Atheros chipset mini PCI-express wireless card for $27 + shipping - works great on my Dell laptop

[docinthebox]

If you've got one of the Core 2 Duo laptops lately, and you're not happy with the performance or the range of the wireless card, be it the Dell 1390 or the Intel 3945, here's a good wireless card with the Atheros AR5006EGS chipset:

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=GN-WI01GT

Atheros chipset is better because of improved range (XR technology - Extended Range), Super G capability (108Mbps, but you need an Atheros based router too), and better Linux compatibility (Madwifi drivers).

Here are the technical specs of the chipset:

http://www.atheros.com/pt/AR5006EGS.htm

This price is a real bargain as this same card sells for $65 on eBay.

Here's the latest Atheros driver for this card:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site....do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-52527

Edit: Updated purchase link to direct eWiz link. The free shipping offer at pricewatch has expired because of FW effect.

Edit2: Besides the driver at IBM's website, you also need to install the Atheros client utility (5.0.0.107) available here. This package also includes the 5.0.0.107 driver. But don't use this driver because it's unstable (at least on my Dell Inspiron E1405). Update the driver with the one at IBM.

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="ftp://lizzi555.dyndns.org/Download/WLAN/Atheros/">ftp://lizzi555.dyndns.org/Download/WLAN/Atheros/</a>

 

[miniMUNCH]

Good find.

 

[SuperNaruto]

oooh FVING GOOD DEAL.. i just bought mine for a 35 last week... its great card.. i use my zyxel 108 ap.. works decent also... doesn't get 108 all the time but i figure its because its not an atheros router

 

[Ryland]

Ugh..I just paid $42 for one on ebay but I haven't heard from the seller yet...

 

[docinthebox]

I'm sure there's a huge market for this specific card. A lot of people are very unhappy with the Dell 1390 that came with their laptop, as you can see if you browse the Dell Wireless Support Forum. I'm surprised that the only manufacturers that have come up with an Atheros-based mini PCI express card are just Gigabyte and Lenovo. (The Lenovo card is not compatible with Dell laptop, but the driver is cross-compatible.) Atheros has a reference design for this chipset. I don't know what's taking so long for the other manufacturers to come up with their product. Gigabyte really wins great this time with their prompt time to market.

AFAIK, all Core 2 Duo laptops use mini PCI express for the wireless card, and the only mini PCI express wireless cards available right now are the Broadcom 4311, Broadcom pre-N, Intel 3945, Intel pre-N, and this Atheros card. I don't know about you, but given the choice among Broadcom, Intel and Atheros, I would pick Atheros without a thought.

 

[cmv]

Anyone know if supported by Mac OS X?

 

[docinthebox]

Originally posted by: cmv
Anyone know if supported by Mac OS X?

Well, I know for the Madwifi driver, you have to get the latest snapshot, at least from mid-January on, for this to work, because it's PCI-express. The Madwifi packages that came with most distributions will not work. I doubt if Mac OS X would have packaged this latest snapshot so quick. I think this madwifi snapshot would make it into most distributions probably in a month or two.

More details here:

http://madwifi.org/ticket/1060

The card works great on Windows XP though, with the driver from IBM.

 

[PepperBreath]

If I have an Intel 2200 in my laptop, would this be a good buy?

 

[Keitero]

Originally posted by: PepperBreath
If I have an Intel 2200 in my laptop, would this be a good buy?

An Intel 2200 is mPCI I think. This card is mPCI-E. The MacbookPros I think has this card. (XP drivers say that it's an Atheros-based card).

 

[tamasrepus]

Just a heads up, you're probably not going to be able to use these on Lenovo/IBM machines (e.g. ThinkPads). See <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_unauthorized_MiniPCI_network_ca
d">ThinkWiki: Problem with unauthorized MiniPCI network card</a>.

 

[docinthebox]

Here's the equivalent card for Thinkpads for $49 at Lenovo's website:

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont...ow:item.detail?GroupID=38&Code=40Y7026

(Your Thinkpad may have already come with this card.)

 

[camara120]

I dont have this card, but if I did, I would try out the following drivers...

Windows (free)

Mac OS X (trial)

 

[Ryland]

I got mine in and in Vista it is only showing "fair" for connection and only going up to 54 connection speed. That is 4 feet from my router. Any ideas?

 

[herm0016]

i got a atheros card last time is was a hot deal for my 600m it works better than stock but still not as good as i want, working on an external antenna for it.

