internal 802.11n cards for notebooks?

[FastRedPonyCar]

do any companies make 802.11n adaptors for swapping the internal adaptor in a notebook yet?

It's mainly a curiosity thing. but my brother is wanting to have a wireless network in their house and is asking about the 11n speeds.

I told him he could basically get the PCMCIA card and use that but he's after the internal card for me to swap out if that's available to consumers yet. I know a few notebooks have them.

[nekrosoft13]

nothing that you can buy in retail store, but you will find OEM cards on ebay or other online stores.

I would recomend Intel card either the 5300 series or the new 6xxx something series.
try to get one with 3 internal antennas.

[FastRedPonyCar]

He's got an HP DV9000 notebook and it's got the standard black/gray wires. those are the antennae right? if I were to get one with a 3rd antenna would it just hang freely inside the laptop or is it supposed to "snap" onto any type connector??

like this one?

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Dell-Vostro-...item19b2636f0c


where does that 3rd snap connector connect to?

[nekrosoft13]

nah, don't buy that one, its the old one.

buy this 5300 series
http://cgi.ebay.com/INTEL-WIFI-LINK-...item45f13e4b03

just be aware, that there is full size (above link) and half size (below link)

http://cgi.ebay.com/WiFi-Link-Intel-...item3a590e1ad0

check to make sure which one is right size for the notebook.

if you only have two wires, then connect the outside connectors, leave the midldle one empty.

[FastRedPonyCar]

cool. I'll check when I go over there. Thanks for the link.

[LydianKnight]

Nah... Intel adapters are crap, pure and absolute crap, I recommend you looking for any mini-PCIe adapter with the Atheros chipset, now THAT is performance and stability, others... just try

[FastRedPonyCar]

To replace a laptop's internal wireless card? Show me an Atheros replacement for that.

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by FastRedPonyCar

To replace a laptop's internal wireless card? Show me an Atheros replacement for that.

only buy atheros if your router is based on atheros design other wise you will have bad performance. Atheros doesn't play nice with ralink or broadcom based routers.


don't lisen to LydianKnight, Intel 5300 series are fast and reliable.

in my Dell I have both Atheros 9xxx series (3 antenna) and Intel 5300 series (3 antenna) running at the same time. in over 90% of cases Intel gets better performance. Atheros only barelly matches it when there is a atheros access point.

Reason why I have both is that Intel gets better performance, and Atheros is a good packet sniffer.

[LydianKnight]

I don't agree with you, Nekro. Of course Atheros cards are the best one for packet sniffing, but I'm not refering to that, my current router is a cheap comtrend one, crappiest router ever made, and my Atheros-based USB dongle catches it with full signal strength even having to travel through 4 walls of old-style brick+iron pipes, try to do the same with an Intel adapter, and you'll see my point...

About compatibility with routers? sorry but that's also wrong, very wrong... not only I can discover much more networks with the Atheros rather than with an Intel but also the signal strength is MUCH better...

Intel adapters are good to go if you don't want to complicate yourself, but if you want high reliability under any environment you deploy your machine on, go Atheros. point.

[FastRedPonyCar]

just thought I'd bump this up and say that the 5300 intel adaptor kicks up an error message when booting up the machine. It doesn't post but rather says "unsupported internal network adaptor detected. please remove and reboot system"




Oh well. I ended up just getting one of these this weekend and it works great.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320049

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by FastRedPonyCar

just thought I'd bump this up and say that the 5300 intel adaptor kicks up an error message when booting up the machine. It doesn't post but rather says "unsupported internal network adaptor detected. please remove and reboot system"



Oh well. I ended up just getting one of these this weekend and it works great.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320049

yap seen that before, that means that your notebook has a bios that will only support what ever adapter your OEM company decides will work with it.

each laptop has 2 or 3 supported models, and depending on laptop manufacture other adaters will either work fully, work fine, but stuff like wi-fi locator or wi-fi switch won't work, or in your case bios just throws a stupid error message.


in this case any internal adapter you would buy would not work. unless specifically supported (would have to check OEMs parts page to see what is supported)

[FastRedPonyCar]

meh, not worried about it at this point. the little Asus "nub" adaptor works well and is small enough not to bother