mobilenvidia Posted September 22, 2007 Report Share Posted September 22, 2007 GIGABYTE GN-WI06N 802.11N a/b/g/n draft 2.0 Specifications: IEEE Standard 802.11n draft (Backward compatible with Dual-Band 2.4GHz, 802.11b/g & 5GHz,802.11a) Wireless Frequency Range 802.11b/g: 2412 ~ 2484 MHz, 802.11a: 5150 ~ 5350, 5725 ~5850MHz (subject to local regulation) Interface Type PCI-Express Mini-Card specification v1.0. Antenna U.FL/I-PEX connector*3 Data Rate Up to 300 Mbps Cerifications FCC, NCC Dimensions(W x L x H) 50.8 x 29.8 x 4.3 mm ± 0.25mm OS supports Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista Security 64/128/152-bit WEP encryption, TKIP, AES, 802.1x, WPA, WPA-PSK, WPA2 and WPA2-PSK. Others Dynamically scales the data rate Support Quality of Service WMM ? Automatic power management to reduce battery consumption Weight 8.5g This card I bought from OxfordTec a month ago. The WLAN card was not released yet and was placed on back order, Oxfordtec insure the parcel so complete worry free purchase. The card arived 3 weeks later, a small flat parcel with a CD, install guide and the WLAN card it's self. I also bought an antenna to allow all 3 aerials connectors on the Gigabyte to be used. I then proceded to uninstall the Broadcom based Dell 1500 WLAN card. Turned off the machine, removed the battery, removed the WIFI/modem cover on the back of the machine. The antenna fitted into the Dell Inspiron i9400 lid hinge like a glove, real nice fit. This anyone could do with ease, just place the cabe through the hole in the Motherboard and into the compartment which holds the WLAN PCIe socket. Carefully fitted the 3 aerial cables to card, becareful here as it's all very small and fragile. Powered the machine back on. Windows found the new hardware and wanted the location for the drivers. I ignored this (as is best to do) and put the included CD in the drive. The 'Autorun' feature doesn't work with Vista and probably WinXP x64, it does work fine with 32bit Vista and XP. I then ran the app that is in the /bin/ directory on the CD and installed the driver from here. Install went smoothly, I rebooted, now the fun began. After the reboot Windows found my Buffalo A/G draftn router. I then proceded to login, which it did. I headed on over to Firefox and attempted to check the surfing. Then instant NMI/Parity error, caught me by surprise as I never had one of these on a PC before. After many days of trialing and fiddeling around I have come to this conclusion: Any Atheros draftn based WLAN card (only tested on mini-PCIe) also needs an Atheros draftn based router. This only applies for Vista x86 and x64, Draftn works in Windows XP although not ideally with a non Atheros router. Without this the WLAN card will just cause Parity errors (only tested with Marvell based draftn router) I managed to tweak the install INF and can get the WLAN card to work with my router, but at 130Mbps max connection. It seems there are some driver issues with non Atheros routers and draftn. In this mode the card behaves as it should and works really well. The above can be confirmed for some owners with the Atheros based Dlink 655 router have not experiences any problems. The guys at OxfordTec have been really great with the trouble shooting, especially Chris :) To help out with all the issues I've been having they also send out a SparkLAN Atheros based card for troubleshooting and 2 more aerials. OxfordTec are the agents for Gigabyte and SparkLAN in the US and Europe so probably the best bet for most poeple to get one. They accept many forms of payment including Paypal which made my purchase very easy, My conclusions at this point in time are: Unless you have or are also getting an Atheros Draftn based router, avoid any Atheros draftn WLAN card. I'll make available the modded INF for those that have bought an Atheros card and don't have an Atheros router. The card once installed with the modded INF works great, good coverage and speed. I won't benchmark till I get hold of an Atheros router to test with 300Mbps connection. Also in Windows XP the Client Utility is a very handy thing to have, it's very informative and makes connecting to a router very easy. But alas it does not work (well install) in Vista so my Wife gets to play with it on her machine for now. Those with a non Atheros based Draftn router are best to go to a Broadcom etc based solution like the Dell 1500/1505 range. These work at 270Mbps on non Broadcom based routers as the review here has shown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest David Posted September 26, 2007 Report Share Posted September 26, 2007 Do you know when you will be doing this test. I was about to buy either the sparklan or the gigabyte to try on the DIR-655 from oxfordtec.com and would hold off if a review on atheros chiped router would be soon. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
__-_-_-__ Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 I also bought that card but it didn't came with any CD or manual as stated in their website! I've download the driver and utilities from Gigabyte website and tried to installed the card. The drivers always fail to install. I've windows xp x64 and it says it's supported. The guys at oxfordtec only gave me the link to the gigabyte website. no cd, no manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobilenvidia Posted July 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 I also bought that card but it didn't came with any CD or manual as stated in their website! I've download the driver and utilities from Gigabyte website and tried to installed the card. The drivers always fail to install. I've windows xp x64 and it says it's supported. The guys at oxfordtec only gave me the link to the gigabyte website. no cd, no manual. That is strange as the card is a bundle. When I got mine, the card came in a thin sleeve that held the CD and little booklet. No matter, the drivers on the CD are ancient. You should be able to use the XP drivers that I host here. Try one with a Client Utility and installer first (it will which have) The little manual is of no use at the card either works or it doesn't. Keep in touch with how you get on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
__-_-_-__ Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 ofc it didn't work doh >.< I didn't realised they shipped me the wrong card! ofc gigabyte drivers wouldn't work... "Dear Sir, ETA for the Gigabyte card is in about 2 weeks time. For faster we could send you the Sparklan WPEA124N instead but also only at the end of next week. Apologies for this inconvenience but there has been a worldwide shortage of those parts. Regards" I specifically said that I didn't want any sparklan card or any other card I just wanted the GIGABYTE GN-WI06N-RH that I ordered and that I would wait the 2 weeks. After 3 weeks and an half I received the package with the sparklan card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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