Wifi G to N card upgrade

??? Can my Dell Inspiron E 1505 Internal 802.11 G wifi card be upgraded to 802.11 N ??? If so what card is recomended/

 

Not totally getting full n speeds because it does not have all the antennas.

 

Buy a third antenna from oxfordtec.com, slip it inside the case, and you'll have all the 802.11n compatibility you'll need. That's what I did in my e1705, and it works like a champ.

 

I'am considering converting my Dell Inspiron E 1505 wifi card from 1500 802.11 G to a 802.11 N. I would like to Know what card would work best and where I can locate the proper Drivers? If there is any one who has experiance with this swap I would appreciate your input.

 

Go to oxfordtec.com - you can find 802.11n cards that will fit your laptop, along with another antenna (required for 802.11n). Very easy - installing the new antenna and swapping the card takes about 10 minutes, max!

 

Thanks Will the card come with the proper drivers

 

Just like any other piece of hardware, drivers will be included unless otherwise stated on the sales website.

 

I can't make up my mind which card to go with. I"ve been looking at the Spark Lan WPEA-124N 802.11a/b/g/n Mini PCI Express Or the Spark Lan WPEA-110N 802.11a/b/g/n Dual-Band Mini PCI Express. Which One will work best in my Dell Inspiron E 1505???

 

I keep all sorts of WLAN driver over at laptopvideo2go

The Dell 1500 WLAN card is 11n and has 2 antenna connectors.

I'm using a Gigabyte GN-WS30N a Ralink based 11n WLAN card, this has been a great card for me. (review further down)
Got it from OxfordTec and got some extra antenna's from there as well.

 

I would avoid anything Atheros and definitely avoid Intel (won't work on my E1705)
Atheros cards are troublesome with i945M chipsets and can give issues with NMI errors.

My suggestion is a GIGABYTE GN-WS30N been a really good card on my E1705.
Also has a fully working Client Utility that works in Vista.

Hope this helps.

 

I have the 124 in my e1705, but I have to use a modded inf in order to avoid the dreaded parity error on Vista. Since I have a DIR-655, which uses the Atheros chipset, I needed to get an Atheros wifi card.

If you decide to get the 124, go here for a working driver:

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15297

 

redsteve, do not create multiple threads on similar topics. Keep them all in one thread. Your threads have been merged. Thank you.

 

I've got a heap of WLAN cards including the SparlLAN 124N and Gigabytes version and also a SparkLAN 110N
With the Dlink DIR-655 they hook up at 300Mbps.
If I use my Buffalo (Marvell based) Router I get 270Mbps which is the max for non like chipsets.

BTW (bit off topic) how does your 124N do with the latest drivers ?
Mine gets really hot (I've taken the WIFI cover off) and also notice that when hot it won't stay connected to router for long periods.

 

It works great with the latest modded inf. I have no heat issues or stability issues. It stays connected to the router indefinitely. I have found that wireless speed varies at times, and I end up either rebooting or disabling/enabling the card to restore 300Mbps speeds. I think this has more to do with my e1705, since I noticed the same behavior with my D-Link DWA-643.

 

The intel wireless 5100 card only has 2 antenna's

 

Thanks Thanks

 

Good to hear, not sure why mine is getting hot with these latest drivers.
Must take the identical Gigabyte for a spin and see if this gets hot.
The e1705 is quite a curse with WLAN cards.
Just glad I was able to work a solution for the NMI issue.

Don't bother getting a Intel 5300 as it won't work, the drivers refuse to start.

It can still do 300Mbps 11n as each antenna is setup for 150Mbps.
The i5300 is supposed to do 450Mbps with 3 antenna's
Not sure when WLAN router manufactures will get round to making 450Mbps devices.

 

I took the advice from wlan man and installed a gigabyte GN-WS30N-RH card in my Dell E 1505. The instlation was easy I installed a 3rd antenna from Oxford tec. I looped the the third antenna in the space between the mother board and the case frame below the key board. I connected it to the center plug on the wifi card. My only question is the the orientation of the antenna connections to the Gigabyte card and location where I placed it?? I Booted up and Installed the Drivers. Easy Install: and I was conected at 270MBPS and Excelent signal strangth at about 60feet and three walls from a D-link Dir-615 Router.

Thanks wlan man

P.S. Any sugestions on how to squeez out anouther 30mbps to get the 300mbps the card is rated at or am I looking for too much. I'am total happy at 270mbps over the 54mbps I was getting befor the swap. Files fly between my laptop to my desktop.

 

The antenna is in a perfect location. I've installed mine there and also inside the LCD, and the results were exactly the same. You don't have to worry about heat, either - it's pretty well protected in that space.

Orientation of the antennas and location of the laptop in relation to those antennas all play a part in the speed.

Good choice in the card. I had another NMI error last night, so I decided to buy the Gigabyte and move my SparkLAN to my wife's Dell 1520 (GM965 chipset - should not crash at all). Guess I have to clarify my MiniPCIe recommendations from now on: if you have an e1705 or anything with the Intel i945 chipset, get a Gigabyte; for all others, the SparkLAN.

