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Are all integrated wireless lappys the same

post #1 of 8
10/2/06 at 12:08am
Thread Starter 
I was wondering if all wireless laptops are the same. As far as being able to pick up signals?

I have a dell latitude at work and it has a weak integrated wireless setup compared to my co-workers newer Dell.

From your experiences is one company better than another when it comes to picking up wireless signals?

Thanks
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post #2 of 8
10/2/06 at 4:31am
I know my Dell precision m90 can pick up way more signals than my latitude d610. My D610 has the dell wireless card(made by broadcom), and my m90 has the intel one, so that might be why.
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post #3 of 8
10/2/06 at 10:37am
there are 3 (more really) major wireless chip manufactuers.

Broadcom --- very popular with HP/Compaq and many other "non-Centrino" popular setups. the cards are ok but not great, linux drivers are in pre-alpha stage.

Intel -- part of the "Centrino" setup...much better signal (generally) than broadcom, and really not all too bad.

Atheros -- good cards, great linux support thanks to madwifi

another thing that might cause the difference for you is the type of wireless it is. your older dell might be a b, which is weaker thna your friend's newer g.
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post #4 of 8
10/2/06 at 11:07am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the info.

So the Atheros might be the best to look for in a laptop.

I am wanting to get a spare laptop for taking on trips and hooking up to hotel and condo. wireless....

What brand of laptops would the Atheros set up be on? I will have a look at them.


Thanks
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post #5 of 8
10/2/06 at 1:03pm
Quote:
What brand of laptops would the Atheros set up be on? I will have a look at them.
\\ Basically any laptop that is not a centrino could have an atheros card in it. Most newer amd based notebooks have the atheros in it, as apposed to the broadcome that was common on older ones.
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post #6 of 8
10/2/06 at 1:27pm
Personally I would go for the centrino machines. It's not just a marketing gag. I have found Centrino machines have better battery life than non-centrino machines(wifi does suck up power and intel has better power managment on their card than others), and the intel wifi cards generally perform better than non-intel ones.
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post #7 of 8
10/3/06 at 3:19pm
The centrinos are all interfaces with the chipset because they are for intel chips only I have a feeling that is why centrino systems run better and why AMD with its new partner ATI is trying to develop their own similar chipset.
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post #8 of 8
10/5/06 at 8:53pm
I have both Intel (stored away) and Atheros on my laptop. I have found atheros to be marginally stronger in signal than the Intel.

I can pickup about 6 local wireless networks around my area but with Intel I pickup 3. All weak signals by the way. This applies to other places too... I generally get a slighly better signal with Atheros. i.e. I get 2 bars instead of 1, 1 bar instead of nothing etc.
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