I've got a couple Linux laptops with terrible wireless G wifi cards, and one with an Atheros BGN card that has drivers from hell. (If you have any suggestions to make 802.11n work on ath9k cards, feel free to make my day) I need to buy new wireless cards at least for the laptops with outdated hardware, and probably for the one with horrible drivers. I'm eyeing the $30 Intel AC miniPCIe cards on Amazon, just because they'd last me for years without an upgrade, but can anyone provide some insight? I don't own any or I'd test, but if I'm buying new cards I want the absolute most reliable and best supported ones out there. I only need wireless N, AC is just a bonus for down the road when I get AC at my house.
TLDR: Need reasonably priced laptop miniPCIe wifi card that's 802.11n or better and will work without hassle on Ubuntu
Well A) you need to look at a compatibility with the intel cards first as I have had problems with them in the past, and B) wireless G is actually pretty good (3 MB download speed on my G lappys in steam :D) depending on the OS. For something like ubuntu where drivers are not consistently upkept that could be a problem for you ESPECIALLY in 14.04. New drivers are released with each OS iteration and different drivers work with different kernels.
If you're getting like 500 KBPS downloads then yeah thats a problem, but I would fiddle with drivers before throwing 20 bucks at a wifi card. 60 at 3 plus shipping and all that bull.
For a recommendation all I could really say is take a peek at what Asus might have? Again you should look at a list compatible to your BASE OS (ubu is technically debian) and see what is how much and where it is in terms of practicality.
And if nothing else give the rolling release OS's a shot and often whatever wifi card you have will work 85% of the time. Sometimes theres a weird one like ActionTeck that MAY or MAY NOT work. I'm just saying play with some options first is all :P
This is a dumb question, but which Linux distros are considered rolling release?
Also, the biggest reason I need 802.11n is because my school's WiFi only works with N clients. Our IT department is too crazy to find their way out of a wet paper sack and they set all the APs to N-only mode despite the fact that half the schools laptops are G. So everything I use on the BYOD WiFi must be N or I don't get a connection.
Is there a proprietary driver from Atheros that would work? Kind of like with GPUs? I don't really mind if the driver isn't OSS.
Arch, Netrunner, Opensuse Tumbleweed, stuff like that.
Also if you need it on that level just get a USB wireless N card. 10 bucks each if not less for the TP-Link ones which I can stand behind. Also if your school is that retarded get a rally together and petition them. If they want to say its more secure tell them they're full of shit.
If you want to try a rolling release OS I recommend Netrunner Rolling.
The one con I ran into though is that you need a firmware package with it that is non free. You may or may not care about the free aspect, but this can get annoying doing netinstalls of distros like debian that won't have the firmware included. You will either need to provide these files separately or go wired during install.
I had no problem with every intel wireless card I owned and they work great. I don't have Intel AC 7260 but I hear its pretty good.
HOWEVER: while many card work great as clients some advanced functions like infrastructure mode (to behave like a wireless ap) or monitor mode (for capturing packets for network analysis) might not be supported by the driver (depending on the card) and might take a while (or never) for the driver to support those functions. If you are looking for these functions search first for the recommended card for these operations.
In doubt you can search information on the chipset and available drivers search the wikidevi and its chipset table. Be sure to consult the drivers own webpage for a list supported card and its respective functionalities.
That's the one I was eyeballing, actually, since System76 sells laptops they support with Ubuntu and they say they use Intel wireless cards. I figure if it's reliable enough to sell supported laptops it's reliable enough for me, and I know Intel makes good network stuff at least in the Ethernet world.
Has anyone had any MASSIVE issues with these? What have your experiences been, particularly on Ubuntu?
i always find atheros chip cards to be most compatible. Many wonder why? Its obvious ppl were doing all the sniffing and cracking on them so the drivers are in decent shape.
I've never had an Atheros card outright refuse to work, but I've also literally never been able to get either of the two I have working in 802.11n mode. They're all stuck in G, and even if I do an iwlist scan it tells me APs I know are 802.11n are only supporting up to 54mbps bit rate. I'm going to try a couple different distros via live CD within the next few weeks, but over 3 different Ubuntu releases I've never had any luck with the ath9k driver.
