Arch Linux

wirenik

Member

Registered: 2008-08-22

Posts: 134

Which wireless card should I choose?

I am in the market for a new laptop and I have selected the Dell Inspiron 13. Obviously I plan to run Arch Linux on it.

Dell.com offers three options for wireless:
1) Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini-Card
2) Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card
3) Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card

I'd like to get 802.11n support, so options #2 and #3 appear to be my top choices. Which of these are best for a laptop I'd like to last awhile? Thanks for your time!

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moljac024: No one really knows what happens inside /dev/null... it could be a gateway to another universe....
dunc: If it is, the people who live there must be getting pretty annoyed by now with all the junk we send them.

elliott

Member

Registered: 2006-03-07

Posts: 296

Re: Which wireless card should I choose?

I believe the #3 is an Intel 5300, very nice card and Intel seems to always have the best support. I think card #2 is a Broadcom card, notoriously poor support in Linux.

wirenik

Member

Registered: 2008-08-22

Posts: 134

Re: Which wireless card should I choose?

I believe the #3 is an Intel 5300, very nice card and Intel seems to always have the best support. I think card #2 is a Broadcom card, notoriously poor support in Linux.

Oh, I didn't realize that they had different names! That must be why my Google searching yielded such poor results!

Well, that sounds good. How can I find out the "real" drivers in the future?

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moljac024: No one really knows what happens inside /dev/null... it could be a gateway to another universe....
dunc: If it is, the people who live there must be getting pretty annoyed by now with all the junk we send them.

denisfalqueto

Member

From: ES, Brazil

Registered: 2006-03-24

Posts: 197

Re: Which wireless card should I choose?

I believe the #3 is an Intel 5300, very nice card and Intel seems to always have the best support. I think card #2 is a Broadcom card, notoriously poor support in Linux.

This is changing for Bradcom. They are supporting Linux very well now, with a native driver. See: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

A friend of mine has used it and said it works very well.

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Satisfied users don't rant, so you'll never know how many of us there are.

Cyrusm

Member

From: Bozeman, MT

Registered: 2007-11-15

Posts: 1,053

Re: Which wireless card should I choose?

I have the Dell 1395 on my laptop.  Broadcom just released a platform independent driver for this card.
intstalation instructions can be found here. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Broadcom_BCM4312
You can either build it from the AUR (what I recommend) or you can download it from the broadcom website and
compile/install manually, whichever you prefer.

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Hofstadter's Law:
           It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

wirenik

Member

Registered: 2008-08-22

Posts: 134

Re: Which wireless card should I choose?

Thanks for the input, everyone!

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moljac024: No one really knows what happens inside /dev/null... it could be a gateway to another universe....
dunc: If it is, the people who live there must be getting pretty annoyed by now with all the junk we send them.