Bigfoot Killer Wireless-N 1103 compatability

For those that get the 1103, if anyone could post a log after booting a recent linux image (at least 2011, the newer the better)

lspci

and

dmesg | grep ath

I'd really like to know what the output is, especially for the eeprom.

 

Would Ubuntu 11.04 live CD work for you?

 

Just to confirm-all those who preordered their wireless cards before July 20th, had their cards shipped today. You'll be getting your tracking information within next couple of days

 

Woot thanks!

 

Yeah its probably new enough.

 

Huh, so my 1103 I got from dell has really weak reception. The previous M18x I sent back had nearly full reception of a bunch of wireless networks and my ipad, wife's macbook pro and android atrix never have this issue. My screen gets replaced tomorrow and I'll look at it when the tech gets it back together. If there's another dead pixel or anything else, I'm sending this back.

 

Maybe something is wrong with your antennas.

 

When I run the bandwidth test via the Bigfoot Killer Network Manager Network tab is fails. Does it fails for others?

 

Problem Solved. I found that Bigfoot has an updated driver July 2011 that resolved the issue. The version that was on my M18x was dated March 2011 9.2.0.209 and the updated version is 9.2.0.318

 

mine hasn't shipped yet, but you mentioned a long weekend in canada?

 

PM me for details. It looks like some may get their cards before they get the tracking info because of the long weekend.

 

I just got my 1103 today and it is not even funny how much better it is than the Intel 6300. Basically, I could not even use my 6300 to connect to one of my wireless networks due to interference, etc. Most of the time, I had to use an external USB adapter with a Yagi antenna. When I did use it, the network would fluctuate from 20-70mbps and I would have frequent network disconnections. Also, the 6300 had very bad WAN performance. I have a 30/5mbps connection and I would only get 15mbps or less download and ping times were like 15ms. The 1103 produces a steady 144mbps (out of 150) network connection and 5-9ms ping and the full 30/5mbps WAN connection. This is using my laptop in the same location. There is not much of a difference with my other network because the router is sitting right next to me. Very happy so far!

 

Great news! I knew it wasn't an illusion when my ping dropped by serious margin.
BTW, did you order from Fortnax and if yes, what shipper was used?

 

Sorry, got mine on eBay. I definitely wanted to order from you but the shipping was way too high for me.

Also, I should have mentioned that it even outperforms my $100+ USB Yagi network adapter, too. The external adapter had ping times of 10-15ms and the download was usually 20-25mbps (but didn't have the disconnection problems like the 6300). I just disconnected the USB adapter and will just use the 1103.

 

Good to hear rnbaker.

I should have mine in a day or 2.
I wanted to buy mine from Fortnax but shipping just killed it for me so I had to go to *Bay.

I am looking forward to giving it a go!

D.

 

Yeah the shipping was a killer I almost did not order mine but Aikimox was real good to me and the rest of the forum so I wanted to show my appreciation.

PS: According to my shipping info the package left Canada today so I hope I get it soon.

 

Yeah I know, shipping cost is something we are constantly trying to optimize. Luckily, we had such a huge volume of orders shipped lately, that there's a chance of reducing the shipping costs across the board in the nearest future. Already we have a free US&Canada shipping with most our laptops.

Anyway, I will let everyone know as soon as we have an update on the shipping price.

And thanks for the kind words, guys!

 

I have been using my 1103 for a few hours now and did not encounter any problems and this may not be an issue with the 1103 either but I figured I would mention it. I have had some problems with Firefox all of a sudden (but not apparent anywhere else-Chrome, iTunes, and other apps that use the Internet) where websites won't load or will load on startup but not reload, etc. I updated some of my add-ons lately but I have disabled almost all of them now and am still having the problem whether or not the Killer Network Manager is running or not (and Firefox is set to highest in the app). I have not seen this before and it strikes me as odd that it is happening shortly after installing the 1103. Another thing I should mention is that I am using the most recent Bigfoot drivers and not the Dell drivers and maybe this is causing the issue? Or, obviously it could be non-1103 related and just some strange Firefox bug. It seems odd to me that 1103 would cause this but...

