Intel 7260?

@ Rivalss while the AC-7260 will have an a link speed of 866.7Mbps on the 5ghz band the AC-3160 is limited to 433Mbps.

If you're going to go the AC route then I suggest going all in with an AC-7260 paired with a Netgear R7000 router


@ Grannygamer update the firmware on the R7000



Intel Wireless ProSet diver 17.0.3 is now Official and available on Intel Downloads. dated June 2,2014

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&keyword=AC-7260

 

Just make sure you get the laptop that doesn't have whitelist so you can swap to 7260. 3160 isn't that bad but all 2x2 N adapters will be twice faster than 3160 it except when 3160 is connected 802.11ac router.

 

The laptop that I'm going to buy is a Lenovo Y50. The consumer support told me that it was easy to replace. I don't know what kind of router do I use but the main question is: Does the wi-fi disconnect more than it should? More than the 7260.

 

Consumer support is lying to you. Lenovo has BIOS locked the WiFi so you can't swap to any other cards. Well, 3160 should behave like 7260 since it's the same drivers and same chipset. The only difference is that Intel deliberately disabled the MIMO functionality for the 3160 in order to sell it for 1/2 the price of 7260 as well as giving you 1/2 of 7260's speed. Like I wrote earlier, 3160's LAN throughput on wireless-n would be inferior to all 2x2 Intel cards like 2230, 6235 and 7260. On wireless-ac, expect similar throughput as Intel 6300. 3160 should be stable when connected at 5 GHz band like the 7260.

 

Thanks for posting this. I installed just the driver (without Intel Proset) and so far everything seems fine. Well, for the last hour at least.

My setup:
Samsung Ativ Book 9 (900X3G) with AC-7260 / Windows 8.1
TP-Link WR1043ND (2,4 GHz 802.11n Router 300 MBit)

On my old notebook I could get up do 20 MB/s (not MBit/s) transfer speeds copying files to and from my desktop. I have a lot of wireless networks where I live so this could go down to 10 MB/s depending on interference. The Samsung came with driver version 15.6 installed if I remember correctly and seemed fine at first, getting the same 20 MB/s I was used to. But at some point (mostly after 30 mins, but sometimes up to 8 hours) wifi would become unusably slow. The adapter showing only 11 MBit/s and staying stuck there. Deactivating/Activating the card or reboot fixed it - until it dropped again. I used driver 17.0.0 until today which was stable for me but limited wireless speed significantly. The adapter in Windows never showed more than 144 MBit/s and transfer speed maxed out at 4 MB/s copying to my notebook and 8 MB/s copying from notebook to desktop (not symmetrical interestingly). Intel said 17.0.2 should fix the throughput issues and it got better (6 MB/s down / 12 MB/s up) and when I deactivated U-APSD Support in the driver settings I got my full 20 MB/s up and down back. But 17.0.2 introduced another problem: limited connectivity. Basically this meant no wireless for 5-10 minutes until sometimes it fixed itself or I did a reboot / restart the wireless card. So I went back to 17.0.0. Better slow but stable.
So far 17.0.3 seems fine (full 20 MB/s up and down after deactivating U-APSD Support again, none of the other issues). But Intel tricked me before so it will take a couple of days until I'm really satisfied.

TL;DR:
17.0.3 fixed everything (for me)

What I will never understand is 1) how Intel could sell the 7260 with such shi*tty drivers to begin with? and 2) that it took them at least 12 months (amazon.de sells them since June 2013) to fix the drivers (or not - wait and see)?

 

After installing driver version 17.0.2.5 ten days ago or so, I disabled all Bluetooth functionality on our Lenovo Thinkpad E540 with 7260-N completely and the wireless connection speed has stabilized on 130/144 mbps, which is a lot better than it previously was!

Now onto 17.0.3... Can I turn on Bluetooth functionality again? I also wonder if they fixed the whole losing wifi connection after coming back from sleep mode thingie! Time to find out!

 

WHQL Intel Bluetooth Software Version 17.0.1403.0442

Intel Proset/Wireless Bluetooth Software Version 17.0.1403.0442

 

Yes you can put a checkmark on downstream QOS for Netflix,VUDU Etc.and you play Games through XBOX or PS3/4 then also put a check mark on upstream QOS

 

I am also getting half of the speed with 7260 AC Ang Netgear Nighhawk AC1900....what is the process of clean install?

