Wireless card - Intel 7260 or Bigfoot 1202

Having a Sager NP7338 built. There is a choice of wireless cards:

• Built-in 802.11 Wireless B/G/N - Stock Wireless Card + Bluetooth™ 4.0 (SKU - WIFI99)
• Intel Dual Band AC 7260 802.11 A/AC/B/G/N 2.4/5.0GHz + Bluetooth™ 4.0 (SKU - WIFI98) (+$35)
• Bigfoot Networks Killer Wireless-N 1202 + Bluetooth 4.0 (SKU - WIFI97) (+$50)

I originally selected the Intel 7260, but after reading numerous bad reviews about the reliability of the 7260 on Newegg, I've switched to the Bigfoot 1202.

Question is, should I have stayed with the Intel 7260 for 'future proofing' as I am reading on a couple of threads here, or was going with the Bigfoot for reliability the right choice? Or maybe it's six of one, half a dozen of the other (ie: either way is good)...

The extra $15 for the Bigfoot is not an issue, so please don't make that a consideration.

FYI - just purchased a dual band Linksys EA4500 router (3x3) which should work well either way.

Thanks in advance..

 

I would have stuck with the Intel AC7260.

I would also have bought an Asus RT-AC68U instead.

(In close/medium range 10' to 100' AC wireless is almost 5x faster vs. 'N' class Wifi).

 

if you are using a home network sharing with multiple devices which requires high throughput, the AC7260 might be the way to go, but high throughput does not mean full HD 1920x1080p videos, they only need streaming bandwidth that is within the N band, its 4k or raw footage that requires a wireless AC bandwidth sharing

given that you've got an N-router, and (personally) bad intel wireless drivers that constantly plagues(me) i'd go for the Bigfoot 1202 just for the stability, unless you have an internet connection that offers higher than 300mbps broadband speed, that is, not what the router/wireless card is capable of, but what the service provider is giving you in the package

P.S. future proofing means nothing if your network speed is hardly bottlenecked by the hardware but service provided instead, whats more important (to me) is a reliable and stable driver that does not act up occasionally, and i'm not seeing network speed increasing to surpass the N bandwidth in the US (meaning you need AC bandwidth) within the lifespan of your new laptop

 

I agree with the above. Not only don't you have a 802.11ac router but also Intel 7260 is a piece of cheese (I own one).
If you had bought an AC router and needed the throughput that would be a different story, but buying something that is not really working correctly in the name of future proofing is a bad idea.

 

Awesome thanks. Cable gives me around 70Mbps down speed, and although it's a home network with a few devices (tablet, phones) it's certainly not overloaded.. the two desktops and network printer are hardwired in. Thanks for the comments, I feel reassured I've gone the right route for my setup now. Cheers!

 

While everyone is right about the WAN connection (ISP) being the bottleneck in most cases - I am not talking about WAN performance. I am talking about LAN network performance.

If you don't use your LAN (as I assume now you don't after reading the above posts) as I do (transferring GB's of files multiple times daily) then N is still a viable route I suppose. Don't really agree with how bad the 7260 is - even when I'm connected to N class networks with the AC7260 card the performance is still higher than all previous (strictly) N class cards I've used before (in range and throughput). What I'm saying is that I would not have chosen the Bigfoot option no matter what (they too have issues from what I've read in the past).

As for the line of thinking that goes 'since you've already bought an N class router...' you should stick with N class adaptors... I think that is simply wrong. You can sell/return the N class router at any time, especially as the AC class adaptor is in the $20 range.

Not trying to convince you to change which path you've chosen:

See:
Router Charts - 5 GHz UpDown Throughput - SmallNetBuilder

See:
Router Charts - 2.4 GHz Downlink Profile - SmallNetBuilder

See:
Router Charts - 5 GHz Downlink Profile - SmallNetBuilder

See:
Router Charts - 5 GHz Uplink Profile - SmallNetBuilder

See:
Router Charts - Maximum Simultaneous Connections - SmallNetBuilder

See:
Router Charts - Total Simultaneous Throughput - SmallNetBuilder

See:
Router Charts - LAN to WAN Throughput - SmallNetBuilder

See:
Router Charts - WAN to LAN Throughput - SmallNetBuilder


(The last four show actual router (wired) performance - the other links show wireless performance).


