Mini PCIe WiFi Cards

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with using other wifi cards in their laptops. I was thinking about getting a gigabyte wifi card that has "super G" on it and then picking up a netgear WGT624. heres the link to the wifi adapter http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Communication/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2215

as far as I know they should work together because they are both Atheros based. I was just curious if anyone has done anything like this and how it worked out.

my current situation is I have an S96J with the Intel wireless chipset and a Linksys 802.11b router. its just not fast enough for me anymore so I was looking to upgrade to a 108mbs router but I wouldn't like to deal with a card sticking out the side of my notebook if possible. I know they make USB dongles but thats just one more small thing for me to lose track of when on a trip. haha.

Thanks!

 

just contemplating...

before you go investing in expensive wireless equiptment, realize that you are getting what 11 Mbps on your wifi. If your internet connection is anything under 11 Mbps, then you wont notice any speed increase. Unless of course you werent planning on using it for the internet anyway.

But keep in mind that if you want a faster internet connection through wifi, likely your culprit is your internet connection speed and not your wifi speed.

Standard dsl / cable connections range from 1 to 8 Mbps-ish.

 

I realize this. Internet speed isn't really an issue. I get about 1.5Mbs down right now (vs about 5-6Mbs on my ethernet connected desktop) which is fine since I don't do a lot of heavy downloading on the laptop.

I do use file sharing a lot between the computers though for which the increased bandwidth would be very nice. I tend to do a lot of video/sound editing on the laptop (its vastly faster then my desktop) and then transfer it onto the desktop when I'm done for burning/storing.

 

Why don't you just get a new router?

Why do you need a new wireless card? The stock intel 3945ABG is more than good enough.

I recommend Linksys routers.

 

I fitted a gigabyte GN-WI01GT to my laptop a few weeks ago, I am using it with an NETGEAR DG834GT 108 modem router.

I only use XP homes, built in network software and it works great, and the speed shows as 108.0 Mbps in the connection icon on the taskbar.

I changed the gigabyte driver for the one on the atheros website, but i have had no problems with either driver.

if you have any question, feel free to ask.

regards.




John.

 

Tinderbox you're exactly who I want to speak to, hehe. I'm trying to get as close to 10BaseT as I can without dealing with the high cost and somewhat uncertain future of 802.11n.

I'm guessing the WGT624 is relatively the same as your DG834GT minus the ADSL modem parts. Were there any problems getting it to connect to the router? Like do you have to use certain settings or anything like that? I was thinking about buying the router this weekend and ordering the GN-WI01GT sometime next week. It's actually cheaper to buy it then the proprietary netgear card/USB adapter oddly.

My main question is how fast would you say the bandwidth is with WEP/WPA enabled?

When you have it in "Super G" broadcast mode, does it mean that less people can see it as an AP because its using something other then standard 802.11g? Or will they see it but be unable to connect to it? Either way I wont be broadcasting the SSID, just curious though.

Thanks!

 

Hi Faustt.

I have an Safecom 125Mbps on my desktop computer running at 54Mbps and my laptop running at 108Mbps at the same time.

so i don't think their is a problem for non 108Mbps detecting the DG834GT they just run at 54Mbps if their not 108Mbps capable.

I only have an 2meg Internet connection, so i can`t say what the maximum transfer speed on the GN-WI01GT, but i have had it downloading at 200k at times.

I am only using web 64bit encryption at the moment, I think that is sufficient for the area i live in, as i cannot detect any other wifi access point other than my own.

i`me not using any special setting with my DG834GT, just the standard setup.

since my router and my laptop wifi card use the same chipset, I have had absolutely no problems.

I bought my GN-WI01GT new for only £17.00 online, and i think it`s a great card.

regards.

John.

 

I'm using a WGT624 but with a builtin wireless card in my Acer laptop ( not Super G). I'm getting 1600kbyte/s downloads over this connection which is better than your 10Base-T target. I also have WPA2 enabled on this connection, which is using the advanced encryption AES. Also, I suspect you can do better than this if you live in a less crowded area than I do. I've actually seen up to 21 APs at one time!

Anyway, maybe get the WGT624 and see how you like the speeds and then if you want more replace with/add a Super G-enabled Wi-Fi card.

 

Your transfer speeds are all slow because you computers hard drives are slow...

 

I run a 125mbps AP/clinet and top out 3.1MB/s FTP. Most sites limit speeds to the 200kbps. The only big gain you will see is internal if you are moving files between PC's.

