New Intel 4965AGN coming my way...

I placed my order this morning. Since it was a special order, should be here within 2 weeks. I'll let you know how the upgrade process went...

 

Unless your motherboard has 3 leads it will not give you 'n' range or speed. It will install, but with only 2 leads you will only get 'g' range and performance.

 

Then why the heck they made it fully compatible with the 3945ABG even with 2 leads? Anyway, 60$cdn won't break my bank. Let's wait and see.

 

I don't understand. Who made what "fully compatible"

 

Haha sorry. I had a spec sheet from Intel on 4965AGN stating it was fully compatible with 3945AGB, with support for 2/3 leads antennas.

Anyway, like I said, it can't be worst than what I have right now. Plus power management seems better than the G card.

I'll keep you posted.

Edit:
Look at the attached image. The antenna connector is the same as the 3945 AGB that most of us have in our m570u.

See the full data sheet here.

 

keep us posted !!!

 

All they are saying is that you can connect the 4956 card on an Intel 945 based board. What they slyly neglect to point out is that you won't get the 'n' performance or range without the 3rd lead connected.

 

Ah don't shatter my hopes. I'm expecting some sort of miracle here lol .

I should have it next week. I'll give my impressions and hopefully I will be able to negate what you're saying .

 

Hmm, I don't know. I've never seen Donald wrong on hardware issues.

 

Haha, well Donald was right . I'd just hoped he would chip in a tad earlier on our previous N discussion .

Nonetheless:
Working with the inside of the 5760 is a real pleasure. Everything is so well laid out and easily accessible. Swithcing cards take roughly 5 minutes.

The thing is even though the Intel G card has 2 antenna connectors, the chassis support only one lead.

Now that I have the card and need 2 more antennas, I started to search a little bit on how to add antennas. After an hour of DIY german procedure which wanted me to dissassemble my LCD screen, I had a flash:

Call me silly, but here's what I tried. Since my system has 3 antennaes anyway (wifi, bluetooth and TV), would you think it would work if I connected all 3 on the Wifi N card? I'd only need some sort of patch cable because the TV card antenna is too short to get to the wifi card. I already tried hooking my BT antenna to my wifi card, with no luck. I get only a slight signal boost, but still connect at 54mbps.

And my searches also drove me to this:
Pair of antenna on ebay.
Donald, If I managed to stick those 2 inside my rig, do you I'd get something close to N speed? The antennas are like 3cm x 3cm and look completely flat, so probably I could stick them under the keyboard or something.

Any hint appreciated

 

You are in the zone of experimenting now, and since we have never tried such an experiment there is no way for me to advise you other than...give it a try and see what happens. The leads are cheap enough, and you could end up being a hero to those who want to get 'n' performance from a 945 based laptop.

Let us know how it comes out!

 

Mmmmm, I like that idea ROFL...

Ordering right away . You're right, let's give it a try...

 

p_boucher any update?

 

What about the PCMCIA Wireless cards?

 

about 4965AGN with Pair of antenna from ebay to get 'n' performance from a 945 based laptop.

 

Hey there!

Wow great timing Audizzz . Actually I just got the new antennas in the mail yesterday.

But, sorry to report it has mixed results, and I can't really identify the cause.

The antennas by themselves were pretty easy to install and I stick them underneath the bottom cover. There is plenty of room there.

The thing is I get far better coverage and strenght with 3 antennas but I still connect @ 54mbps.

N router is in the basement and we got a 3 stories townhouse. My main problem is I work on 3rd floor. Well I now get a good to very good signal all the way upstairs. In the windows wirelles status I gained 2 bars all around the home.

BUT, I just can't figure out why the heck I still connect @ G speeds. Antennas not powerful enough? Can't say. I can't find damn specs on laptop wifi antennas.

Could it be the drivers? I updated to the latest Intel.

Would the G card with another antenna give me same coverage/strenght gain? Would have to try.

In the meantime, any hints appreciated. I still wanna be a hero lmao ...

Oh yeah, I took pics of every step in case I get this to work; I promise i'll write an how-to guide.

