Sam
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Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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Is it worth it?
We've got a few laptops here, which all have the usual 802.11B/G mini PCI cards from the factory.
Is the speed/performance difference very noticeable if we got a wireless N router with matching mini PCI cards for the laptops?
I was tempted to get one that also supported gigabit ethernet as there is a server and one of the laptops connected to the router via ethernet most of the time, but the laptop doesn't have a gigabit ethernet LAN port on it.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Do you transfer large files across wireless?
If the laptop doesn't have gigabit ethernet the fastest you will get is 100mb.
Apart from future proofing slightly it sounds like it would be a waste of time.
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Sam
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Well my daily system is a laptop connected via 10/100 ethernet, which gives a transfer speed of about 9MB-ish from laptop > server and vice-versa.
But other laptops connect via WLAN at 54MB (no idea on actual transfer speeds on the network from them though)?
I personally transfer a lot of data between my laptop and the server regularly, but less regularly for the other laptops via WLAN.
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oceansoul
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Sunbury, Surrey
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Pcmcia gigabit LAN card?
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Sam
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Location: West Midlands
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My laptop doesn't have a PCMCIA slot in it... Would probably have to be USB based (if such a thing exists).
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Andrew
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I'm waiting for something to come into work i can steal to test this. Will let you know how i get on Sam. Not really wanting to spend any of my own money at the minute 
Currently i have a gigabit switch and use cables. Transfer 8GB - 20GB files regularly hence not quite sure if wireless will be reliable enough.
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Sam
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Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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@ stealing!
Is there any faster way of networking other than ethernet - like fibre or something? (separate question to the Wireless N by the way).
[Edited on 10-09-2010 by Sam]
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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How big are the files you are transferring?
It's possible to get fibre faster than gigabit ethernet but it costs a lot of money.
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PaulW
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Registered: 26th Jan 03
Location: Atherton, Greater Manchester
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Sam, the WirelessN cards have 3 antenna sockets on them in the laptops, and you need 3 antennas for it to work correctly too.
I fitted an Intel Wireless N card to my laptop, but never fitted the 3rd antenna originally, and it ran like a bag of wank & pretty much stayed at G-speeds for stability.
Fitting the 3rd antenna (got one on eGay), speeds shot up and it was much more stable 
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Sam
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Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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Files can range from say 5MB to about 8GB.
Hmmm this whole Wireless N thing seems like a bit of an arse by the sounds of it?
What sort of real world speeds do you get transferring from your laptop to say another computer on your network, Paul?
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Fro
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Registered: 20th Jun 06
Location: Rainham, Essex Drives: A3 2.0TDi Sport
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Made a difference with the downstairs comp when downloading from the interweb. Wasn't too costly either iirc.
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
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quote:
Originally posted by Sam
@ stealing!
Is there any faster way of networking other than ethernet - like fibre or something? (separate question to the Wireless N by the way).
Will take home for testing purposes, then tell the boss i'm keeping it They will get it back when something better comes in i fancy  There's a Draytek 2820w coming in soon 
Gigabit is fast enough for my weekly 40GB uploads and never lets me down. Tend to copy across while having a bath etc
[Edited on 10-09-2010 by Andrew]
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noshua
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Registered: 19th Nov 08
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I've got Wireless N (built in) on my laptop.
Sat at the other side of the house upstairs (from the router), XBOX1 running XBMC next to the router via Ethernet and it maxed out the transfer speeds, ~9MB/s (same as above on your post).
Was done on the standard Virgin Media router (D-LINK DIR-615)
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