[Tfug] Intel vs. Atheros WiFi driver performance/stability?

[John L. Sackett]

That's Atheros 5008 vice 5800.

John L. Sackett wrote:
> In the 'Doze world, I have the opposite experience. The Intel Drivers 
> -especially 2-3 years ago (intel pro set) were and are terrible, BSOD's 
> and Hardware and Memory faults.
> In addition under M/S products, the Intel drivers are chatty, and set 
> off our IDS due to a high amount of association probes. That's the 2200, 
> and latest Intel ABG nic.  Transfers of large files are impossible to 
> accomplish >500MB (CD ISO's).  Outdoor use is horrible due to limited 
> range.
> We just got some Atheros 5800 series NIC's and it's like night and day 
> outdoor range.  We are using Cisco AP's - Cisco uses Atheros.
> At home I use a Dlink 520 PCI card as an AP with FreeBSD. Works great.  
> TKIP and WPA. Old Cisco 350b/abg nics are Atheros and use the same 
> driver/Utility as Atheros with a Cisco logo.
>
>
>
>
> Jim March wrote:
>   
>> Big question off the bat: on a Mini-PCI WiFi card, there's "main" and
>> "aux" antenna inputs.  In the laptop there's white and black cables.
>> Anybody got a clue which is which?
>>
>> :)
>>
>> As most of you know, my Atheros-based factory WiFi Mini-PCI card in my
>> low-end Acer laptop was the victim of cruel circumstance at a TFUG
>> meet.  It's sad demise was determined at autopsy to be "death by coke
>> drowning" :).
>>
>> I've been running since on a decent little $30 PCMCIA Atheros-based
>> Taiwanese card from SWS.  Works OK, but doesn't have the range of the
>> late mini-PCI card with it's plug-in antenna connections heading off
>> towards the screen.
>>
>> Well today I was selling a fellow TFUGer the carcass of my old Fujitsu
>> laptop for cheap.  He needed a 15.4" 1280x800 screen and the old Fuji
>> died of motherboard issues.
>>
>> In showing him how the Fuji came apart, we found I had an Intel-based
>> Mini-PCI card in the Fuji.  And since his HP laptop had the same
>> thing, we had no problem dropping the price on the Fuji carcass by $10
>> (down to $40 <grin>) so I could pull the Intel WiFi card - a
>> PRO/Wireless 2200BG.
>>
>> Just got it working.  Signal strength bars, performance under
>> speedtest.net and general "feel" are all improved over the Atheros
>> chipset - either the original Mini-PCI or the PCMCIA replacement.
>> With the original internal Atheros card, signal strength 1 foot from
>> my router was about 68%, with the PCMCIA it was worse, with Intel it
>> reads 99%.  And it feels noticeably faster as well.
>>
>> I know the "MadWiFi" driver project for the Atheros chipset is a bit
>> of a mess (shows up under Ubuntu under "Restricted Drivers" for
>> example) but seeing it side-by-side with the Intel driver, the
>> difference is almost startling.
>>
>> Remember, I'm plugging the Intel card into the factory-original
>> in-the-screen-shell antennas...so performance shouldn't be a big jump
>> like I'm seeing.
>>
>> What else...the dead Fujitsu this came out of was new as of...April
>> '05 I think.  The Intel card is supporting WPA no problem.  I assume
>> it's a 54b/g type.  A quick EBay search:
>>
>> http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=PRO%2FWireless+2200BG&category0=
>>
>> ...shows cards like this are going for less than $20 "buy now" - I
>> think I'm going to score an Intel card for my buddy's Toshiba -
>> another MiniPCI Atheros card right now.
>>
>> So.  Upshot from that coke spill so far: for $40 total I have a spare
>> Atheros-based PCMCIA card I can use for diagnostics, etc. and an
>> upgraded internal WiFi setup.  I can cope with that :).  Worth it just
>> to see the difference the Intel card seemed to make.
>>
>> Very interesting.
>>
>> Jim
>>
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