 

I am only getting 390/430Mb/S

 

I would only expect full speed if you are within 10ft from a clear sight router .

 

There's probably WiFi radios that use the same channel as your router. The 866 Mbps was in the line of sight range but I did move 35 feet away with 3 walls plus closet full of boxes and stuff and still cranked out 526 Mbps with only 2 bars. Interference makes the link speed slow down much more than walls and SNR.

 

Possible, even 5 feet away from the Router Link speed stayed 433>490>520MB/S(5Ghz) nad 54>133>150Mb/S(2.4Ghz)

 

the directions Intel sent me:

We would suggest to completely uninstall the drivers from both the Programs and Features and also from the device manager selecting the discard driver option. This will remove every trace of the driver. We will continue with reinstalling the drivers Provided. We will need to install them in the following order the Wireless first following the Bluetooth. May I also ask when the problem started.

Wireless:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/con...reless_17.0.2_e164.exe&lang=eng&Dwnldid=23865

Bluetooth:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/con...+Applications&OSFullname=Windows+8.1,+64-bit*

they've proved useful and allowed me to also re-set the system

 

+
even 5 Feet from Router speed remain as same!!!!!!!!!!

 

I have done this plenty of times but no luck

 

What channel are you using? I'm using channel 36 which spans all the way to 48 with channel 42 as the center channel. There's no 5 GHz AP that overlaps my channel 36 - 48 according to inssider.

 

Intel Proset/Wireless Bluetooth Software Version 17.0.1405.0460

•Intel® Dual Band Wireless AC7260
•Intel® Dual Band Wireless-N 7260
•Intel® Wireless-N 7260
•Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160
•Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1030
•Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230
•Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230
•Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235
•Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 130
•Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 135

 

2.4Ghz channel set to AUTO

 

Your 5 GHz channel? Better yet, a screenshot from Inssider showing the 5 GHz channels

 

17.0.3, the 5ghz drop dead and internet disconnecting still happens on mine.

maybe it is a machine/win8 problem? havent have time to test on other machines.

 

I don't experience that 5 GHz drop dead with Windows 7. It's just that when connecting at 2.4 GHz, it has a hard time establishing a successful connection on noisy environments (public library, coffee shops, etc. where multiple devices are connected to the same AP) and its performance on those environments sucks compared to other WiFi cards. On a clean 2.4 GHz environment, it connects right away, very stable though and fast.

 

Reset Router may solve the problem,mine has no issue so far with 17.0.3 driver

 

For you folks with a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 router there's a new Official firmware release v1.0.3.60_1.1.27

The firmware can be updated by logging in to the router>administration>Router Update

A new version has been found. Do You want to upgrade to the new version now?
Current GUI Language Version: 1.0.3.56_2.1.38.1
New GUI Language Version: 1.0.3.60_2.1.38.1
Current Firmware Version 1.0.3.56
New Firmware Version 1.0.3.60_1.1.27
Release Notes:
1. [Bug Fix] Fix a potential memory leak issue which could cause WIFI connectivity loss.
2. [Bug Fix] Fix a router reboot issue which is caused by an invalid DNS reply packet.
3. [Bug Fix] Fix Downstream QoS issue which impacts normal traffic like VoIP or VPN.
4. [Bug Fix] Fix a potential internet disconnect issue due to Bitcomet when it uses a large amount of network sessions.

You can also manually update after downloading the new firmware from station-drivers and entering the location of the downloaded file in the box provided
Netgear Nighthawk R7000 Firmware Version 1.0.3.60 (US & WWW)

 

Wow thx..I was having QOS problem upstream and downstream!!!when QOS enable it interfair with OOMA Voip Phone..............

 

Intel PROSet/Wireless Bluetooth Software Version 17.0.1419.02 (Patch)

 

Just upgraded my Windows7 Alienware M11xR1 Wireless-AC 7260 card to 17.0.3.2 (replaced some old DELL WiFi card)

It's been very stable in the last couple of versions circa 2014 using WiFi 5GHz

I have a couple of 3G antennas not being used(no 3G modem in notebook)
The Wireless-AC 7260 card is using the original 2 wireless antennas and gives a connection speed of 300Mbits and bandwidth of approx 120Mbits.

