Best wireless card?

I have a sony vaio vpcec290x and the thing I do most is go online/ stream videos/ download stuff so it's really important to me to have a fast internet connection.

Is there a network card I can install that'll help out? My router is wrt54GL running tomato.

 

As the last link in the chain, your wireless card is not what is limiting your internet connection. Your ISP is.

 

This:

I heard Intel Centrino Ultimate 6300 is good

 

I have a 15Mb/s connection with Time Warner. It's not great but whatever.

You're saying that changing my wireless card will not change anything?

 

Try this simple test. Plug the notebook directly into the router. That'll take the supposed last link out of the picture.

 

I use many ISP's during each day and although I am paying for one of the slowest DSL based connections around, at least it is consistent (I pay for what I actually get).

Your 15Mb/s connection is most likely the 'maximum' you'll get, not sustained. Even if it is sustained (guaranteed), it still depends on what and who you're downloading from too (they need to be at the same speed or higher for you to see your paid for speeds).

To see your speeds from your wireless now, try:

Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test

compare speeds via your wireless and via a direct (wired) connection.

I'd be surprised if you saw a significant difference.

 

Plugged in I get far better speeds. Switching to the wrt54gl from my old piece of made a huge difference though.

As I said, far better speeds plugged in.

 

Well, you said you said it but I didn't read it.

What are the numbers?

 

I get 8Mb/s over wifi (This is pretty exceptional, I guess it's becasue it's 4:45am =p) and 14-16Mb/s wired.

I mean... I don't see how it can possibly hurt to upgrade my wireless card. They're pretty cheap. Right?

 

Your router is old and slow. Definitely the weakest link in the chain. No new wireless card is going to help with that. But if you want a good one just for grins and giggles, get the Intel 6300. But please buy a router made within the last couple of years.

 

lol with Fios, we paid for a 20 meg connection, Verizon upgraded us to 25 meg, and I have gotten max 33 meg on Ethernet through speedtest. Max I've gotten is 21 meg over wifi and that's using the Verizon G router.

 

If you buy a wireless router than isn't a piece of crap and connect it to the FIOS piece of crap router, you will get much higher speeds.

 

The router was recommended to me by people on many forums... as far as they were concerned it was a very high quality router.

 

Yeah. It is a great router, but they have been around for many years and are very outdated. Though I guess if you just bought it and since the Intel 6300 is so ridiculously cheap, you might as well try it. But the Intel 6300 is rated at up to 450Mbps. Your new router is rated at up to 54Mbps.

 

I suppose I'll consider investing in a new router. But as I said, the router I just bought has improved speed a ton.

 

The WRT54G is really old. But I guess it has been improved over the years. I've just been researching it quickly. I found a forum thread where someone was having a similar issue to yours and was able to resolve it:

[Wired] WRT54GS Limits Bandwidth - Linksys | DSLReports Forums (Page 2)

 

I have WRT54GL. It's still a huge improvement over my old router.

 

Look at that thread. It is for all practical purposes the same router.

 

I have a Dlink DIR 615 but my mom has a VPN and works from home all the time so I haven't found the time to install the router yet. I know the Verizon router isn't the best but damn good geting 21 meg of wifi on G.

 

Install? All you have to do is plug it in.

 

Gotta password it, resetup 2 VPN's as my dad also works from home on occasion, and other crap. Plus the desk where we have it is really jammed up, the Westel router is already freaking the size of the Titanic, adding another router will jam things up. When I get free time I will do it.

 

Ok well... do you guys have a suggestion for a new router? I'd rather not spend a huge amount. As I said, internet is what I'm using my computer for more than half the time.