3945 Network Card and Linksys "SpeedBooster"

Anything faster than 54 Mbps is non-standard.  Since different manufacturers use different non-standard protocols to acheive the higher speed, all network cards, routers, modems, etc. generally only work at the higher speed if they are from the same manufacturer and incorporate the same speed boosting technology.   Note also that any speed higher than about 15 Mbps will not improve the speed of internet connections, since cable and dsl providers usually provide speeds much less than 15 Mbps (usually 2 - 5 Mbps).  So, the only advantage that wireless network speeds greater than 54 Mbps would have is if you are frequently transfrerring large files between computers on the local network.  So in short, the 3845 from Intel is not going to acheive speeds faster than 54 Mbps with the Linksys device.  Intel is a different manufacturer than Linksys.

Steve

Thanks Steve.  I have 3 laptops to deal with...and I wasn't sure if the SpeedBooster would help me or not.  Besides the Intel 3945 it won't help....I also have a Intel 2200 and a Dell 1370.  It looks like the Dell 1370 has an option to enable Afterburner...but it's the only one.  As such...doesn't look like it's really worth the extra 20 bucks.....that is....unless Linksys WRT54GS is going to have a higher throughput at longer range than the WRT54G.  Know anything about that?

Sorry, I don't know much about throughput and range variations of all the different routers.  You might try posting a new message with a new subject and perhaps someone will be able to help.

Steve

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@mattgreene22 wrote:

Thanks Steve. I have 3 laptops to deal with...and I wasn't sure if the SpeedBooster would help me or not. Besides the Intel 3945 it won't help....I also have a Intel 2200 and a Dell 1370. It looks like the Dell 1370 has an option to enable Afterburner...but it's the only one. As such...doesn't look like it's really worth the extra 20 bucks.....that is....unless Linksys WRT54GS is going to have a higher throughput at longer range than the WRT54G. Know anything about that?

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Some of the suites such as Broadcom SpeedBooster and Atheros SuperG do have SOME extensions that provide improvements when working with standard 802.11 hardware. There are two aspects that affect WLAN performance - raw signaling rate, and throughput (percentage of that raw signaling rate you achieve in the real world). Techniques that improve signaling rate beyond 54 Mbps won't work with silicon from different manufacturers (such as Atheros or Intel silicon working with a Broadcom-based access point), but techniques that improve real-world throughput as a percentage of that signaling rate often do work with dissimilar manufacturers.

For example, when Turbo G (108 Mbps) mode is disabled in Netgear's RangeMax WPN824, it still provides throughput and signal strength benefits over standard 802.11g hardware, even with non-Atheros clients. (I use the Intel 3945 with my WPN824 in G-only mode and it works wonderfully.)