Picking a new wifi card. A headache

so i wouldn't really want to spend over 20ish GBP on it, i found some 20£ intel 5300's 6205 6230's 6300's etc. etc. but i cant seem to find a decent comparison of them all... i wouldn't mind trying a bigfoot either.

I like the intel rebeaming thing, which i do use quite often... but the 1000 that m11x R3 came with, just sux so bad... keeps NOT getting along with various access points, and crashing in the night while downloading stuff... nothing helps either, so lets not try fixing the crappy creature, i've been postponing for long enough

I do read that all of them have a share of issues, but as long as they get along with hotspots and the basic WIFI connection actually works in a stable manner, i will be happy, plus some perks ofc.

I don't mind other manufacturers either, if they work well and offer some perks (say something similar to intel my wifi crap)

Cheers and thx for the feedback

 

I had a similar internal struggle. Wondered aloud the choices here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/634725-m11xr1-wireless-wlan-choices-no-lockup.html

Ended up with the Killer's 1102 in my R1 which so far has been ok. Certainly better than the 6200 was and while still "early" to say appears to not freeze the sytem like the 6200.

Limited testing for APs...
*Home. Worked out of the box @300Mbps and stays there. Full signal pretty much everywhere in the house. Took tweaking and effort for the intel (orig and 6200) and they reported lesser connection speed
*Tethered. Tethered to iphone for mobile wifi was no issue. Used off and on for 3 days.
*One cafe connection tried (linksys) - no issues.

Software is "ok" but not bothering with tweaks right now. It does have an annoying popup about remapping LSP that I need to sort out sometime.

With wireless being randomly successful though, I can't 100% recommend anything. Sorry to hear your other comments about the performance of the 1000 has changed.

Edit: itunes works

 

What do you mean changed? it was frustrating all the way, but for the last month or so it wasn't acting up, so i sort of forgot about it, until recently i had pretty much no internet cause it wouldn't identify with anything... it would connect yo my android tether would say everything fine and still wouldn't give me internets...

Only good thing is while it works it sorta works... even the intel wifi rebeaming thing, but its always sort of like driving a car on ice, never know when it will crash and die...

Anyway, thx for the input, maybe intel 6205 has the issues of freezing fixed (the one R3 is sold with now in UK at least)?

 

I went for the 6300, big performance bump from the wifi1000 (that sucks your're right)
The 6300 can go up to 450mb/s if you attach a 3rd antenna, works just fine if only 2antennas are attached.
For the price you shouldn't hesitate!

 

any more input on this topic? can bigfoots use wireless g or are they just n standard?

it cant be everyone is using the stock 1k cards? would really appreciate more suggestions/opinions before I commit? any other manufacturers with quality cards?

 

I tethered to iPhone which does not broadcast w/N. Are you only after R2 or R3 comparison?

The bigger difficulty is that no matter what card someone had bad luck with it. It's why perhaps my R1 experience will not translate to other models

 

I have been thinking about upgrading to the Big Foot Killer myself. I would probably go with that one.

 

just bought an intel ultimate 6300 for 14.99£. waiting for it to arrive, couldn't wait anymore, the bloody stock card is getting worse by the day...

 

Ok so thought i'd give a heads-up on the wifi cards, the 6300 i bought had a part number of IBM thinkpad - don't buy them.

Atleast the 6300 i bought wouldn't work, had it replaced and it had same problem the device could not start (code 10) error... nothing would make it work that i could've thought of, IBM drivers, clean install of drivers etc. etc.

Plus a total lack of support on the matter...

Anyways got a 6205 for 13.05£ from ebay, works great, nearly double the range of the stock 1000 card in UK... in the part of house where i'd get 1-2bars i get 4-5

Totally happy about it.