Upgrading laptops to wireless N

[fizikz]

I'm looking to upgrade a couple of laptops with wireless G internal adapters (mini PCI-e) to some internal N adapters. Dual band is not necessary, I just want to upgrade them so that I can switch the network over to N, considering the majority of our devices are N. Are there any recommended/reliable models?

I was looking at a few Intel units on eBay. 4965AGN for 7$ shipped from China... Are they really that inexpensive or is there something I should know about?

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
Some laptops like Lenovo brand only allow their designated specific card. If you put in wrong card the BIOS will ignore it(there is a way to modify BIOS to defeat this but not easy). So what is the brand of your laptop? I like Intel WiFi link 6200 or 6300 series. They are both dual band and work very well. 6200 is ~10.00 on Bay. 6300 is more expensive being 3 stream radio. 4965AGN is much older card and it does not cover whole 5GHz band. (I know it was in my wife's Thinkpad T61P)

 

[fizikz]

Of course, I should have mentioned the laptops I'm upgrading: Asus G1 and Acer Aspire One A110. The G1 has bluetooth as well. One important factor is they must work well in linux.

It seems the newer cards are often half-mini, while the modules I currently have are full mini. The 6200 series look good. Are there equivalent Atheros that should be considered?

EDIT: eBay seems to have plenty of wifi modules. Many are from China; do I need to worry about fakes?

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
Then make sure Linux driver is available B4 you choose the card. No worry about Chinese sellers. Just make sure they have decent count of feedbacks. Cards are made there anyway, LOL! I ordered some things from China or S. Korea(for CAT 7 cables), never had trouble so far. I like Intel WiFi card utility which is helpful at times.

 

[fizikz]

The Intel and newer Atheros adapters seem to have good linux support, so I think I'll stick to those brands.

Are there any opinions on Intel 6200 vs Atheros AR9280?

What is the difference between the Intel 6200 and the 6205 aside from the latter being a newer revision?

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
Some has Wimax, bluetooth some doesn't. I used 6250. 6300 are much more expensive and you only have two antennas in older laptops. Retrofitting another antenna won't be easy task for sure to use 6300
for full speed.

 

[kayphoonstar]

The intel 5300 is probably the easiest to use in linux - broadcom, not so much. I used one in my Vaio with only 2 antennas. When I got the new router, I added a short, 13 inch antenna that wasn't too difficult to install. But I've put 4965 in older systems for cheap n support and they don't seem too bad. With 3 antennas, I've gotten 300mbps connections on 5ghz.

Check out this link:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported

 

[fizikz]

I'm definitely not looking to add a third antenna in these older laptops. Besides, my router does not do 3 stream. So, 2 stream and maybe dual band for the netbook, and 2 stream, dual band, and maybe bluetooth for the G1 is probably what I'll go for.

For drivers, iwlwifi and ath9k support is good and so I'll probably stick to those. Atheros seems to be favored although Intel works just fine. Atheros chipset and model numbers are a bit confusing though.

 

[fizikz]

In the end, I decided to go for a couple of Intel 5100 adapters. I figured that it is best to go with the cheapest adapter among those known to work well in linux. I was between the 4965 and the 5100 in the less expensive category, and the 5300 and 6200 on the more expensive side. Since the laptops being upgraded are fairly old, I was a bit hesitant on the newest generation. Also, since I don't need a 3 antenna adapter, the 5100 ended up being the final choice. All that remains is to see how they work when I receive them.