Changing network cards

Greenmachine

Computer: Lenovo G580
Processor: Intel i5 3210m


Hey guys thinking of changing my network card.

Signed up for 100Mb UPC bundle.
I am achieving about 45Mb p/s according to speedtest.net for a wireless connection.
and about 55Mb p/s for wired. I was trying to tweak everything and from what I can tell my network card is only capable of 65Mb p/s. So it seems the most obvious thing to change to acheive higher speed, closer to my package.

I am just looking for peoples recommendations.
Should I replace the card and install new drivers.

Or Get a USB dongle. There seems to be loads of them on ebay. If I go this route do I need to remove original network card or unistall it's drivers.

Torqay

Greenmachine wrote: »

If I go this route do I need to remove original network card or unistall it's drivers.

No, you just disable it in the Network and Sharing Center.

Greenmachine

Torqay wrote: »

No, you just disable it in the Network and Sharing Center.

Okay USB seems like the best option then. Don't really want to open it up yet. Especially as it is still under warranty.

Freddy Smelly

Greenmachine wrote: »

Okay USB seems like the best option then. Don't really want to open it up yet. Especially as it is still under warranty.

opening the pc case will NOT void your warranty

usb will suck (usb 2 is only 44mb/s) usb 3.0 gigabit nic requires that your pc has a usb 3.0 port but then you have no usb 3.0 port for using with external drives if you go that route.

a gigabit pci based nic is ALOT cheaper than buying a usb 3.0 gigabit dongle plus a usb 3.0 pci card if your pc doesnt already have a usb 3.0 port

buy a gigabit nic install install into a pci slot

log onto bios disable onboard nic.

log onto windows and install drivers for gigabit nic.

happy days when you get decent speeds.

make sure you use a network cable that is cat5e or better for gigabit speeds

coylemj

OP, isn't that a laptop? If it is then there won't be a network 'card' that you can replace. Desktop PCs and mini towers have slots for cards, laptops don't because there isn't room for them. Laptops typically have externally accessible compartments for memory and the HDD which you can open without opening up the whole machine, nothing else is intended to be serviced or upgraded by the user. If you want to upgrade the network capability you will probably need a USB dongle.

Torqay

coylemj wrote: »

OP, isn't that a laptop? If it is then there won't be a network 'card' that you can replace.

Wouldn't be too sure about that now...

Unless the WLAN controller is soldered onto the motherboard, they are replaceable.

Greenmachine

Torqay wrote: »

Wouldn't be too sure about that now...

Unless the WLAN controller is soldered onto the motherboard, they are replaceable.

Wow looks so easy. 2 internal screws and two plugs. Not sure why he opened the Hdd case after removing. Thanks to all the other replys too.

coylemj

You're getting 45 Mbps with wi-fi and 55 Mbps with a cable. Given that your Ethernet port supports up to 100 Mbps, how do you think changing the wi-fi chip is going to deliver much in the way of more bandwidth?

Your network 'card' (it's on the motherboard and not on a 'card' like I said) is 10/100, it's pretty clear to me that the bottleneck is in the UPC network and not a limitation of your h/w.

Your Wi-Fi already supports BGN so I wouldn't spend a penny trying to upgrade it until I could see the wired speed getting up closer to the hypothetical 100 Mbps.

Freddy Smelly

does the laptop have a pcmcia slot? if yes you can but network cards for it like this one http://www.maplin.co.uk/gigabit-1000-ethernet-pcmcia-laptop-card-47111

Greenmachine

coylemj wrote: »

You're getting 45 Mbps with wi-fi and 55 Mbps with a cable. Given that your Ethernet port supports up to 100 Mbps, how do you think changing the wi-fi chip is going to deliver much in the way of more bandwidth?

Your network 'card' (it's on the motherboard and not on a 'card' like I said) is 10/100, it's pretty clear to me that the bottleneck is in the UPC network and not a limitation of your h/w.

Your Wi-Fi already supports BGN so I wouldn't spend a penny trying to upgrade it until I could see the wired speed getting up closer to the hypothetical 100 Mbps.

I checked the software for the card and the specification of the card is 65Mb p/s. Will check the details again when I am in my place. That ethernet port may well be 10/100 spec but the card is not.

Freddy Smelly wrote: »

does the laptop have a pcmcia slot? if yes you can but network cards for it like this one http://www.maplin.co.uk/gigabit-1000-ethernet-pcmcia-laptop-card-47111

I will check when i get home. The video posted above shows the card being removed about the 6 minute mark. I though pcmcia slots were a few inches. The card in the video appears to be smaller than what you posted.

diwit

just make sure you are not confusing mbps and MB/sec here.

MB/sec = mbps / 8 (in theory, actually it is mbps / 10).

so, if you have a 100mbps NIC the maximum it can achieve is 12MB/sec.

whizbang

goto your Network and Sharing center, click on local area connection, post the speed value (Bits per second).

GreenWolfe

Greenmachine wrote: »

I checked the software for the card and the specification of the card is 65Mb p/s. Will check the details again when I am in my place. That ethernet port may well be 10/100 spec but the card is not.



I will check when i get home. The video posted above shows the card being removed about the 6 minute mark. I though pcmcia slots were a few inches. The card in the video appears to be smaller than what you posted.