Thanks!

 

Your not alone with firefox only loading half things. Mine does this same thing and I have been in contact with bigfoot about it.

I have 2 laptops right next to each other, one running osx(dell mini 9) and my m11x...
The one running osx will load every page I toss at it, but the m11x with the bigfoot card (firefox) will not load any pages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgV7z047Uno
Me trying to download a small file (4mb)

 

Yeah, Firefox works fine when first opened and first loading the pages but when I try to open a new one or reload a little while later, it doesn't do anything (i.e., "connecting..." to fail). Mine also has issues downloading small files like Firefox extensions.

 

I am going to forward this to the guy I am working with at bigfoot.

Maybe he can register and pop in here for us.

 

Cool, thanks!

 

ok, I just sent them the email. They have super customer service... I emailed them, with-in 24 hours I had a reply, same thing with the second email I sent them.. boom right away I would get a reply.

 

Got my 1103 today from fortnax.

Doing a fresh install tonight at work if I have time.

 

Great, thanks again.

 

My steam downloads look great
‪DSCN0100‬‏ - YouTube
But as I try to stream Nicki Minaj in firefox I get lots of stuttering
‪DSCN0098‬‏ - YouTube

Note, the steam download was not going on at the same time as Nicki was streaming.

This is all with my bigfoot 1102 card, I have not put in my 1103 card yet as I am waiting for my extra antennas and a few other things before I take the computer apart.

 

I started Firefox in safe mode about 30 minutes ago and it looks like my extensions/add-ons or something else Firefox-related is causing the problem for me and not the 1103. It was just odd timing. Thanks and good luck.

 

Just swapped to google chrome and it seems to be great now. Super fast... I think there might be some conflict with firefox.

 

Monday can not come fast enough!

 

My tracking just says left canada yesterday and it does not give information outside the country.. So how do you know when your getting yours?

 

I setup shipping through UPS and had the label sent to Aikimox. Saved ten bucks and I get to track it! Mine left Winnipeg yesterday and just left Eagan, MN Today.

 

Yes, like I said, those who wish to use their own shipping arrangements can do so

 

You live in Eagan??? I live in Burnsville!

 

Haha, No I live in Florida, My 1103 just left Eagan.

Trust me though it was not as easy as you think Forms to fill out and a few phone calls to my local chamber of commerce and the US customs and border control to make sure I had everything right + I gave Aikimox a headache I am sure lol.

 

Yeah right for 30 bucks I should of sent my own ups label. I thought of billing the shipping to my hospital but losing my job for 30 bucks was not a good idea

 

Guys, after 3 days of using 1103 adapter i can see slightly better ping in games comparing to intel 6300, speedtest results of wan is the same. But i got so a lot of freezes and bugs so tonight i removed it until better drivers...
Firefox is almost impossible to use, any webpage can be downloaded only partly and refresh won't help you, file downloading can be freezed at any moment without any way to continue it. If you play WOW you can't enter the game using game launcher because when you hit play button nothing happens. Watching movies on my Dune HD Base through wifi cause a lot of lags.
I had none of this problem on intel 6300...
And i really can't see so much difference in speed which Bigffot company and some forum members are talking about... So for this moment if you want stability and reliable wifi adapter use intel... This is just my opinion after 3 days of using it. Hope new drivers will solve most of this problems.

 

I think you might have a defective product because the official retailers forum does not have anybody complaining about these issues.

 

Sorry to hear about your issues. So far for me, I think this is the best laptop network card ever, period. It is simply amazing and I never expected it to be so good. Sorry if this is repetitive but I had only used the 1103 for a couple of hours when I made my other posts and now it is approaching 48 hours. My experience is that it is infinitely better than the Intel 6300, the Intel 5300 which I had previously (and the 6300 was > than the 5300), even a very expensive external USB network adapter with a Yagi antenna, and the Atheros on my old computer that I use from time to time.

