Hi All,
After reading a lot, about it here and a few other spots, I decided to buy a generic Atheros AR5006XS Mini-PCI wifi card on Ebay to replace my Intel 2915ABG. While I've heard a number of complaints about the Intel card, my only issue with it seems to be the heat it gives off (my laptop feels significantly cooler on the bottom so far with the Atheros card in it). However, I did want Super-G speeds with my D-Link DGL-4300 router (especially for copying/streaming large files from my desktop that has GigE) which I'm now getting, and the Atheros card is likely to be compatible when I configure a second partition on my machie for OS X on x86.
I do have some questions though, under Windows XP. My primary one is whether people have experienced better range/throughput with the Atheros Client Utility, or whether there's really no difference compared to the Windows Wireless setup. I'm running the 5.x drivers (don't know if earlier 4.x drivers have a different ACU, if they do, let me know) and the Atheros Client Utility's UI gives more information, but to me is far more annoying to work with than the Windows Wireless.
Also, while I have an AR5006XS card (or so the vendor listed it when selling it, the drivers list it as an AR5006X. Is there any sort of utility that will let me query the card to ensure I got the chipset I intended to? And is there a lot of difference between the two (I know the driver is the same, though the chip model is different, 5414A vs 5314A)? I'm guessing the driver ID string just doesn't list it correctly, and that it doesn't matter much, but it'd be nice to know.
Thanks for any help you guys can provide.
After reading a lot, about it here and a few other spots, I decided to buy a generic Atheros AR5006XS Mini-PCI wifi card on Ebay to replace my Intel 2915ABG. While I've heard a number of complaints about the Intel card, my only issue with it seems to be the heat it gives off (my laptop feels significantly cooler on the bottom so far with the Atheros card in it). However, I did want Super-G speeds with my D-Link DGL-4300 router (especially for copying/streaming large files from my desktop that has GigE) which I'm now getting, and the Atheros card is likely to be compatible when I configure a second partition on my machie for OS X on x86.
I do have some questions though, under Windows XP. My primary one is whether people have experienced better range/throughput with the Atheros Client Utility, or whether there's really no difference compared to the Windows Wireless setup. I'm running the 5.x drivers (don't know if earlier 4.x drivers have a different ACU, if they do, let me know) and the Atheros Client Utility's UI gives more information, but to me is far more annoying to work with than the Windows Wireless.
Also, while I have an AR5006XS card (or so the vendor listed it when selling it, the drivers list it as an AR5006X. Is there any sort of utility that will let me query the card to ensure I got the chipset I intended to? And is there a lot of difference between the two (I know the driver is the same, though the chip model is different, 5414A vs 5314A)? I'm guessing the driver ID string just doesn't list it correctly, and that it doesn't matter much, but it'd be nice to know.
Thanks for any help you guys can provide.