With a 450Mbit 5Ghz Linksys E4200v1 router, is it possible to hook up one of the 3G antennas to the 2x2 Wireless-AC card and thus create a true 3x3 stream connection?

Can you do that on a 2x2 Wireless-AC card?

 

No it's not possible. It will always be 2x2.

 

Thank you.
I just worked that out too.
Been reading "Radio Frequency and Antenna Fundamentals", such that even if you had a 3x3 card and the chance of using spare 3G wireless antenna, the chance it's tuned to a 2.4/5GHz frequency is almost null.

Oh well, dumb question, but at least I learnt something.

Just have to buy an 802.11ac router to get a few extra Mbits in bandwidth then...

 

Gonna give up on this , not sure if it is a bad batch or just don't like my machine.

ordered a 6300,~~~

 

NETGEAR R8000

Netgear's new Nighthawk X6 router offers 6 antennas, 3 Wi-Fi radios, 802.11ac

Pricing and Availability
Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band WiFi Router (R8000) is available for pre-order online today at an MSRP of $299.99 in the U.S.

Go to R8000 | WiFi Routers | Networking | Home | NETGEAR for more information on Nighthawk,

 

Not sure if this one has been posted before but here's 17.0.5.8 for you guys. Hope it solves some issues :thumbsup:
Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software Version 17.0.5.8 WHQL

~Aeny

 

No, it's not been posted so far. Thanks.

 

https://communities.intel.com/thread/51343
https://communities.intel.com/thread/51556?start=15&tstart=0

They"intel" are saying a new driver should be coming out, probably the 17.0.5.8 linked above I guess.

FIX THE GOD DAMN DRIVER, intel ~~~, will try 17.0.5.8 in the mean while.

 

I guess there was no 17.0.4 version that made it to WHQL

I installed 17.0.5.8 as upgrade to 17.0.3 installed an a clean Windows 8.1.1 Pro x64 installation that was done a few days ago.

Early drivers for the AC-7260 had my connection speed fluctuate between 90Mbps and 520Mbps from a non line of sight location 21' from my Netgear R6300 and now R7000 routers going through 2 cement walls with an average 260Mbps

Driver version 16.6 was the first real improvement before 17.0.0.34 come along reducing fluctuations to between 390Mbps and 602Mbps with a mostly 520Mbps connection speed and always excellent connection strength.

With versions 17.0.1 and 17.0.2 I didn't see much change from 17.0.0.34

Version 17.0.3 was a bit better.

Now,in an unscientific observation for about an hour at idle my connection strength was mostly at 585Mbps with a few seconds drop to 520Mbps and surges to 650Mbps.

On the 2.4ghz band,as with 17.0.3 I my connection is a solid 300Mbps.

I'll do a few network file transfer test a bit later but from this very early observation of connection strength,17.0.5.8 looks like a keeper.

 

Does the Intel 7260 have any issues with connecting to 2.4GHz still? I'll be a foot away from my router most of the time connected to a bluetooth mouse and a wireless N 2.4ghz network. The bluetooth function in my Killer 1102 is messed up, so looking for a replacement. Or do you guys recommend a different card at this point? I'm not too worried about transfer speeds between devices on network, though I usually have 10mbps internet speed, which it should be able to saturate?

 

Mbps = megabits per second
MBps(MB/s) = megabytes per second

The Killer 1202 has Bluetooth but the 1103 and 1102 do not.

The Intel AC-7260 is best for most owners on the 5ghz band pairing with an AC router.

If you're not going to use a good AC router then look at other options

Different AC routers will offer different performance

I got very good results using my AC-7260 on both bands with Netgear R6300 and R7000 routers

With my setup I had no issues on 2.4ghz when tested but I use 5ghz where I can get connection speeds to 866.7 Mbps measured in Windows Wireless Connection Status

The 2.4ghz band is limited to 300Mbps

 

The 17.0.5 Intel Wireless ProSet is now OFFICIAL and can be downloaded directly from Intel Downloads

Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for IT Administrators
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=23988

Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software for Windows 8.1*
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=23994


Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for Windows 8*
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=23993

Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for Windows 7*
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=23992


This download is valid for the product(s) listed below.
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 for Desktop
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-N 7260
Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software

 

Bought the 7260AC from Amazon to upgrade from the stock Realtek 8188CE. Using latest driver (ver 17) only without the proset software. Huge improvement in signal strength, -47dbm vs -70dbm at the same locaiton. So far it's been pretty stable, finger crossed it will stay that way.

