m11x Wifi distances

Hey guys I was wondering about the M11x and how the Wifi Capabilities are I mean is the card caused anyone any trouble? hows the connectivity in the basement or far away from the router I mean. Does it work well from different levels of the house etc. Please tell me your thoughts it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Stock wifi card is junk, I installed the intel 6200 and love it way better than the stock card.

 

+1 Intel 6200 FTW.

My stock card had trouble connecting to my Clear Spot 4G (mobile boardband router).

 

Are you guys talking about the "Alienware M11x a/b/g/n 2x2 MIMO Wireless" WLAN card?

I didn't even know you could take it apart, much less replace the WLAN card.... More info please!

http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/wireless/adapters/6200-6300/index.htm

 

It works just fine for me. I use it connect to WiFi at my University, bus, Starbucks (tho rarely ) and my home.

Max download rate I got was 500kB/sm while max on my wired connection is 1MB/s, so I don't complain. Also doesn't interfere with Razer Mamba on wireless.

As far as the distances are concerned ... I think my house is around 60-70 meters squared with 2 floors, and if I take my laptop to the other space diagonal end of the house (lower floor), the signal on my card drops to 3/5 bars. That also depends on the strength of the signal source (I have some "speedtouch" ADSL router with WiFi antenna) and the other sources interfering with the signal. In my house I detect 4 other neighbor's WiFi sources, each with 0-1/5 bars.

 

Vistumbler is what I use for wifi surveying. I've had zero problems with the stock Dell mini card and that's with me hauling my M11x with me to about 8 different clients a week, my office, home, the library, Starbucks and homes of a few friends. Can't really speak to range with any certainty, but right now I'm about 60ft from the nearest WAP in a building with about 12 other WAPs nearby.

 

Is there any configuration (on both the m11x and the router) to improve the M11X wifi range ?

 

never had any problems with stock wifi...

 

neither do i have problem with stock card. however i only use wifi at home. when i am outside i am always on my mobile broadband

 

I'm not sure about the range, but I *guess* the signal fidelity can be improved a little by trying out different frequency. You don't really have great freedom here - I think on my Linksys router in the US I can choose between something like 2.564 - 2.569 GHz (the point here is that the range is on 3rd decimal place, the numbers probably aren't correct ).

Other than that, you try to setup the antenna away from any obstructions like walls, which will partially absorb the signal. Those would be my best suggestions. I mean other than building your own antenna - and I have no idea how much would that help.

Dell WiFi card has the option called Afterburner - supposedly improves performance (no idea what it really does tbh), but I turned it on.

 

I use the stock on mine, and while I'll admit it's nothing to brag about, it does the job no problems around the house and the shop.

 

My office is a like a cave of death for any thing wireless... no phones work in here, no wifi works in here, bluetooth, nothing! I put in the 6200 card and I can actually get some signal in here. When I get one foot outside of my door I get full service on everything

 

Stock wireless card. No problems in a 2 story house with the router in the basement on the floor (On floor just for testing purposes). m1330 with stock card has signal issues in the same location.

 

I have to say, no problem here with stock in a 2-story house with the router on the ground floor in the absolutely terrible corner.

<3 stock

 

managed to connect from the farthest corner in my house, and considering my old inspiron 8600 had trouble 5 yards away, im very happy

 

I haven't noticed any differences between the Dell card in my m11x vs. the Intel 5300 card in my x200s.

 

Using the stock WiFi in the M11xR1 seemed fine.

Not saying there isn't better, but wandering around the ground floor of a large house the mim siginal strength I got was around 70%.

Nothing dropped out.

And the base router was an old WiFi 802.11g not an 802.11n.

 

I have no issues with the stock card either.

I use a Wi-Spy wireless spectrum analyzer to lay out WiFi for jobs and the info can be pretty enlightening.

You would be surprised at how much difference even tiny movement can make when trying to maximize your connectivity with WiFi wavelengths.

By the same token interference in the same bandwidth can be hard to deal with if you can not see it first.

Plus it is a neat toy and customers are impressed!

One of the handiest tools I have.

Ed

 

Use vistumbler which gives WiFi analysis including graph data.
Gives an indication of the signal strength among other things
There are other applications which also give analytical WiFi information.

Edit: I just noted checking my WiFi version that Dell driver downloads has updated versions.
Updating WiFi and Bluetooth.
Four months on and I just noted it. Don't want to rush into these things.