Atheros?

I am trying to get a full Centrino 2 Sony Vaio SR but the local version offered comes with a Core 2 Duo sticker instead of Centrino 2 which means it is missing something. I checked and I think the wireless adapter is Atheros instead of the Intel 5100 / 5300. How is it in terms of performance? Or should I stay away?

 

If you can get the new intel Wireless 5100/5300 get that instead..

 

Which Atheros? I had the Atheros AR5006XS and it was way better than the Intel offerings at the time. Might have changed. Generally if it is A/B/G/N I think there wont be much difference.

 

I am not sure which Atheros, but I think it's an a/b/g/n thing. Won't be much difference with the intel 5100/5300?

 

IMO it is probably better than the Intel ones.

 

I have an SR with an Atheros card. It works really well. I've only used it on B/G routers, but it worked very well for what it did.

I heard it only has two antennas that receive data, and one for sending data.

I haven't had the Atheros drop any connections, and it works very well. It's just not "Centrino 2", as it is an older technology (but not that old).

There was one person reporting freezing every few seconds or so sometimes with his SR an Atheros card, but it seems to be the only card that has that problem, and I don't know if they solved it yet.

 

Not being Centrino 2 branded doesn't mean it's older technology...

To be Centrino branded, a notebook needs to meet these requirements

• Intel Mobile CPU
• Intel Mobile Chipset
• Intel wireless card

If it doesn't meet any one of them (usually wireless card) it cannot be Centrino branded.

 

The Core 2 sticker is cooler than the Centrino as well lol.

 

i think he meant that the atheros card was older technology

 

I have an Atheros AR5700 in my laptop, and it works just fine with Linux, and a couple flavors of Windows.

 

All I meant is that the Atheros card works well. I think it's a newer one, as you can't find it on the Atheros site yet, but if the OP is very concerned for the Centrino 2 status, well, you can wait until they do release those where you do live.

You wouldn't be too bad off with either, but if you need the laptop soon, well, then Atheros would be fine. Might be worth it if you can find one with a 5300 Intel Wifi card in it, but apparently the SR's use a half mini card or something, so it's very tiny.

Yeah, I know Intel means it's Centrino, but I was also making a point that the Atheros card is most likely a bit older than the new 5100/5300 wifi cards from Intel. >:

 

Alright, it's a AR928x. I started using it, the connection dropped a couple of times and I only had 3 bars of strength. But then I upgraded the drivers from a site called www.atheros.cz and it became 4 outta 5 bars and I have yet to experience a drop yet but I have more to test. However, when I start up my laptop, it the network connection doesn't appear connected to the internet right away and takes about 5-10 secs to establish connection.

 

Oh, you set your laptop to auto connect? I guess I'm a little more paranoid. I usually shut off the wireless switch when I'm not using the internet. Then I allow it to let me choose which connection I want. Of course, I'll be using this SR at my college, which has a few wireless networks around (Some are secured ones, but eh.)

Though, I was thinking, I wouldn't expect it to come up that quickly anyway, as the laptop would still be loading other programs and services that it does at start-up, and it focuses on those until it can work with the wireless. I dunno, eh.

I've had no problems with my Atheros though, it's been very good and getting 4-5 bars. *even with some of the routers being somewhat farther away*

 

I believe Linksys and D-Link routers uses Atheros chipset, which favors compatibility with existent Atheros based wireless adapters, yet, I still prefer Intel.

 

Yeah I thought it would appear auto connected right away when starting up because that happens on my old XP laptop with a super old wireless adapater. But then again, that old XP laptop took like 5 minutes to start up completely and quite some time until the network icon showed up.

 

Ah. I see. Yeah, that would probably be why. I think that it most likely wasn't exactly "starting up right away" on your XP machine. I think that computers most likely focus on the starting up of the crucial things first, like services, then moves on to internet, etc.

Though, that sounds like it's much faster than your old XP machine.


Hmm, but I had a full signal on my SR, and I'm certain that my College uses Belkin wireless routers. Though, they use those commercial-grade ones.

 

I this wireless card is kinda sad. I'm sitting in my bedroom which is 2 walls and about 10 meters away from the wireless router and I'm getting 2 bars. I think I get more than that on my 5 year old HP Compaq.

 

Make sure that both, the router and the wireless adapter are using maximum transmitting power.

 

How do I do that?

 

Check in the configuration settings for the router on the router's administrative webpage, and on the NIC, try right-clicking on the icon for the adapter under network connections, clicking on the "properties" menu item, and on one of the tabs under the configuration box there should be an option to set/adjust the broadcasting power of the NIC.