Difference between wireless cards

Is it worth it to upgrade from a Wireless 1490 802.11a/g mini card to a 1505 Wireless-N mini card ($25) or an Intel NextGen Wireless-N mini card ($35)? I have no idea what benefits I would be getting, please help! (Dell xps m1330, student/office purposes, no gaming).

 

Well, the standard G will work fine. But N will give you 300Mlbs vs. G=54. But you also need to buy an N wireless router for it to work at 300. Id suggest doing that.

I belive that regular N car will give you 180Mlbs. and the NextGen wlll give you the 300

 

I'm sorry, but could you please explain that in layman's terms? Does this just affect my internet speed? What apparent difference are we talking?

We currently have a D-Link 802.11 2.4GHz router. So we would have to get a new router then? How much do those cost roughly? Also, if my husband's laptop was still using 802.11, would it work with the N router (just slower), or would it not be compatible at all anymore? We're doing somewhat staggered laptop upgrades so continuous compatibility is an important issue. Thanks!

 

The standard Dell wireless cards use Broadcom chipsets; Intel rolls their own.

The Dell 1490 wireless is a decent card, if wireless G (802.11g) is all you need. Dell's 15xx wireless cards (Wireless N, or 802.11n) have had mixed reviews from what I have heard (note: I haven't experienced these issues because we use Intel cards in our Dell systems), while the Intel 4965agn has been generally positive, at least if you're running a Windows operating system --if you do want Wireless N, I'd spend the extra for the Intel.

802.11n Wifi connections are more robust than 802.11g, but you need either an 802.11g access point that supports what is called MIMO (multiple-in-multiple out) or an 802.11n access point for that robustness (MIMO is part of the Wireless-N standard, whereas it is optional with earlier Wireless-G). MIMO uses multiple antennas, and transmits on one wireless frequency while receiving on another for better performance and range.

You'll also get faster speeds with 802.11n networking provided you have an 802.11n access point; this is mainly helpful if you do a lot of large file transfers, or are intent on streaming high-definition video content to your laptop. 802.11n wireless cards are backwards-compatible with older 802.11g wireless access points (like your current one most likely is) but will only operate at 802.11g speeds when connected to them. The revers is also true of using 802.11g wireless cards with newer 802.11n access points or routers.

If you only plan to use your wireless connection for surfing or basic needs, the standard Dell 1490 will work fine. If you're a power-user with multimedia needs, the Intel 4965agn is a worthwhile choice. Finally, if you plan to run Linux as your operating system at any time, chances are you will be better served with the Dell 1490 --wireless driver support under Linux is usually a bit better for non-Intel cards.

 

I'm definitely just a standard web surfer type user so I'll skip the upgrade. Thanks!

 

In English unless your Internet connection is faster than 54Mbit/s (trust me it is not). A T3 is 44.736 Mbit/s. So it will have no effect. A DSL 1.5 has 1.46Mbit/s some of the faster connections I have seen people post on NBR I think are 14,000Kbit/s that is 13.67Mbit/s. So I hope you see any disscusion of wireless limiting Internet is ridiculous.