The card in the video is Micro PCI-E. PCMCIA cards (like this) are long dead and its successor ExpressCard wasn't that successful either. That, and of course the fact that PCMCIA is external and Mini/Micro PCI(-E) cards are internal.

You're probably getting the best speed you can for your package. Maximum figures like that are usually based on 'ideal' lab scenarios and they never, ever reflect real-life.

The only way to settle it once and for all would be to get a laptop with Gigabit Ethernet or a laptop containing a Wi-Fi card with multiple antennas. The latter tends to feature in expensive models though.

Greenmachine

Details: Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter

Connection

IPv4 Connectivity: Internet
IPv5 Connectivity: No Internet

Media State: Enabled
SSID: UPC#######
Duration ##:##:##
Speed 65.0Mbps

coylemj

Greenmachine wrote: »

I checked the software for the card and the specification of the card is 65Mb p/s. Will check the details again when I am in my place. That ethernet port may well be 10/100 spec but the card is not.

Greenmachine wrote: »

Details: Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter

Connection

IPv4 Connectivity: Internet
IPv5 Connectivity: No Internet

Media State: Enabled
SSID: UPC#######
Duration ##:##:##
Speed 65.0Mbps

The 'card' that you're talking about is I assume the wireless chip that features on that YouTube video but that is not what controls the Ethernet (wired) connection.

I also have a Lenovo laptop, it's not a G580 but when I look at Device Manager/Network Adapters in Control Panel, I can clearly see two devices - my wi-fi is controlled by a device celled 'Intel Centrino Wireless N-1000' while my Ethernet (wired) network capability is provided by a device called 'Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller'.

What you're saying above is that your Wi-Fi connection speed is limited by the h/w to 65 Mbps which is fair enough but you've also said that your wired connection only runs at 55 Mbps.

You appear to be making the assumption that the 65 Mbps speed quoted above is what is limiting both the wired (55 Mbps) and Wi-Fi (45 Mbps) connections. It is not, it's only limiting the wireless speed because the Ethernet port is controlled by different h/w.

What I'm trying to tell you is that if the UPC box can only do 55 Mbps over a wired connection, there is no point in upgrading your Wi-Fi chip because if it's currenly lagging 10 Mbps behind the wired speed, you're not going to get any better upgrading the Wi-Fi h/w because the wireless connection will almost always be slower than the cabled connection.

Your Ethernet port claims (in the Lenovo specs.) to be capable of 10/100 so unless it's deliberately slugged by bad tuning, the 55 Mbps speed that you're currently achieving with a wired connection represents the best that the UPC box can deliver and your Wi-Fi speed will not be improved to any significant degree by an upgrade.

Torqay

coylemj wrote: »

my wi-fi is controlled by a device celled 'Intel Centrino Wireless N-1000' while my Ethernet (wired) network capability is provided by a device called 'Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller'.

Then your model has a different (and indeed much better) WLAN adapter. The Atheros AR9285 does not have the best reputation.

coylemj

Torqay wrote: »

Then your model has a different (and indeed much better) WLAN adapter. The Atheros AR9285 does not have the best reputation.

Appreciate that but it's not the issue here. The OP sees '65 Mbps' listed against the Wi-Fi controller and thinks that's the limiting factor in his Wi-Fi speed which it is not if he's only getting 55 Mbps from the cabled connection to UPC using an Ethernet port that claims to be capable of 100 Mbps.

Torqay

The 45/55 Mbps are speedtest.net readings (which may vary at times as well).

OP is on a "up to" 100 Mbps line. (S)he's getting 55 Mbps on the wired connection. Apparently, the Atheros WLAN is not even capable of that, although it says it is locally connected at 65 Mbps. The LAN controller is a gigabit controller and can probably do 1000 Mbps on a gigabit router.

coylemj

Torqay wrote: »

The 45/55 Mbps are speedtest.net readings (which may vary at times as well).

OP is on a "up to" 100 Mbps line. (S)he's getting 55 Mbps on the wired connection. Apparently, the Atheros WLAN is not even capable of that, although it says it is locally connected at 65 Mbps. The LAN controller is a gigabit controller and can probably do 1000 Mbps on a gigabit router.

The Lenovo website say that the G580 Ethernet port is 10/100.

Scroll down to 'Integrated Communications'......

http://shop.lenovo.com/ie/en/laptops/essential/g-series/g580/#techspecs

Cuddlesworth

Torqay wrote: »

The 45/55 Mbps are speedtest.net readings (which may vary at times as well).

OP is on a "up to" 100 Mbps line. (S)he's getting 55 Mbps on the wired connection. Apparently, the Atheros WLAN is not even capable of that, although it says it is locally connected at 65 Mbps. The LAN controller is a gigabit controller and can probably do 1000 Mbps on a gigabit router.

Its UPC not Eircom. Its rare for me to not get 100mbs wired pretty much anywhere in Dublin.

Torqay

coylemj wrote: »

The Lenovo website say that the G580 Ethernet port is 10/100.

Scroll down to 'Integrated Communications'......

http://shop.lenovo.com/ie/en/laptops/essential/g-series/g580/#techspecs

My bad... shame on Lenovo then, gigabit LAN is pretty much standard today, even with the cheapos.

However, speedtest.net is not an indicator for your local LAN and WLAN speed, there are other tools,