 

Thats just great. I just ordered a Dell XPS 1730 with a Intel 4965 WLAN (802.11a/g/n) Mini Card. So what is the problem with Intel cards? I couldn't tell you how it works because I still don't have the dam thing yet as the shipped date keeps moving backwards.

 

270Mbps is max for non same Chipsets.
It won't matter as the max real throughput you will ever get is 180Mbps
In real life 130Mps is a good result, but you should get 60-80Mbps of real throughput in normal use.

And yes I can't praise the Ralink based card high enough.
I use it as my main WLAN card, and only pop in others to test drivers etc.

 

I too am looking to upgrade from G to N. Any assistance on this for me? I have a Gateway GW730-K8X and running a Broadcom 802.11g network card.

 

What CPU does it have ? (will give me a clue to chipset to tell what interface to recommend)
It will either have a miniPCI or miniPCIe interface for the WLAN.

Just done some recommendations here for a minicpie and USB device.

Have a look at OxfordTec for whats available and they also have extra antenna's should you need them

 

I'm not familiar with that model, and Google didn't yield and results. Can you provide a link to the Gateway website with your laptop on it?

 

Yes google threw up a blank for me as well (why I asked about the CPU)

Some good news, as soon as I posted the above I got an email to say that I have a SparkLAN WUBR-505 Wireless-N 802.11abgn draft 2.0 dual band 2T/3R USB Adapter (Ralink RT2870) card coming my way.
I'll test it and reviews will be forth coming.
This is looking like a very good USB WLAN solution.

 

The Ralink has a Client Utility that works in Vista? Is it as good as the Atheros Client Utility?

For example, the Atheros Client Utility lists all APs individually, even if there are a dozen APs with the same SSID. This is a very useful feature for me. Does the Ralink Client do this? The Gigabyte GN-WS30N looks interesting, if only it had 5 GHz too...

I thought it was some sort of conspiracy that both Atheros and Intel have never released a Client Utility for Vista, while they both have them for XP.

By the way, a version of the XP Atheros Client Utility does work fine on the Windows 7 32bit beta. The version that comes on the CD with the Gigabyte GN-WI06N-RH will install and work with Windows 7. You just have to disable Windows 7 WLAN in services, and run the Gigabyte setup using windows compatibility mode set to XP. It all works fine. This method will not work with some other later versions of ACU. It does work fine with the Gigabyte CD version though.

 

I'm looking to upgrade my dell 710m from a pci Intel 2915 a/b/g dual band to a something with draft N. Does anyone know if the existing antennas will be sufficiant or will I need to upgrade?I'm not sure what which chipset I have but I think it's an Intel 945

 

Can't say about AP with the same SSID's not tested this (as I can't)
But I assume it should work if they are on different channels.

The ralink CU has more bits to play with than the ACU.
Not working in Vista makes it hard to compare, as I don't run XP

ACU there is a newer version I sort of ACU can get working in Vista but for average Joe too hard to get working.
Ralink CU just works.

Didi you read my review of the ralink miniPCIe card I did here (and elsewhere) in Dec ?

The 2915 is a MiniPCI not MiniPCIe card.
So chances are you won't have the i945 chipset as mine has a miniPCIe slot for the WLAN and came with the i3945

Have a look here for miniPCI 11n cards.
Double check your card before buying as PCI and PCIe are completely different sizes/shapes.

 

Yes, it seems good, but I must have dual band. Some areas of my school only have access on 5 GHz. There are ralink dual band N cards in MiniPCI, but none in MiniPCIe. Hopefully they will release a dual band MiniPCIe N card.

 

The Ralink RT2870 based USB adaptor is dual band.
Works really well, still got it plugged in now, will do another look after a month.
So there is hope of Ralink Dual band on MiniPCIe

Got a good relation with OxfordTEC so if one comes out I should be able to wangle a review of one.

 

What's a good card/antenna combo for an XPS 1730? Would I be able to install a third antenna piece?

 

I have a HP dv6755us and want to install a N card...it only has 2 antennas....I'm not sure what chipset it has...will the existing 2 be fine? or will I need to install another?

 

It depends on the 11n card you end upi getting.
Most broadcom 11n cards are 2 antenna versions.
Still a few others are also 2 antenna
Most of the latest are 3 antenna.

You can always get another antenna from OxfordTEC there are 2 versions for Notebooks long and short depending on where you want to end up.
But you will need to find where the card is kept and see how easy it is to implement.

 

I'm using a Gigabye GN-WS30N a Ralink RT2860 based card in my i9400 and works a treat for me.

 

R U sure your XPS 1730 only has 2 antennas?

My Studio 1735 has 3 antennas inside although the Dell 1510 Wireless-N Mini-Card only utilizes 2 of them. The other one provides the ease of upgrading to 3 antennas type of card.

 

NO, I don't know. But I only have a G card, so I assumed only as much.

 

Judging by your system (you have penryn generation of processor), I'm guessing you have the 3rd one inside. Cause I have another notebook with older generation of processor than yours which has already 3 antennas installed.