 

[docinthebox]

Originally posted by: Ryland
I got mine in and in Vista it is only showing "fair" for connection and only going up to 54 connection speed. That is 4 feet from my router. Any ideas?

1. If you're using a laptop, did the laptop come with the main and aux antennae, and did you connect them to the Atheros card properly?

2. This card is b/g, so 54Mbps is max speed you'll get, unless you have a router that uses Atheros chipset as well, in which case you can get 108Mbps via Super G. Such routers would be advertised to support Super-G, or its tech specs would specifically mention 108Mbps. Note that pre-N or draft-N routers that do not support Super-G would only give you max 54Mbps with this wireless card.

 

[niji1875]

good post OP!

 

[beer]

This won't work in HP laptops that lock their BIOS to Broadcom and Intel cards for FCC reasons. Dell doesn't lock, neither does Acer, and Lenovo is hit or miss

 

[Ryland]

Originally posted by: docinthebox
1. If you're using a laptop, did the laptop come with the main and aux antennae, and did you connect them to the Atheros card properly?

2. This card is b/g, so 54Mbps is max speed you'll get, unless you have a router that uses Atheros chipset as well, in which case you can get 108Mbps via Super G. Such routers would be advertised to support Super-G, or its tech specs would specifically mention 108Mbps. Note that pre-N or draft-N routers that do not support Super-G would only give you max 54Mbps with this wireless card.

I connected both the main and aux antenna's correctly AFAIK since neither is coming off. I have a DLINK router that maxes at 108Mbps which if I remember correctly the Atheros card in my 9300 could do.

 

[docinthebox]

Originally posted by: Ryland

Originally posted by: docinthebox
1. If you're using a laptop, did the laptop come with the main and aux antennae, and did you connect them to the Atheros card properly?

2. This card is b/g, so 54Mbps is max speed you'll get, unless you have a router that uses Atheros chipset as well, in which case you can get 108Mbps via Super G. Such routers would be advertised to support Super-G, or its tech specs would specifically mention 108Mbps. Note that pre-N or draft-N routers that do not support Super-G would only give you max 54Mbps with this wireless card.

I connected both the main and aux antenna's correctly AFAIK since neither is coming off. I have a DLINK router that maxes at 108Mbps which if I remember correctly the Atheros card in my 9300 could do.

This may be the cause:

"11) What happens to Super G® and Super AG® when non-Super devices are in the network or in an adjacent channel?

Because Super G® and Super AG® are smart technologies that utilize Adaptive Radio when they are in Dynamic Turbo Mode and a non-Super device enters the network or enters an adjacent channel, Super G® and Super AG® will automatically downshift out of turbo into the enhanced performance mode, still delivering real throughput of approximately 40 Mbps to each Super-enabled station (PC)."

Super G FAQ

 

[Ryland]

Well I live out in the country so there shouldn't be anything else interferring or trying to connect in. I am going to go back to XP and look at it again next week. What is strange is that the last time I started it up it showed all bars green. It is really flaky...

 

[Ryland]

I went back to XP Pro so I will try it on that.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: Ryland
I got mine in and in Vista

did you have to load XP drivers ? or did Vista recognize it natively?

 

[Ryland]

Originally posted by: FoBoT

Originally posted by: Ryland
I got mine in and in Vista

did you have to load XP drivers ? or did Vista recognize it natively?

I finally got a chance to play with it under XP last night and it is working properly now (windows shows 108Mbps) and the connection is showing as "Excellent" so it seems fine. The only (2) problems I have is that it is showing the same model under Device Manager as my older Atheros card which I was using on my 9300 (I moved the windows install over from my 9300 to my 9400) and it won't let me install the 100.112 drivers (it says the drivers aren't for the installed device) although it let me install the 0.107 drivers.

 

[docinthebox]

For the IBM 100.112d drivers, IBM uses a different device id than the generic Atheros device id, and that's why Windows refuses to install. The generic Atheros device id is 001c, but IBM uses 1014. The net5211.inf file actually maps between the two ids. Take a look and you'll see what I mean.

The way to get around this is to choose "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install." Then choose the one that says "11 a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Express Adapter", which corresponds to device id 001c. This will also fix the problem with the laptop WLAN LED not turning on, which works okay with this driver but not with the 0.107 driver.

 

[Ryland]

A guy on another forum gave me the updated inf file for the 107 driver which fixed the LED. I may try this IBM driver.