I am getting better WLAN connections than I have ever had and the fastest WAN speeds and pings ever including my VPN ping times which have also drastically decreased. I have lots of interference where I live and the signal to my one router is only -65 to -68 with the 1103 compared to -30 to -35 with the Yagi antenna adapter but the 1103 still has much better performance. On that same network and in the exact same location, I would frequently get kicked off using the 6300 (and 5300) and many times only get 802.11b connections which were very slow approaching 20mbps (and the speeds would be constantly fluctuating) and would not load websites properly, etc., etc. Now, it is a rock solid 144mbps and never any disconnections.

I just want to reiterate that my Firefox problems were due to some recently installed Firefox add-on updates (just before I installed the 1103) and once I disabled most of my nice but really unnecessary add-ons, Firefox now works perfectly again. This is the best $70 I have ever spent on an upgrade for a computer. In fact, I think it equals my purchase of an SSD which I felt was the best upgrade that I made on my system. The only thing I wish is that they released it a year ago or so because it would have saved me a lot of frustration and money.

 

I have already contacted support. Waiting for their response on my ticket.
WoW problem is widely discussed on their support forum, just found link.
You can check it.
I suppose we have to wait for at least 1 month to get enough amount of respnonses from 1103 users all around the world...

rnbaker, i'm glad you are fully satisfied with it. What firefox addons did you disable to make FF works perfectly with bigfoot ?

 

I have tons of them (30 exactly) so not sure which one was the culprit and a decent amount were updated just before I installed the 1103 because I hadn't ran the updates in quite a few days. Try running Firefox in safe mode (just hold shift down while opening Firefox) and see if that improves things. It was a night and day difference for me and I have 21 of them disabled now (but a few were disabled already because they were not compatible with Firefox 5.0.1). Also, I don't think it is an issue with Firefox working with the 1103 but an issue with Firefox itself (and its add-ons) that would occur with any network adapter.

 

problem is i do not have these issues on intel 6300

 

Neither did I but I think something happened with the Firefox add-on updates in the last week or so but maybe your issue is different than mine. Firefox has been known for issues lately and sometimes add-ons don't always work correctly.

Did you try safe mode like I suggested? That should show you whether or not it is an issue with the add-ons and I think pretty much rules out an 1103 issue if it works. Basically, when I disabled a bunch of Firefox add-ons and Firefox started working again, this indicates a problem with the add-ons and not the 1103 to me or usually that is the case.

 

I too have the firefox problems and emailed bigfoot about it. I switched to chrome and it works great now.

I posted up some videos a few pages back about it.

 

Thats why I said maybe you have a defective card.

 

More importantly I currently have a DGL-4500 router and I am planning on upgrading to a router that can do 450mbps and dual band active at the same time.

What would you consider the best. My previous router was 300 dollars worth so I do not mind paying a premium but I do want the best solution.

I want to set up my wife's computer and devices on 2.4ghz and my devices on 5ghz so I need both active at the same time.

Now if I could use tomato firmware on it even better but to my knowledge all third party firmware do not work on 450mbps devices.

Any tips on what router to upgrade to?

 

Yep, it definitely could be. Especially considering the other issues you are having, xenol. Also, did you change the priority settings in the Bigfoot Network Manager? The default priority is low so that might cause some issues.

I have tomato running on my Linksys E3000. It is simultaneous 2.4/5.0 but it is only 300mbps. It is the best Linksys I have used in awhile (and it is not the router that I was having my issues with) so maybe another Linksys would do the trick.

 

Tomato firmware would be great but not a requirement. Whats required is constant dual band and 450mbps wifi for the killer 1103 card.

 

Once my 1103 arrives I will see how it does with my airport extreme router.
*****edit.... just checked shipping status and I guess it is currently waiting for me at home

I know with my 6300, even when I am just 5-10 feet away I never get more than 300 and my speeds seem slower than that.

My other laptops with a different variety of cards (running on the 2.4 band) seem to do just fine... so hopefully I will find out this weekend.

D.

 

I would check out the E4200 from linksys I had issues with it, but I was in the minority and I am even thinking of giving it another shot.

 

Thanks ill take a look at that.