Wifi card Atheros 956x UPgrade to which one ¿?

Hi, my laptop is a Toshiba L50 A 18r, working with Atheros AR956x. I want to upgrade it to an intel card. I have two antennas and what i want is a better range, speed too but i prefer range. Im looking for a 7260 (last intel model i think), or a 6300, or 6250.... Help me choosing it please.
(sorry for my english)
¿Sugestions?

 

Hi there.

I'd recommend an Intel 6200 - this is a reliable card with stable drivers available at a low cost. There is not point buying a 6300 if you don't have three antennas and a three stream router (it would work exactly as 6200 with two antennas connected).

Intel 7260 is a problematic card - it doesn't work very well on 2.4GHz band and unless you have a 802.11ac router and are buying this card to use it @ 5GHz 802.11ac band (as I did), it's not a good idea.

Two final remarks - one - make sure that Toshiba doesn't white-list cards (I don't remember if they do). Even if they don't - make sure you won't be buying a card from HP or Lenovo (these cards work only in notebooks made by those companies).

Secondly - remember that range is not dependent on a card. It depends on a card and on a router, so if you have a cheap crappy router, replacing a Wi-Fi card with a better one won't solve your issues.

 

Besides what downloads has already stated signal strength will be reduced according to the amount of walls and floors between the notebook and router and the material they are made of.

What you can do is to install the Free version of inSSIDer program on your notebook then walk around your location with your notebook while inSSIDer is running.

As you move around you can observe the connection strength;where it is good and where the problem areas are..

Also look for an open channel or one that's the least used.

inSSIDer 3.1.2.1 Download - TechSpot

 

Ok thanx, i´ll go for the Intel 6200. I expect to get it for about less than 20 euros.

Yes i know that info. It is just that my old laptop with an intel 5100 worked better with same router... My Atheros AR956x range is too poor

 

One more question. Actually, ¿Wich card is the best for a big range right now? (avoiding price fact)

 

If you are going strictly for range than none of the internal cards - one of these - a high power card with an antenna that provides additional gain.

There are no "better" internal cards - there are normal cards (pretty much all good cards offer similar range with identical antennas) and bad cards, so to speak.

 

So, you mean that my Atheros AR956x has the same range as intel 6200?

 

Does the Atheros AR956x only have one antenna connected to it even though there may be 2 available inside the notebook?

If it's single stream no router change will help.

If you have a quality dual band 300Mbps router then the card should be changed to the suggested Intel Advanced N 6200/6205 if Bluetooth is not needed from the card or you have a BT dongle.

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-802-11n...TF8&qid=1413565822&sr=8-2&keywords=Intel+6200

http://www.amazon.com/Centrino®-Adv...TF8&qid=1413565919&sr=8-1&keywords=Intel+6205

 

No, as you said your Atheros is apparently worse than an average card (and BTW Intel 5100 is not that great either). But most of the cards are pretty similar in terms of range and it wouldn't make much if any difference if you went for 6200, 6300, 7260 it one of the Bigfoot branded cards.

You asked for the best card available - that would be a card that was built with range in mind (like the ones I linked to), most of cards are average and pretty similar with some exceptions (usually exceptionally bad cards - apparently like your Atheros).

 

Ok i understand. Thank you very much.

I ll buy 6200 soon, i ll put here results