What's the best way to go for a wireless notebook card, please help

Hello all,
I hardly look at laptops and always end up putting the money towards a tower, with that said.....

I'm looking for a wireless notebook card for my girls HP Pavilion zx5060us laptop, I've searched around the web for reviews, problem is that most of the reviews i come across are a 1 to 2 years old or more and i'm looking for some help/advice making sure i'm getting what she needs.... (speed 108-300, reliability, range, compatibility)

currently i'm looking at these:
BELKIN F5D8013 N Wireless Notebook Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16839314010
D-Link DWA-652 Xtreme N Notebook Adapter
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16839127005

if anyone has any other suggestions i would greatly appreciate the input

 

the belkin routers are crap, not sure about the cards.......

but I really like d-link!!!!! I have several dwa-643 express cards and they are super. Does that HP have an express car slot? They work fantastic w/ the d-link N routers......

 

I personally think the intel 4965AGN is a good card.

 

I'm not entirely sure if this hp has an express card slot. looks like a pcmcia / type 2 card slot. i'm out of the laptop game, i'm guessing its NOT an express slot but i'll have to try and double check

I currently own a dlink dgl-4500 router though

 

Seconded.

 

is a OK card, nothing special

Atheros based cards are the best

Atheros card + D-link (atheros based) = wi-fi heaven

 

1. What is the model number of the Atheros mini card?

2. How long it has been out in the market?

3. How many laptops offer and come with it?

4. Please post data proving the Atheros is the best, thanks.

 

thank you all for your comments, I appreciate the input

Because this was for my girlfriend and had other things to buy for her, i went with the belkin, it was only $40 shipped. seems to work fine, picks up my network fine.

but i can only seem to get 56mbps or so out of it, i've tried a bunch of different security/encryption settings on my dlink dgl-4500 router as well as fiddling with some config settings on the belkin wireless nic card in the laptop and the result is the same. 2.4ghz, mixed N and G , also N alone, WPA/WPA2, TKIP & AES, TKIP, AES, not sure where to go from here

I must be missing something, can anyone help shed some light ?

 

Nope, you are not missing anything, you bought Belkin!

Anyway, your dlink dgl-4500 extrem router supports N so you should get as a minimum 140Mbps. How far is the laptop from the router? And how many clients?

 

haha ya i know, the belkin was less than the best. but i was only hoping i would at least see speeds around or over 109mbps, she doesn't mind so much because its still worlds faster than the b signal on the internal wireless card. still tho, i'm a little dissapointed that it only gets 54mbps or so

1. the laptop is very close, same room normally sits about 6 feet from the router, but up to 30ft away i suppose when she carts it around the room. i get full signal tho, and signal strength always shows excellent on the system tray.
2. 3 - 4 clients at different times, but only 1 (her lappy) using wireless, all my **** is wired.
3. I tried setting the router to only broadcast N but I think i remember the belkin wasn't able to locate the network with N only running, so that's when i switched it to use the mixed G and N signal

any ideas ?

 

If you are far from the router the signal might still display nicely but the throughput will go down indeed. Many clients will also reduce your internet activity.

 

no, not right off......

ok, you went w/ Belkin, is it an N card for sure??

is the belkin card 2.4GHz and 5 compatible, or just 2.4??

can you take a screen shot of your dlink router wifi settings??

Have you tried mixed g&N, auto channel, wpa2- aes......

 

I think you are missing one question!

 

Mr Roper,

I'm not sure about your router setup, but here's a few shots of mine and with a dlink dwa-643 adapter, I get 300mbps....... and the k dlink 655 is a single band 2.4GHxz router.

 

hmm, ya its very close to the router, within 10ft and only 1 machine using the wireless. 2-3 others wired so i don't think its a resource overutilization issue... the result is the same however even if i unplug everyone but the lappy using the wireless...

Belkin F5D8013 N Wireless Notebook Card - http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8386711&type=product&id=1179876288410

it does say N wireless card right on the box, says it supports g / b / ndraft 2.0

i'll try and get you a screenie or at least the settings as soon as i get off of work

 

i changed "Channel Width" to be 20/40 on the basic/wireless screen (2.4ghz)and now i'm getting 150mbps making progress....

nobscot, thanks for the screenies i didn't notice them until i refreshed the forum page just now but i went to match up settings and the only thing on mine taht was different was on the advanced wireless screen i didn't have WLAN Partition enabled. i enabled it but i'm still at 150mbps lan system tray icon....

i am happy with 150mbps but if it can do 300 that would be great
the "wireless channel" drop down on the basic wireless network settings screen is greyed out, but it currently shows "2.437ghz - CH6"

is there anything else i can do or that i might be missing to get upto 300mbps ? i attached a couple of the screenies

 

no, thats all I can think of tonight-- it always helps to have someone thats having success with the same brand router to post some screenies...


and just remember, that 150mbps is the LAN speed, not the internet connection-- she's in good shape!!!!!

and the partitioning is just so they can't communicate w/each other on my setup......

