/us/Wireless-Antennae-/-Aerials/c50/index.html
I ordered one of the $10 ones along with my new card from them just in case I needed it. The antenna is as expected. I may or may not need it. Seems like I might not. If I really don't, I'd be happy to sell it to you. Unfortunately, I can't say for sure since I don't have the new card. If you're interested, PM me and I'll keep you informed of if/when I decide I don't need it.

 

Have you searched ebay?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...

 

you had good experience with oxfordtec? I want to buy second atheros N card, first i got from ebay.

 

At this point in time, I would have to say to stay away from Oxfordtec.

They sent me the wrong card (a cheaper ABG card) and have refused to give me an answer as to how to replace it. It's been three weeks of emails and phone calls and they're utterly clueless. For the last week I've been told that 'it's with the shipping company', but they are unable to provide a tracking number.

There's a very confusing relationship between where you send the money, the warehouse that fulfils the order, the email contacts, and the toll-free number listed on their website. They seem somewhat 'scammy' to me.

 

cool, thanks for reply, will buy my second card from ebay

 

Just watch who you're buying it from. They have an eBay presence as well. Their feedback looks great, so I don't know what the problem is.

While I'm fighting with Oxfordtec, I ordered another N300 from Amazon directly a few days ago. It was $10 more than Oxfordtec, but I received the correct part and it was at my door within 24 hours.

So now I've got the Gigabyte N300 card in my 1520. I used one of the extra grey wires that was already there for the third antenna as discussed earlier in this thread.

It all seems to work flawlessly with my D-Link 655 router. Fantastic range. From the other side of my house where I would get 40-60% signal and 36-48mb connection speeds with my OEM Dell 802.11g card, I'm getting 80-90% signal and 160-240mb link speeds with the N300. If I move a couple of walls closer to the 655, I'm getting 100% signal and linking up at the full 300mb speed, as indicated by Vista & the router status page. It's pretty sweet.

My only tip for someone exploring the world of 'N' routers is to give your WiFi connection a minute or two to 'optimize' itself. At the first moment of connection, it links at 54 or 108mb. The speed then ramps up to the max it can handle over the course of a minute or two. Not unlike the other 802.11x standards, but the spread is so much larger with 'N' that it takes a moment to speed up.

 

A followup...

I've been in further contact with OxfordTec. It seems there was some sort of mix-up with who was taking care of my problem. They are finally in the process of correcting the situation. As of this post, it's not completely resolved yet, but I'm finally getting some real information and the return/correction process has started.

I didn't want to leave the 'don't buy from OxfordTec' tone out here. They seem to be ok, but just hope that they don't accidentally send you the wrong part.

 

When installing a new card do you uninstall old drivers etc? first? if so what to do?

 

I didn't. To do it, you find the card in the Device Manager, right-click, choose 'Uninstall'.

I downloaded my N300 drivers from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showforum=52. Installed those INF files*.

Then I shut down, unplugged, and removed the battery.

Then I opened the panel that houses the minicards. I popped the two antennas off the Dell card, and moved the Dell card to one of the other slots. Installed the new card in the old Dell slot. Attached the two original wifi-antennas + the grey wire to the new card. Then picked two of the other unused antenna wires and put them on the Dell card.

Closed up the panel, put the battery back in, plugged it in, and booted.

Vista found the new hardware (both Dell & N300). Automatically re-installed the Dell driver (because obviously it had that). Then it detected the N300 and wanted the drivers, and I pointed it to the extracted folder from the files downloaded from the link above. The card also came with a CD with drivers, but I went straight to the web for them.

At that point, I had both Wifi cards up and running. I could switch between them from the 'Network Sharing Center'. This way, I could run some tests to see if the new card was really better or not. It was definitely better.

So then I shut it all back down and removed the Dell card. Rebooted and am now just running with the new card.

I left the Dell drivers on my system just in case I ever have a problem with the new card. It does not seem to be interfering with anything, other than the Dell WiFi utility and Quickset utility doesn't work anymore since they don't have the Dell WiFi card present.

*There are a couple of different versions of the driver. Vista actually found one online automatically, but it was a version or two older than what's on that forum. There are also a few modded drivers on that forum. You can read about the pros and cons of them over there. I went with the regular, non-modded files because the modded ones all made my WiFi light blink all the time and it was too annoying.

 

Thanks for post!