best chip for wireless?

Hey,
I'm shopping for a laptop and was wondering if Intel and Dell are the best chips still.

If I get a laptop with an Intel wireless chip, it should be a good chance of working 'out of the box?'

I don't want to use ndiswrapper if I can help it.

 

Depending on what distro you use some wireless cards may work OTB or not. What distro are you planning on using?

 

go with intel. specifically the 3945abg or 4965agn mini-cards. if you're ordering a laptop from dell, replacing the dell broadcom with the intel 3945agn should incur no cost. the 4965agn will cost a little more. also, in regards to the distro you use, it shouldn't matter. i can't think of one that does not install the whole set of iwlXXXX modules or have them available on the cd or dvd. as long as the module is loaded, your wireless should work.

 

I would recommend Atheros for signal range, reception, and performance. All Atheros cards work with Linux, though they are not as common as Intel wireless chips.

 

most people agree intel's is better. i have to agree also. it's been the best wireless card i've ever had.

 

I use Mepis, Ubuntu/Kubuntu and I tried Fedora (but not as familiar with it). I've noticed a lot of laptops nowadays have the 3945abg or 4965agn mini-cards so I wanted to make sure it's a good choice.

 

as bog said, atheros seems to be the other preferred wireless card. i had one in my last laptop. it was fine. never really had problems. but the intel i have now seems to get much better reception and i can definitely see more networks around me. i can't say anything about performance because i'm still with same carrier and package.

 

if i wasn't so lazy, i'd get a wireless n router and the 4965 for all my laptops. the throughput and coverage is significantly better.

 

I've got a 4965AGN, and it works out of the box in both Gutsy Gibbon and Hardy Heron.

 

Intel hardware is generally well supported under Linux, mostly because Intel actively supports driver development. At this site, you can see the extent of the Intel WiFi Linux driver support. BTW, Dell doesn't make any WiFi chipsets, they just use one or another brand of WiFi chipsets in the market, (usually Broadcom). My personal ranking of Linux support for mainstream WiFi chipsets go like this from best to worst;

1) Intel
2) Atheros
3) Broadcom

There's also Linux support for lesser known WiFi Chipsets like;

RALink
Realtek

Those are the major and minor ones I can remember, and their Linux support sites. You can also check out this site for more comprehensive coverage regarding Linux support for WiFi hardware. Short answer: Intel WiFi for Linux support, all the way.

Good Luck..

 

Don't forget Cisco cards. Yes, they exist!

 

how expensive are they? cisco products usually aren't cheap.

 

Intel, but MEPIS 7 right now doesn't support the 4965 OTB. The others you mentioned do.

 

I don't know, but I've seen them in T40 series ThinkPads. Considering the widespread use of this model, I just wanted to mention Cisco cards despite their use in the not-so-new T40s.

 

didn't know that. not surprised though, as cisco makes a lot of networking products. expensive ones at that.

 

I agree. Atheros seems to have the best performance.

 

yeah i have an atheros card in my laptop, it was recognized by ubuntu

 

My old Toshiba Satellite A70 had an Atheros card in it; it was perfect. It was actually faster than the cards in my current two laptops.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but not too many modern notebooks have Atheros cards/chips in them. I think some older AMD-based notebooks do but I'm looking for an Intel Core 2 Duo laptop. Many of them have some variation of an Intel-based card. Correct?

 

centrino versions do.

 

yeah i just got a dv6810us, and it came with it. but I have an AMD dual core processor though.

 

I bought an Acer Centrino (4965 card) and wireless works great. Have logged onto secure networks and many unsecured hotspots. I believe it works better in Ubuntu than in Vista. You turn it on and the wireless card immediately finds all networks within range and willingly tries to log into whatever it's pointed at or recognizes from recent experience.

My Dad got an HP Compaq with an Atheros 5007 card. I've screwed with several different instructions for getting it to work - no joy. I popped my 4965 in his Compaq and it immediately went online after booting into Linux. In Vista it had to find drivers but was online after that.
I put the Atheros in my Acer and it sees nothing. I'm not even gonna screw around trying to get it working. Will just shop for a 4965 instead.

EDIT: Thanks to the members of this forum, got the 5007 working in my Acer. Followed these instructions
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3409908#post3409908
I imagine it'll disappear again after the next kernel upgrade, but it is working for now. Will probly replace with 4965 sooner or later.