 

The thing is our laptops support xpresscards... I challenge you to find one N card with this standard. Last month there was still nothing...

 

p_boucher thanks

can you compare speed of 4965AGN(with 3 ant.) and 3945ABG(single ant.) cards by using speedtest.co
thanks!

I think you get 54mbps because "N" still in draft mode(drivers) - do you know is this card firmware upgradable?

 

Mmmm well with my home internet i am limited to 6mbp/s d/l so I doubt I would gain in speed anyway. But trying to copy a large file between my 2 wireless PCs I can garantee you i am @ 54mbps.

I found an interesting article on Intel support stating WEP is prohibited on 802.11n and the adapter does an automatic fallback to g speed. But I disabled my security (i only use a MAC filter) to no avail. Still strong, but not over 54mbps. The funniest thing is my Linksys PC adapter connect 200mbps+ with WEP enabled.

I still continue googling to see what I am missing...

It could be some sort of incompatibilies between the adapter and the router.

I'll try an upgrade of my router firmware this week-end.

 

Now I am puzzled a little bit. Let me explain:

To test if the antennas were working right I unhooked the builtin antenna and plugged only one wire of my new antennas. No luck, can't even see my router.

Plugged in the second wire. Ok, can see my router, but my connection details in the Intel Panel give me that I only use one antenna. How strange, both antennas act like just one?

Ok then, I hook up my integrated antenna to the 3rd antenna connection. I was expecting 2 antennas in use, but no, only just one is reported in use.

Still looking...

 

Reading a review about 802.11 N they say the new 802.11 draft N shows sighnificant spped differences over 802.11 G but the advise people to stick with their current wireless until the new specs 802.11 N (not draft N) are finalized which will be in mid 2007. (a couple of months away)

http://reviews.cnet.com/adapters-nics/trendnet-wireless-n-draft/4505-3380_7-31950484.html

 

It could be that your router doesnt support the same draft N standard as the Intel card. Not all draft N routers are compatible with the Intel 4965AGN. Try and check if there is a firmware upgrade.

 

Yeah I just saw today the list of supported routers and unfortunately the linksys isn't there so it could well be the source of my G speed ceiling.

Somehow today my laptop connected using 2 streams (2 antennas), but still not over G speeds. So until the N spec is finalized, stick to your G setup. Or make sure you buy a same make combo router + adapter. My linksys setup (router = Desktop adapter) is connecting always around 130 mbps.

Well I guess I'll have to find something else to be a hero lol. Well at least i have the N card for my future clevo lappy .

And on another note I saw today a DLink xpresscard N card. But beware it probably will work only with the D-Link router. The card is around 100$.

 

I am using a 945 based laptop and have recently, as of 3 weeks ago, replaced my 3945 with a 4965. The current configuration is using 1 antenna connector which connects to a Asus WL-500W router. The connect speed of this is 130 mbit.

 

Hey nice! I somehow tought it was an incompatibility with my linksys router. I just don't have another router to test with. Plus my main PC has also a linksys card so i'm afraid changing my router will mess with my main PC speeds...

But I think i'll keep my 4965 after all .

 

I guess the best way to go is with a expresscard or PCMCIA card. But I heard that with draft N it's important to get the same card as the router. Example a Linksys card with a linksys router.

 

There are also updated drivers for the Intel Pro Set Software and for the drivers of the card itself. Go to intel and download them. I had problems with my G router until I downloaded the new drivers. The D901C has 3 leads btw...

 

4965AGN - worth to buy, speed increase from 13200kb/s to 19000kb/s on B, plus Full bars instead of 2-3, even more on N(draft) went up to 29580kb/s (look below)
Recomended!

NOTE: you should connect Notebook antenna to #1 and #2(on the 4965AGN card) and the one that you buy from ebay to #3. Otherwise you will get poor speed.
I have 3(same type) antenna that I bought from ebay and the only time it gives me good speed is when I use Notebook antenna connected to #1and#2 + #3(from ebay).

 

AS far as I know dratf-n achieves it's higher speeds by allowing multiple input and output. Perhaps the aftermarket antennas are not capable of this?

Just a thought.