Intel WiFi vs Atheros WiFi

I think there was a thread about this, but it was 3 years old. I'm giving my notebook a overhaul and one of the parts I'm thinking about swapping is the WiFi. I've tried both Intel and Atheros cards in the past and both have served me well with no real issues. However, I'm having some connectivity problems with my Intel Ultimate N 6300 that I'm not experiencing with other WiFi solutions I currently have access to, such as the older Intel 5300. Tried drivers, system restores, etc and I'm not sure if it's just the 6300 not liking the Netgear router.

Anywho, is anyone here using the newer Atheros WiFi cards (I know they've been bought out by Qualcomm) and if so, how was your experience vs that with the Intel cards if you have used them previously?

Since I don't really need 450mbps speeds and I'd like to consolidate my bluetooth connectivity into one module, I have my eyes set on two solutions: the Intel Advanced 6230 Wifi + Bluetooth and the Atheros AR9462 (WiFi + BT 4.0) when it comes out. Thoughts?

 

Personally, i've had much better experience using intel's products. Granted, i switched to 5GHz zo i can't really comment on the 2.4GHz except that my connection at university is steady on 2.4.

 

Perhaps you had a defective card? Intel WLAN cards are the best on the market, offering from what I've used the most stable and consistent connections and offering the best driver support. I've had them all, Broadcom, Realtek, Atheros and Intel and Intel is hands down the winner.

 

If all you care about is client mode on windows, intel is the safe choice.

If you keep having problems, try bugging both ends (intel and router oem support) because theres no excuse to not work with a very popular wifi client.

 

If Intel ever made a home router as good as their 6xxx series cards, it would be a hands down market.

Anyway, easily Intel by a mile for Wifi.

 

There is simply no comparison. Intel WiFi is cheaper and offers higher performance by a mile.
Just find Intel 6200 on ebay, it is almost the same price as a low end Atheros but offers performance way better than Atheros.

 

Intel would have to make a wifi chip capable of host mode first

 

I'd stay away from Atheros. Two of my friends using Acers with AR500+s have always had connection problems with them. It works fine at their respective houses, but the moment they try connecting to other hotspots or routers...

 

Atheros is generally awesome and highly recommended for Linux, but on windows their drivers can really be not-so-good. The newer 3-stream Atheros stuff is really hard to find, there are only a few cards that have been released and are actually for sale. I can't really say anything about them but I would love to buy one of those cards.

 

Actually Intel runs well on Linux as well.
If the Vendor support OpenSource you can be certain support on Linux is good. Intel is quite active on Code Contribution for Linux.
The reason Atheros sucks is because for the same price you can buy a more powerful Intel Card with Dual Band than an Atheros Card.
Yes there are equivalently powerful Atheros Card but they are prohibitively expensive for similar Intel WiFi Performance.

 

I have plenty of experience with Intel on Linux and they are not nearly as hassle-free as Atheros is now. Two years ago it was the opposite. There have been showstopper bugs with the 5 and 6 series Intel cards. N mode was disabled by default in Ubuntu a couple of releases ago due to firmware bugs that took Intel almost a year to fix. For windows there is not much debate, an Intel card is going to be a better bet and have better driver support.

 

Intel is lightyears ahead.

I´ve tried every single brand in the market and Intel is the best performance wise, maybe the software is not that great but I only install the drivers so I don´t really care.

Currently using an Intel 6300 Ultimate-N and the results are just awesome, 300 mbps all the time. I can´t get 450 Mbps because my router doesn´t support it...

 

Atheros have a better open source support. For instance to install Mac OS on a PC, the Atheros card will work while the Intel One won't.

 

Neither Intel nor Atheros release real open source drivers for their wireless chipsets. They release OS wrapper scripts but the firmware itself is still a CS blob.

 

Erm Mac OS isn't fully open source...

 

Some atheros stuff is completely open sauce.

ath9k - Debian Wiki

Atheros - Linux Wireless

Also a good reference of the free/non-free status here: WiFi - Debian Wiki

 

My bad! I was only thinking of Debian -- Details of package firmware-atheros in squeeze but I didn't consider ath5/9k.