 

The inspirons in that generation came with 2 antenna's.
The Latitudes came with 5, 3 for WLAN and 2 for WWAN
Not sure on the XPS range, just have a look, the WLAN cover is on the back of the machine like the inspirons ?
You'll be able to tell by opening it.

Antenna installation is a breeze, either work it around the keyboard or work it into the lid hings (bezel removal for both methods)
You just need to be careful (as always)

I'm about to work on a guide to do this using my i9400 as an example, where the WLAN is behind a cover on the back of the machine.
If my wife will let me I can also do it with her D820 where WLAN is below the keyboard.
This should cover most scenarios on the operation.

 

Sounds good. I look forward to this guide. God knows I don't want to screw with the monitor portion unless I have to, but checking the card itself is a breeze.

 

Anyone care to do an upgrade guide on the Sony Vaio FW series. The Sony products only offer a Wifi 5100 card (not sure if it is PCI or PCIe). That card is horrible. The range blows and rarely connects at the 270 to 300mps even when sitting in the same room. I would like upgrade to the 5300 intel card, however Sony is light on providing notebook specs/manuals and seemingly frowns on user upgrades. I know that upgrading to a 5300 will require the addition of an extra antenna...just not sure how to go about selecting which size card and the actual install. Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

All Notebooks with Core2Duo based CPU's and above use miniPCIe cards. (long and skinny)
All previous Notebooks use miniPCI cards (large rectangle)

As soon as I get sometime not working or website stuff I'll get on to this guide.
But it will be Dell based, but other laptops will be similar.

 

I hate to do this, but can anyone link me to a thread or PM me a link for information on a good wireless N card to stick into my XPS 1730? I know there's loads of threads on it, but I'm typing this post from a 9 year old machine with windows 2000 and dial up - navigating this site is murder on this connection. I also can't remember if my laptop has three antennas in it already for the 802.11N protocol or not.

Basically I just need someone to point me in the direction of getting a good quality card so I can click 'pay' and buy it, so I can escape this blasted archaic machine and get back on my lappy. I don't want a cheap $40 Intel card off eBay...

 

Make sure you get a wireless n router or the card does no good

 

Obviously.

 

i have a Dir-655 router, which n wireless card would be best to go with it?

 

for a sony fw290 u need to use a HALF-HEIGHT mini-pcie card. you could use a fullsize card, but you would have to remove your DVD drive to make room.
I didn't trust ebay, so I got mine from dell, (p/n 430-3182) and it cost me about $65 using a coupon code: "6FWJ247J1P44CK" (coupon expires 10/31/09)

I mounted a third generic dualband antenna. Range is still pathetic but at least i get 270-300 mbps when i have a full signal, instead of 135-150.
Range is so bad though, i actually have to play with the antennas on my dlink when the laptop is on the same desk 2 feet away.
I was going to do a test and mount the third antenna underneath the front bezel on my laptop. ya know, the plastic edging underneath the lcd screen. it would be low, but at least it wouldn't be surrounded by monitor and laptop case (i did verify the shielding on the case had been removed behind all 3 antennas) but i chickened out, fearing that if i did that i would miss out on the off chance that putting the new antenna in the normal place would somehow magically give me 100% signal at a million feet away. Now that i have everything back together and working, i really wish i had tried putting it behind the front plastic.

Does it matter which direction the copper plate contraption at the end of the antenna is mounted, as in horizontally or vertically?

I should have ordered the third antenna direct from sony. (p/n 073-0001-4446_A) there is a place for a third antenna built in to the case, possibly for wwan. a second auxiliary antenna would fit perfectly in there.

What someone needs to "invent" is a dual band inline antenna amplifier in the form of an expresscard 3/4 with 3 rp-sma connectors sticking out the end of it. or if anyone knows of such a device, please share the link.

 

Hey frns
i'm buying a belkin wireless n+ modem router, i also want to upgrade the wifi card on my vostro 1500 from intel 3945 abg to some good n card, to match my belkin n+ modem router. what u experts suggest??
rgds

 

You should have trusted ebay. Cost my $18 shipped for my half-mini pci-e 5300.

 

i have a inspiron 1720... bought a wireless N card on ebay installed it and still i cant go 300mbps... i only get 130mbps max.

im having doubts on how i installed it. the default card got 2 wires attached to it and the card i bought got 3 pins to attached.

pictures here... did i do it right?

there are still some wires that are not used in there...


this is the card i installed... notice the 3 pins...


this is the default card installed.


I got dlink dir655 and i cant get the 300mbps. with this card. but my cousins laptop HP pavilion dv5 is having 300mbps.

pls help...

 

In order to connect at 300mbps you need 40MHz channel, with 20MHz channel it will connect at 130mbps.
I think I've heard/read that 4965 does not support 40MHz channels for 2.4GHz band, only for 5GHz.
To make it even worse it's possible that you need three antennas to connect at 300mbps- it depends on a card and it's almost 3 a.m. where I am so I'm gonna leave it at that and let you research if you need the third antenna or not