How many bars do you have?

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pcnoob · #1 Post by **pcnoob** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 5:31 am

So, how many bars do you get on your wireless connection with internal wifi?

brainpicker · #2 Post by **brainpicker** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:27 am

pcnoob wrote:So, how many bars do you get on your wireless connection with internal wifi?

All of them (100%) since I switched to all IBM 11abg cards on all my laptops. I'm normally about 35 feet from my router (old, cheap Belkin brand... nothing special as I don't need the extra speed of superG) and through one wall. To be fair I got pleanty of signal with the Intel cards too but it was more like 75-80% most of the time where as now it's almost always 100%. I also got about 90% with a PC Card adapter on my older laptops without internal antennas to compare.

-Yak

pcnoob · #3 Post by **pcnoob** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 3:56 pm

That's VERY nice. So is the antenna in the screen or under the keyboard?

brainpicker · #4 Post by **brainpicker** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:27 pm

In the screen as per the factory install. But, I used to have an X23 in which I did an install of an Intel card with an antenna running along the left side of the bottom frame, and that machine got as good a signal as the ones with an Intel card and an internal screen mounted antenna (about 75-80%). So although a screen mounted antenna might have an advantage due to a vertical & horizontal orientation, in my experience the ones under the keyboard can do just fine for most people. The only time I remember having a problem with the X23 was in a large hospital where I had to resort to a PC Card adapter I carried for use in a pinch. Even that card didn't give me great signal but it was OK for a short period.

-Yak

pcnoob · #5 Post by **pcnoob** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:09 pm

So, is the signal strength depends most on the card or antenna?

pcnoob · #6 Post by **pcnoob** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:10 pm

So, is the signal strength depends most on the card or antenna?

brainpicker · #7 Post by **brainpicker** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:44 pm

Antenna first. Then how well the card and router work together. Then the card itself (and the router). This is in my experience.

If I had to choose between an average radio with a superb antenna, and an average antenna with a superb radio, I think I'd choose the former. I've had demos done for me by some smart shortwave operaters showing me how important the antenna is. Your wireless card is a two-way radio so the principle is the same.

If you are using this setup mainly at home then I don't think it's a big deal as you can tweak the laptop setup or router to get good useful signal in almost all cases. If I was going to use my laptop mainly where I had no control over the router then I'd try different setups or ask friends how theirs works in that location then buy accordingly. For example, I always had a problem using my Intel cards when I was able to identify the router as a Linksys model. Now I have no idea if that really had anything to do with it but it happened frequently enough that it burned into my brain. I'd go back the next day with a different Thinkpad using an IBM card and all was fine. Same model laptop and same antenna. I could not measure factors like interference or ? so all I could attribute it to was the card. Maybe it was all in my head.

-Yak

pcnoob · #8 Post by **pcnoob** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 3:41 pm

generally, how good are Atheros cards when compared with Intel or other cards?

brainpicker · #9 Post by **brainpicker** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:12 pm

They are all very good. You would not go wrong with either brand. Buy whichever you get a good deal on today.

-yak

How many bars do you have?

How many bars do you have?

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