Just want to show you why I suggested the options I did.


This has nothing to do with future proofing. This is about getting the best currently available Wifi network you can for your money, over the course of the expected ownership. Because most people buy a new wireless network about once every 3-7 years, not upgrade (as I do) constantly (as they should; if performance is the goal).

And please don't use the argument that one router is (up to) double what the other costs. We are talking in the $200 range here and also over the course of probably 5 years.

Sure, other choices can be made other than what I have shown above. But I'll let that be up to the OP (now that he/she has some more facts) decide if they want to reconsider or not.


Good luck.

 

Thanks for all the info TillerOfTheEarth. Fortunately I don't have a need to transfer large files within the LAN, or very rarely at least. I don't have a local NAS or HTPC and don't envisage setting one up within the next couple of years.. also kind of interested to have a play with the Cisco Connect Cloud on the EA4500.. just out of curiosity.

From what I understand (which admittedly is limited), in my situation it does appear to be a case of "six of one, half a dozen of the other", because although the AC is clearly newer and faster, for my setup & usage it's not going to make much difference either way, at least not for my day-to-day use. ..plus it's a bit of a pita to return the EA4500, although I see your point, but the impact is likely going to be minimal either way I go, and since I already have the router..

There's no optic cables in my street and no plans for such in the near future apparently, so my ISP speeds aren't going to get much better than they are already.. at least not up to the 300mbps+ levels anyway.

Thanks again, I appreciate all the research there (and yes, I did look at the links.. gosh there's a lot of routers available!)

Cheers.

 

Nereus333,

You're welcome. That is what we're here for; to share info.

Since I don't know the size of home you're trying to cover, you may be right that the difference may be minimal even with an AC1900 class router. But since you do know, check the links again and where they offer the option of Average, Maximum and Minimum performance spec's - see if the minimums would help in your setup (they essentially equate to how much range the routers can offer).

 

Hmmm... now you have me rethinking my router choce, lol.

We own a 3 bedroom apartment in NYC (not a duplex). The Linksys E1200 was enough to cover the apartment, but the TV has been getting a bit spotty of late when watching youtube etc via the wireless adapter (don't recall the model atm, but it is also linksys), so that's what's prompted me to try the EA4500 instead.

Signal on our phones/tablet is ok anywhere in the apartment, although does drop a bar at the further reaches of the apartment on the E1200.

We have a private gym on the 7th floor (we're on the 5th) and I would love to get a signal up there.. don't know if the EA4500 will reach there, certainly the E1200 doesn't.

The more I read about the Cisco Cloud the less I like the idea of (a) being dependent on their servers, and (b) the issue of privacy... although apparently I can revert back to older firmware which is pre-cloud.. but that's kind of a step backwards and somewhat defeats the purpose of replacing the router in the first place, lol.

Might have to rethink the router entirely.. been using Linksys routers for years and they've always been pretty good for me, but I'm open for suggestions.. if I can get range to the gym while still maintaining reasonable signal strength I'll be stoked!

 

The netgear nighthawk has impressive range in our house - I get a decent signal on the third with the router on the ground floor.

Edited to change asus to netgear.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Asus nighthawk?

 

Netgear Nighthawk maybe?

 

We use the ASUS AC-66R, i have the output ratings (TX & RX mw) modified if that matters too..
Anyways, with the Killer 1202 i was getting ~10Mb/s download upstaris on steam. Next to the router boosted me upto 17Mb/s.
So nothing but good things here.

 

Yes, sorry. Mistyped from work while not paying attention.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Although I purchased the Linksys EA4500 several weeks ago, I had not tested it, so tonight I finally found some time to do so...

On the wired connection to my desktop I actually saw an improvement over my existing Linksys E1200 (and so I should considering the EA4500 is triple the price and a newer model)..

My E1200 was running around 95Mb/s down and 40Mb/s up with 12ms ping. The EA4500 ran around 115Mb/s down and 40Mb/s up with 10-11ms ping.. These results were fairly consistent over multiple tests.

With my laptop a few feet from the routers, the results were very similar for both. That seemed nice.

Then I moved my laptop to the kitchen at the other 'end' of the apartment (our apartment is not huge.. this is NYC after all, lol).