 

updated to the latest 17.0.5 driver and the improvement was as dramatic as it was immediate -- speeds have jumped 50% and are more consistent
huge improvement over older drivers

 

Does it fix the intermittent drops that I still get?

 

You'll need to install it and give it a go.

IMO it's the best AC-7260 driver yet.

 

I have an Intel i5 Core NUC box with a Wireless-AC 7260 card [ driver: 17.0.5.8]

Using iPerf to a QNAP NAS via a Linksys E4200v1 router (TomatoUSB fw) with 5GHz 40MHz WiFi, I get the following:

C:\Tools\Bandwidth\iPerf>iperf -c 172.16.nnn.nnn
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 172.16.nnn.nnn, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 64.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[184] local 172.16.nnn.nnn port 63055 connected with 172.16.nnn.nnn port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[184] 0.0-10.0 sec 250 MBytes 209 Mbits/sec

C:\Tools\Bandwidth\iPerf>

The 802.11n 5GHz 40Mhz WiFi connects at 300Mbits and returns a raw ~205Mbps throughput.
That is pretty good in my books.
Been using it for several days without any issues.

I have the Wireless-AC 7260 card in an Alienware M11xR1 which returns a consistent 120Mbps (seen peaks of 140Mbps) real throughput when connected at 300Mbits 5GHz 40Mhz.
The Alienware M11xR1 has an older circa 2010 chipset and a two stream antenna in the monitor lid.
The WiFi in my M11xR1 has been very stable with drivers released after Jan-2014.
Now running driver 17.0.5.8 (Jul 2014)

 

Your router is holding your transfer speeds back.

AC is a 5ghz only technology that requires AC hardware;

Internet speeds will still mostly depend on your service and the sites your connecting to but when transferring files on your home network there's a big difference when a properly configured AC card is paired with a correctly setup AC router.

Without a good AC router paired with the AC-7260 on 5ghz you probably will not get any better.

 

Was that addressing me?

Yes. 802.11n 5GHz 40MHz is a lot slower than 802.11ac with multi-channel binding, BUT I'm paying it forward and will get an ASUS/Netgear AC router soon...ish.

One thing I'm not entirely certain on, is my 'old' 2010 Alienware M11xR1 (bless) only has a USB 2.0 bus max 480Mbps shared and the PCIe card is just a Mickey Mouse shared USB 2.0 bus piggy back thing.
So couple that with everything else and even with 802.11ac speeds with multiple channel binding on this old notebook it's not going to give the 802.11ac speed I'll be seeing on my 2014 Intel NUC box.

Given all this we still have to remember the Intel 7260 Wireless-AC card in an Alienware M11xR1 is going to give better performance than the original DELL DW1520 PCIe mini WiFi card AND I get Bluetooth 4.0 too.
That's something I haven't seem mention much in this thread.

I will be VERY interested to see what I get in real throughput on my M11xR1 using an 802.11ac router.
Given the above, I'd be happy with anything over 200Mbps. Wonder what the connection speed would be.

 

My last 5 routers have been Netgear models so I can't speak for Asus.

The last 2 were the R6300v1 and now R7000.

The USB ports on the R6300 had issues.The R7000 has no USB issues and does well with file transfers between a 64GB Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0 flash drive attached to the router's USB 3.0 port and the computers on the home network.

A old Samsung laser printer attached to the USB 2.0 port on the R7000 works well as a network printer with Netgear's software installed.

Transferring files wireless from a Sandy Bridge notebook with an AC-7260 to an older desktop and from the desktop to the notebook can be as fast as 45 MB/s

 

I cap out at 48.7MB/second wich is pretty much the ball park for this to be honest

 

Intel PROSet/Wireless Bluetooth Software Version 17.0.1405.464

PROSet/Wireless Bluetooth Software

 

I just ordered a 7260, but I was looking at the drivers. Are the wifi and bluetooth drivers in separate driver installers?

 

yes check the link just above your post for the BT drivers and wifi drivers.

one thing tho, if you plan to remove any intel card (if you already have a lesser one for example), remove the drivers 1st.

the installer won't let you remove them if the device is not in the machine. i found that out the hard way.