Is my Atheros card a dud?

[carbon_unit]

A few months ago I purchased an Atheros 5212 card for my T42 2378-FVU and swapped out the 2200BG for it. I have used it for a while now and today I decided to do some testing. I found that the Intel 2200BG gets slightly better signal strength than the Atheros 5212 . I thought it was supposed to be the other way around. The battery life seem to be a little better surfing wireless with the 2200BG also.
Is my Atheros card a dud?

[bill bolton]

I found that the Intel 2200BG gets slightly better signal strength than the Atheros 5212 . I thought it was supposed to be the other way around. The battery life seem to be a little better surfing wireless with the 2200BG also.

Just go to show how faddish a lot of the "that [insert product name 1 here] is rubbish and the root cause of all that is evil with [insert the technology under discussion here], but [insert (usually newer) product name 2] is sooo much better and if you just buy it all your problems will disappear (I will feel good becasue I have already bought it and desparately need to believe my money was well spent)" dialogues actually are!

The basic issue is that 802.11 is not a true "plug and play" technology. The essential nature of wireless propogation systems is that there are multiple variables that can impact any real world application of the technology...... and sometime it just doesn't work that well. There has been a great tendency to blaim that on the devices rather than to try and understand what the actual deployment issues might be in the particular 802.11 wireless circumstances involved.

The bottom line here is that both the Intel and Atheros 802.11 technology implementations are quite capable in the broad sense and IMO neither is intrinsically superior to the other.

If the Intel card is working better for you in your particular applications for 802.11 wireless then stick with it.

Cheers,

Bill

[christopher_wolf]

I was about to note that as well; and I don't quite get why some expect that buying the latest Atheros card and having it deviate just a little under the Intel or otherwise not beat the Intel card when it comes to reception is a major flaw.

One thing that you have to keep in mind when getting any new electronic kit is that there is variation and, the ever present catch, "Your Results May Vary."

Now if it wasn't working at all or getting very low reception, that could be considered a flaw; but getting the competing Atheros card and expecting for it to get better reception than the Intel *every time* and not is, actually, flawllable.

In this case, I would go with what is simple and what works from the beginning with the Intel card.

[sugo]

On my old laptop, intel 2100b consistently got better reception than an atheros AR5001x b/g. Didn't have a choice back then since the intel card BSOD with vpn.

[carbon_unit]

Well, after reading all the high praise here on the forum for the Atheros card I thought I would try one. I gave it a good test but I am going to stick with the Intel card since it is what works for me. I never used the "A" part anyway.

[Kyocera]

There has been a lot of high praise here about atheros, for all t series from what I remember. I "was" going to try one on my t60, but since they are all pretty much the same guess i'll stick with intel.