The E1200 was giving me around 70Mb/s down and around 40Mb/s up in the kitchen on my laptop, which is not bad at all - not much of a drop.. then I repeated the tests with the EA4500.. consistently 35-40Mb/s down and 25-30Mb/s up.. and this is from a newer router from Linksys that cost roughly 3 times the price as my old router!!! Firmware up to date on both btw.

Disgusting.

Of course I could buy a range extender, but why should I spend another $50 on something the relatively expensive new router should do at least as good as the older model already?

So I went to return it.. it has a 30 day return policy.. which ended 4 days ago. Now I'm stuck with this overpriced piece of meh.

I am of course back on the E1200 for now.

Oh btw I mentioned earlier I had a wireless adapter on the tv.. it's a Linksys WET610N.

Any further suggestions for a router? I am looking for range strength and reliability.. apparently Linksys has gone backwards with their development and put all their efforts in to their CCC (cloud) instead.

Thanks in advance.

 

are you testing both router on either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz network instead of testing them on different frequencies? i've had problems with my router too which requires a manual setup since some settings aren't automatically optimised

 

On the tests I tried to keep everything consistent for both routers, but no matter what I tried, the EA4500 just did not have the range of the E1200. The E1200 isn't even dual band, so it *should* be worse if anything, not better. Even switched off wifi on our phones, wife's tablet, and the television adapter, to eliminate anything that might effect it, but still same results. I was very surprised that the EA4500 was apparently a step backwards over a much older and cheaper model (at least at range). Don't know what else to try.. Went through the screens looking for advanced settings to increase the power transmission on the EA4500 but there doesn't seem to be such an option now, at least not on the latest firmware.

*edit* did some more googling.. indeed the 'hidden' advanced page is only available on the older classic firmware, not the EA linksys 'smart' wifi..

 

The only two for range right now are the RT-N66U (N900 class router) and the RT-AC68U (AC1900 class router).

For stability the RT-N66U with RMerlin 374.40 firmware.

The RT-AC68U with RMerlin 374.40 alpha4 firmware may work for your situation (it is the most stable version right now).

Chose by budget, price and whether you want to put up with a few firmwares more (while the bugs are ironed out) for the superior RT-AC68U.

The Netgear R7000 is also a contender at this point (also an AC1900 class router). However, it too has it's share of issues and the track record Netgear has with it's products is something like; fix the major issues a current product has and then drop all support for it once a new product ships.

While Asus at least is still supporting 4 year products with current firmware, features and bugfixes. (This to me is enough to not consider any other brand right now).


The results you are seeing were hinted at in the charts I linked before. Too bad you can't return the router, but at least it seems you're able to consider another one ($$-wise).

 

Thank you TillerOfTheEarth. I've ordered the RT-N66U since it is almost half the price of the AC on Amazon at present. Who knows what sort of mess I'd be in without people like you and these forums. Thanks again. :thumbsup:

I will download Merlin's firmware once I have the router.. presumably it's on smallnetbuilder.com.

 

If I may suggest something - first stick to stock firmware. See if it works for you, only if you find some deficiencies do go for a modified firmware.
People saying that modified firmwares are simply better in every aspect are a bit like people saying that modified Android ROMs are better than stock ones, if you know what I mean. There almost always is some tradeoff.

 

The firmware you want is the 374.40 final.

See:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/bkfq2a6aebq68//Asuswrt-Merlin#2324w3jh7e4q4


Specifically:

See:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/kjb8u7ag4odm0nr/RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_374.40_0.zip



For more info:

See:
Asuswrt-Merlin - custom firmware for Asus routers - SmallNetBuilder Forums



The stock firmware is useless; causing reboots and other problems (why would I recommend the RMerlin version, otherwise?).

 

Thank you, and during my googling I noted several references to 'Merlin's Firmware' from several different sources - all were positive.. and heck, if there are problems, it's not like I can't flash back to manufacturer's firmware.

Looking forward to the router - the range looks to be quite impressive. Should be delivered Saturday.

 

New RT-N66U router arrived a couple of hours ago, I set it up, upgraded firmware to Marlin's 374.40, changed signal bandwidth to 40MHz for both channels, and changed control channel to 11 since everyone around here was on 6. Awesome - almost no signal loss whatsoever on the wireless at the other end of the apartment. I will go up to the gym a little later a see if I can get a signal up there.. I am very pleased with it so far. Thanks again