Wireless 802.11n and 5GHz on T23

[JBUK]

Just noticed that there are one or two mini pci cards on ebay now that claim to work in the 5GHz band on 802.11n.
Has any one any experience of these cards ?? I already have an Atheros 5GHz card but it only works at 54Mbps and not wireless N speeds.

Dual band wireless N including 5GHz would be nice to have where I use this T23.

[RealBlackStuff]

Broadcom BCM43222 802.11n MiniPCI Adapter

There are not many 802.11n MiniPCI (not MiniPCIe) cards available;
and many that only support the lower 2.4Ghz spectrum and not the upper 5GHZ spectrum as well.
This one does both.

Look for BCM43222 on eBay.

[JBUK]

Thanks for the info RBS. I already have at least 3 different makes of single band 802.11n cards.
Some are better than others. I want to have a play with dual band next though as the 2.4 band is getting too crowded here.

[JBUK]

Broadcom BCM43222 arrived and fitted yesterday. With wireless N, its Samsung 830 SSD in the ultrabay and a tweaked XP too it is flying along now for an old Thinkpad.

[JBUK]

I have now fitted a further 5ghz mini-pci dual band adapter an Atheros 5416/5008 and this works well also.

[maraxion]

Hello JBUK.
I was happy to find your thread, because im in the same situation.

Iv located the same 2 cards on ebay and then found your thread. So I was hoping you could advice which of the cards that performes the best?
For me its the speed thats most important, both the up and down speed. The range anddualband is nice but not that important as of now.

The Atheros costs a bit more, and I dident know it also was dual band. I was thinking on taking the Broadcom for the price, but wanted to check the speed and quality with you first since you have first hand experience with both.

[JBUK]

Hello JBUK.
I was happy to find your thread, because im in the same situation.

Iv located the same 2 cards on ebay and then found your thread. So I was hoping you could advice which of the cards that performes the best?
For me its the speed thats most important, both the up and down speed. The range anddualband is nice but not that important as of now.

The Atheros costs a bit more, and I dident know it also was dual band. I was thinking on taking the Broadcom for the price, but wanted to check the speed and quality with you first since you have first hand experience with both.

I have not noticed any difference between them, so its your choice really. Don't forget you will need a modified bios for these cards.

[maraxion]

Great, thank you
I have heard that Broadcom normaly is pretty bad and atheros is better. But since I only need a basic upgrade from G to N i just need something that work.
But does these offer 300Mbps on up speed aswel?

[JBUK]

Great, thank you
I have heard that Broadcom normaly is pretty bad and atheros is better. But since I only need a basic upgrade from G to N i just need something that work.
But does these offer 300Mbps on up speed aswel?

I have had mixed results with both Broadcom and Intel n cards that will not run at 300. So perhaps you should go for the Atheros or TP-Link which always run at 300 with my router.

The 802.11n speed of 300Mbps is a theoretical number. When I tested file transfer speeds I got at best 50Mbps, which is the similar to 100Mbps ethernet and only 35 or so using a 130Mbps connection. Speed is the same both ways. The adsl speed usually has a lower upstream speed limit if this was what you were implying.

[maraxion]

That low?
I was hoping for somewhat about 200.


I have also come to the same conclution as you, and are not going to take the Broadcom card. For later readers, these are the resons:
1. Atheros has a far better reputation than broadcom
2. Atheros offers great drivers support, and its easy to find updated drivers. A quick search on the net shows that the Broadcom card is showed on several forums as a problem card where people struggle with the drivers.
3. You can trust that Atheros fronts their cards in the future. So im sure this card wil be usable even to windows 9/10 if it ever arrives.

And can you confirm that the AR5008 has dual band with 5Ghz, and work on wireless N with it?

I havent checked TP link mutch, because it seems they are in a total other price range with double price. I found the TP-LINK TL-WN861N online and it seems its a revision 2 which uses an Atheros 9002 series chip. The Rev 1 actualy used the 5416 Chip which is used the atheros AR5008! Price isent that bad, but is there other TP card I should check, and is there realy that mutch difference between these and Atheros?

For later users I found this. But not sure if its worth it on those speeds, and also old drivers and problems that is stated in the buttom. How does these speeds compare to your reading on Tplink/Atheros, JBUK?
http://www.homenetworkenabled.com/conte ... he-upgrade