EDIT--You won't get 300mbps w/ that card. W/ DLink N routers, it has to be a DLink N card or a card w/atheros chip, thats why eveyone w/ DLink wants atheros........

 

i use a hawking usb wireless adapter...paired with a hawking hsb2 signal booster...100, 200, and 500 mW settings...

 

What is the model for the client's nic?

 

hawking hwug1...usb adapter…the adapter has a removable antenna…i’m sure there are others available with removable antenna…but i could’nt find one...i just use the hawking hsb2 when i'm out in the garage with my laptop...there is a lot of interference between my router and the garage...overhead power line...phone line...cable tv line...and garage is wired for 220...without the booster can't even get a signal out in the garage...with it...54mbs...now don't laff...at least don't hurt yourself laffin to hard...but here is my out in the garage set-up

 

Lol, at first I thought you were joking, it looked like those mastil used at the hospital to hold the syrum

But I can see now the diferrent products, cool, did you pay a lot for the whole system?

 

got the hsb2 off of 'Amazon' used for $29.00...the usb nic...bout $39.00 at 'BestBuy'...not to bad to have a good connection when and where i want it...sitting out here i can pick up some stupid clod's wifi...if i wanted to...unencrypted...at over 60%...between 36-42mbs...his house is probably about 300 feet away...other houses in the path...and other obstructions...so yeah to me it was worth it...

 

It's worth it certainly, I have a WiFi user coming fulll blast in my house, he actually has a stronger signal than my own router, and my house is sitting in 1 acre, so this guy is not near me, I wonder who he is.

 

have you tried to enable mac filtering in your router...the option to block mac addresses...and block the mac of the incoming signal

 

I'm not afraid of intrution, rather polution. The 2.4GHz is part of the ISM band, which is an unlicense band (no need of license to operate in it), but if you are a newcomer and transmit beyond what the standard dictates, then you must reduce your signal. I can actually legally force him to shut off his system.

Furthermore is not in his interest neither to radiate much power, other people can sniff on his system and use his bandwidth, hummmm, may be that what I should do and cancel my service

 

lol...with your luck...prolly a guidance system for a 'Minute-Man' ICBM...opps...Wirelessman just started WWIII...lmao

 

Hahahaha, yes, here it comes the monkey attack

 

i just came back to post my experience after some usage with the BELKIN F5D8013 N Wireless Notebook Card

overall its been pretty good, picks up signal well, tray still shows 150mbps though under load it droops slightly, one problem is that if my girlfirends HP laptop is put to sleep, upon wake the belkin card will not re-establish a complete connection. it shows the connection is there however display's red lines to the internet on the belkin driver GUI.

At this point, i'm not sure if its the wireless card/driver , or the router occaisionally needing to be reset, or if its the laptop itself which i know some HP's have hardware issues, my girlfriends HP Pavilion ZX5060us is in the family i believe...
at any rate, after waking from sleep i need to log off and back on or reboot all together

When i purchase a wireless card for myself eventually, i guess i'll be checkin into the dlink or other aetheros based cards

 

dlink are great!!

 

What do you have in the power management tab?

 

many, many laptops do that during sleep, no matter what settings you use. what i usually do if it happens to me on one of our many laptops, is disconnect from the network(if still connected but no internet) and just reconnect to it. I know it's a pain, but.......

and monkeyMod was asking about your power settings.... many people allow their computer to put the card to sleep along w/ the pc-- just check your settings..

 

Hello fellas,
sorry, got a little busy, thank you for your responses, they are NOT UNappreciated.

Yes, not a huge deal to relog or reconnect just can be slightly annoying as mentioned.

ahh i shoulda checked nic card device driver with regards to sleep. I will check that tonight and report back.
thanks much

 

double checked my girl's lappy last night and there is no tab on the driver properties window for power management like the internal wireless nic has (the internal card stopped working all together for some reason).

However in the device driver properties, there's an option for CAM (which was already selected) if i remember correctly stood for Constantly Awake Mode... The other options i don't rmember but they referred to saving power so i left it where it was...

i guess this is the nature of the beast, and will need to not let the laptop sleep, and/or reconnect connection, reboot pc, pull the card/re-insert, re-log in, and/or combination thereof...