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

[Jeremy D Rogers]

The card Jim is talking about uses ipw2200 which my wife's laptop has
and it sorta just works. But for the intel ABG cards, are you using
ipw3945 or iwlwifi drivers? I switched to iwlwifi to try out the new
opensource driver and I actually found it was more stable. You loose
the LED activity light for now, but it works for me and no regulatory
daemon (no binary blob aside from firmware).
http://intellinuxwireless.org/

JDR

On 9/9/07, John L. Sackett <jsackett5 at cox.net> wrote:
> 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
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Tucson Free Unix Group - tfug at tfug.org
> >> Subscription Options:
> >> http://www.tfug.org/mailman/listinfo/tfug_tfug.org
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Tucson Free Unix Group - tfug at tfug.org
> > Subscription Options:
> > http://www.tfug.org/mailman/listinfo/tfug_tfug.org
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tucson Free Unix Group - tfug at tfug.org
> Subscription Options:
> http://www.tfug.org/mailman/listinfo/tfug_tfug.org
>