Slow HD have very little impact, at your speeds. Most 5400rpm drive can deliver 25mbps speed. Low ram has a bigger impact.

Remember that most 11g hardware is 1/2 duplex.

 

I'm using the same card Tinderbox is in my Inspiron E1705 in straight 802.11g mode with no problem.

Newest Atheros drivers can be found here.

 

I ordered the card Tinderbox has (Gigabyte WI01GT) and it came today. Installed it into my Inspiron E1405, and installed the latest Atheros utility and driver that WackyT mentioned above. Works really well. Overall, response time seems quicker than my previous Dell (Broadcom BCM4311) 1390 card. The wireless scan also showed a couple of SSIDs in the neighborhood that previously did not show up, because of the Atheros card's better range. Overall I'm very pleased with this card. Got it for $29.17 shipped from eWiz:

http://castle.pricewatch.com/s/search.asp?s=wi01gt

which is a great deal for this card.

Just one comment on the Atheros utility and driver. The official one on Gigabyte's website and also on the CD that came with the card has v4.2.0.374.02 on it and this version of the utility does not support nonbroadcast SSID. Just update to the new version 5.0.0.107 at the link WackyT provided and you'd be fine.

This card uses the Atheros AR5006EGS. You can read the technical specs here:

http://www.atheros.com/pt/AR5006EGS.htm

Before purchasing this card, I also considered the AR5006EX card sold by Garagesale125 for $68 shipped posted on the Buy Sell Trade Forum. Comparing the specs on Atheros' website, here are the differences:

1. The Gigabyte card supports 802.11b/g, whereas the AR5006EX card also supports 802.11a in addition to b/g.
2. The AR5006EX card supports dual-band 2.4GHz/5GHz, whereas the Gigabyte card only supports 2.4GHz.
3. The Gigabyte card supports Super G mode (108Mbps) whereas the AR5006EX does not.

In the end, I chose the Gigabyte card because I decided that Super G mode would be good to have in case I get an Atheros based router in the future. Also, the Gigabyte card sells for less than half the price of the AR5006EX card ($29.17 shipped vs $68 shipped) and I think it's a much better deal given the large price difference.

 

So last weekend I went out about got the WTG624. with the intel wireless chip my internet speed was more or less the same. my internal network speed was a decent increase, but not as much as I had hoped.

so I ordered the WI01GT from ewiz (really cant beat that price) and it came today. Now working in super G mode my net speed has jumped up a lot...

from about 1.5 Mbps (~192KBps or ~1536 kbps) down to about 5.3 Mbps (~680KBps or ~5427 kbps). this is transfers from the internet. my internal network speeds are up from ~.6MBps to about 25Mbps (~3200KBps or ~25,600Kbps). All speeds are with WPA2 enabled. If I turned it off I'd probably get a bit of a boost (don't most security modes cut about 1/3 to 1/2 of bandwidth?) , but I like my security, hehe. It's a bit off of 10BaseT (which is 10 MegaBytes pet seconds btw), but still much quicker then where I was at.

All my hard drives are 7,200 RPM drives both in my PC and laptop. the PC being SATA2 and the laptop being SATA.

just wanted to mention. people are throwing out a bunch of numbers and comparing one set of numbers to another completely different set. it's like saying I'm going 80KPH which is faster then 60 MPH. but in actuality is under 50 MPH.

Kbps = kilobits per second
KBps = kilobytes per second
MBps = megabytes per second

1 MBps = 1042 KBps
1 MBps = 8192 Kbps
1 Mbps = 128 KBps
1 Mbps = 1024 Kbps
1 KBps = 8 Kbps

everything worked out great, only downside is the fn F2 button that used to toggle the wifi no longer works. oh well. hardly used it anyway. thank you guys for all the help and info.

 

10Base-T = 10 Megabits per second = 1.25 MegaBytes per second, roughly.

 

hi, im trying to find where to buy this card, since everyplace i found have it "out of stock" if anyone know where they have it avaliable tell me, this store www.oxfordtec.com dont have it, and on ebay oxford.bay its the other who have it but that is the same store !

 

Not any more, unless you really buy a old version, or off the wall cheap brand. Most mfg learned that they have to install a larger/faster CPU and most have. As a rule now you will only get a 5% hit, and some of the faster routers you will not have any loss.