[ltp] Wifi range: Cisco Aironet 350 vs IBM a/b/g combo

[linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org]

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Satish Balay wrote:

> Can't say I've tested the range - but perhaps you can check the S/N
> reported by iwconfig - and compare it with other users (of the a/b-g
> card)
> 
> I get the following (with the a/b card and 802.11b AP):
> 
> Link Quality:50/94  (1 ft from Access Point)
> Link Quality:25/94  (15 ft from AP - in the next room separated by a wall)

Thanks, worth checking.  I'm getting very similar figures for my
a/b/g to you: 

Link Quality:45-50/94  (1 ft from Access Point)
Link Quality:26/94  (15 ft from AP - in the next room separated by a wall)

although I have to say that the quality varies rapidly at around 1
foot away: move it a couple of inches and it can drop to 37-38.  I
don't pretend to really understand what link quality means, but at
least if these figures mean much, they indicate that mine's as good
as yours: which means I didn't break anything fitting it.

But compare these with my figures on an older 802.11b Orinoco PCMCIA
card in the same machine (with antenna):

Link Quality:62/92  (1 ft from Access Point)
Link Quality:37/92  (15 ft from AP - in the next room separated by a wall)

I can tell you that the Cisco Aironet 350 miniPCI had very definitely
better range even than this PCMCIA card, without actually having
figures to hand, because it's hard to swap miniPCI: can anyone else
supply these?

Kind of makes the IBM Atheros a/b/g card look very poor, doesn't it?
I'm even thinking of swapping back, and trading speed for range, now
that Fabrice Bellet's airo_mpi driver is so stable...