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ProWireless 2915 802.11a/b/g

post #1 of 10
5/8/05 at 11:24am
Thread Starter 
I'm just looking at the "Intel ProWireless 2915 802.11a/b/g Mini PCI Wireless LAN Card" that Dell offer with their Inspiron 9300 package.

Which is fastest/best out of 802.11 "a", "b" or "g" wireless?

Having no previous knowledge or experience, I would hazard a guess at the best being "a", but then Dell don't give you the option to buy a wireless transmitter/receiver router that uses the "a" standard - only b/g (ie. only the Dell 2350 wireless router, and Dell 4350 wireless access point).

What can the ProWireless 2915 802.11a/b/g card do that the cheaper ProWireless 2200 802.11b/g can't do? (ie. how do I know which is best to go for?)

Also, out of curiosity, what is the best (fastest, most secure, and cheapest) non-Dell wireless transmitter/receiver that would suit the ProWireless 2915 802.11a/b/g card?

Thanks
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post #2 of 10
5/8/05 at 11:53am
all of your answers can be found here
http://www.linksys.com/edu/wirelessstandards.asp

A and G have the same data transfer rate. The only differance is "A" works at 5.0GHZ where as b/g work at 2.4 GHZ. When operating at 2.4 GHZ you are more likley to receive interferance from electronics running at the same frequency. Revision "A" does not suffer this problem. Also should be noted "A" has about half of the range of B/G.
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post #3 of 10
5/8/05 at 9:57pm

802.11a not widely available

The 802.11a is not as widely available as 802.11b/g. If you go with the Intel 2915, then you will need an AP to have 802.11a.
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post #4 of 10
5/8/05 at 11:53pm
i guess if you want to cover every possible base, you could get the a/b/g. a is pretty much obsolete, though. i certainly have never seen A wireless. G is much faster than B, but there are fewer G networks. I'd go with b/g to be safe (it's what I have).
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post #5 of 10
5/9/05 at 7:53am
I would get the 2915 if it is only a few dollars more, this way you cover all the standards. I don't imagine "a" ever becoming popular due to its short range. I myself favor broadcom wireless cards, but again that is your choice. And I think in order for your laptop to be a centrino you can only use the 2200, or the 2915 cards.
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post #6 of 10
5/9/05 at 11:56am
I would get the 2915. I say this not because it can do the "real world" useless "a", but because the 2200bg is a massive stinking pile of crap.
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post #7 of 10
5/9/05 at 12:11pm
I would get the 2915 a/b/g card to cover all of the bases. Many things are true in this forum and I HAVE an a router (DI-774). The range may be an issue but it works fine in my house and the speeds are uncrowded. No need to worry about interference in the 5ghz band. My connection never drops below 54mbps on the 'a' side but on the 'g' side my connection fluctuates even in the same room.

Who knows, 802.11 a may be the standard of the future. As far as future proofing cards, there's probably another standard lurking out there that will make a grand appearance, and blow all of them off the table.

YMMV.


I would get them all so you try it out and see which one works for you.
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post #8 of 10
5/9/05 at 1:46pm
I got the 2915 in my I6000D. Call it future-proofing. My Linksys router does not have "a". The 2915 does great on "g" - 54 Mbs most all the time. Intel's web site has some excellent plain-english write-ups on wireless and centrino technology.
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post #9 of 10
5/9/05 at 4:35pm
Thread Starter 
Cheers for all the replies, that's great info. Thanks for the link, too, Rincon.

Interesting that the "a" has a better specification but then has a significantly shorter usable range. However, I'll go for the 2915 model over the other one.

That aside, is the Dell 2350 router any good, or am I better off looking elsewhere? (I don't really need an access point as it's for home use, and I'll literally be the only person using the connection.) The wireless aspect would be purely for convenience of it being cable-free, so I can connect to the internet when I'm out in the garden or similar! A good range and speed would be handy. I guess it would be able to easily handle 1Mbps/256kbps broadband?

Thanks
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post #10 of 10
5/9/05 at 6:42pm
Even if you are the only one who uses it, it is great to be wireless!! What is the price for the dell router? It is probably more than you could get a similar one from the shops for.
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