WIFI Card - Intel vs. Atheros

[natgab]

Has anyone noticed a quality difference between WIFI cards? Using an Atheros card, but also have the original Intel card.

My T43 is a Centrino edition and came with an Intel card (see below) but I had trouble with the WIFI using Ubuntu MATE 14.10. The card kept dropping the connection after about 10 minutes. I thought that maybe I had a bad card, and since I had my dead R50 I used that laptop's Atheros card (see below) to replace it. It kept me online about 1-2 hrs. but still kept losing the signal.

I then checked with a different Linux distro, openSUSE, and that did not give me trouble. I bought the machine used with no HDD, so I did not have an old Windows installation to compare it. I have since switched to the Ubuntu 14.04.01 LTS and that has fixed the problem. Any reason to go back to the original card now that I know it was the operating system and not the card?

Intel WIFI - WM3B2951ABG <-- Original

Atheros WIFI - AR5212ABG <-- Current card, pulled from R50

[RealBlackStuff]

I don't know that Atheros card, but the Intel 2915ABG is the most notorious, worst wifi card they ever brought out.
Just for fun, check Google for: 2915ABG problem.

[brchan]

I have the same intel card in my T43. It works pretty reliably, except on rare occasions it will randomly disconnect and refuse to reconnect until I rebooted the machine. I was using Arch linux on it at the time. The atherors card in my T60 has no problems at all, or any other of the other intel cards in my machines.

[MisterB]

I remember some problems with the Intel card in Windows. I just checked what's inside my current T4Xes and both have Atheros. I think there is a reason I made that choice. I remember having driver issues and disconnects with the Intel card. It doesn't happen with the newer Intel Wifi cards in my X6X series and T6X series that have them.

In general I prefer Atheros cards and that goes at least 10 years back. Great driver compatibility and reliability. I don't have linux installed but I occasionally use a specialized Linux boot CD and never had an Atheros card not recognized but I can't say the same for other brands.

[natgab]

Sounds like I will be keeping the Atheros card installed.

I have to agree that Atheros is great for Linux. I'll keep the Intel card as a back-up, hopefully it is one of the good ones in case I need it. Apple and their Broadcomm WIFI cards is the reason I always had trouble with Linux on my old Macs.

My little T43 is almost finished, just have to order my 2GB of RAM for it. Since my old X40 had a 4200 rpm 40 GB HD, the 5400 rpm 100GB HD in the T43 feels plenty fast.

[ajkula66]

Sounds like I will be keeping the Atheros card installed.

An excellent choice in my opinion.

Apple and their Broadcomm WIFI cards is the reason I always had trouble with Linux on my old Macs.

I don't know what the latest Macs use, but their mini-PCI-e version of Atheros 9380 is my favourite wireless card of all times, bar none.

My little T43 is almost finished, just have to order my 2GB of RAM for it. Since my old X40 had a 4200 rpm 40 GB HD, the 5400 rpm 100GB HD in the T43 feels plenty fast.

It would feel a lot faster with a SATA-mod and an SSD... ...trust me on that one.

[MrMaguire]

I used to have a T42 type 2373-4WG with the Intel 802.11b card that it came with. It was horrible, it constantly dropped the connection under Windows, but worked perfectly fine under Ubuntu 10.10.

I decided to swap the card for an Intel 2200BG. Of course to do that I had to modify the BIOS, and after that it still wasn't happy. The connection was faster, with better range, but it still constantly dropped the connection under Windows with no problem in Ubuntu.

I tried every driver that I could find, only by disabling the onboard Intel Ethernet could I make the Wi-Fi work even somewhat reliably under Windows. After reading some posts on the Lenovo forum, I came to the conclusion that the drivers were interfering with each other.

Somebody on YouTube had a T42 type 2373-JTU which wasn't branded as Centrino, so no Intel wireless card. As far as I could tell from the various videos he has uploaded on the unit, he's had zero problems with Wi-Fi.

I'm wondering if the T43 suffers from a similar issue, 'cause I'm thinking of getting one with Intel graphics. I would think that it doesn't since it has a Broadcom Ethernet controller.

[natgab]

I don't like the idea of fiddling with the motherboard for the SATA. I think I would rather just get the 2nd HDD on the Ultrabay and move my data there. Leaving my IDE HDD with nothing but the OS. I just saw this from an article on a Mac site (Low end Mac) to use on old PPC laptops. It is a SD card to IDE adapter: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sintech-SD-micr ... OU:CA:1120

Has anybody tried one on a Thinkpad?