[Pepsione1]

I am searching for a wireless card that can handle heavy torrent traffic. The DLink card USB stick that I am using now is doing ok until I fire up the torrent client. Then everything goes to hell; connections just in my other apps drops and times out and get really slow. Even the torrent app isn't running all that great.

I am sure this router I am using is capable of handling the traffic because I have used it with a laptop with no problems. It's a Linksys WRT54G.

I am looking at this one right now but I am not sure if it can handle the hundreds of peer to peer connections the torrent client tries to push through.

Linksys WMP54G Wireless PCI Adapter 54MBPS 802.11G

 

[RedLeader]

Look at something with an Atheros chipset. Also as a rule... don't buy D-Link products, especially wireless.

 

[ericj]

USB is not the way to go for sure.

It sounds like you're using a desktop machine, and, well, I don't know much about pci cards for desktop machines.

What i can tell you is that in my experience, with cardbus cards and mini-pci cards in laptops, I've had the best luck with Atheros and Intel chipsets.

 

[ericj]

You could for example get a pci-to-mini-pci adapter with an antenna like this:

Mini PCI to PCI Wireless LAN Adapter Card Network Wifi - eBay (item 260225783543 end time Apr-03-08 05:41:43 PDT)

with a cheap Atheros mini-pci card like this one:

Toshiba A70 A75 Atheros WIRELESS CARD MINI PCI WIFI - eBay (item 330224618706 end time Apr-07-08 19:40:24 PDT)

(yeah, it says 'toshiba' on the auction, but it's a bog standard atheros card. i have one exactly like it, and you can see that half the atheros cards on ebay look exactly like it)

And then use the non-branded Atheros drivers.

Edit: Oh wait, that adapter doesn't come with an antenna, just the SMA pigtail. If you have an SMA antenna already, just use that. Otherwise, any wifi antenna with the right connector will work.

 

[Bizzel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedLeader /img/forum/go_quote.gif Look at something with an Atheros chipset. Also as a rule... don't buy D-Link products, especially wireless.

I manage a wireless network that handles around 1200 clients and I can vouch for that. We have a couple of D-Link access points lying around and they're very unreliable.

Ditto for Linksys. I haven't seen a Linksys product that doesn't lock up repeatedly. My first router was a Linksys that would always lock up hard whenever I streamed Quicktime video, that's aside from the random crashes.

I always recommend Netgear simply because I've never had one crash and nobody I know has had one die on them. They might make what you're looking for.

 

[FrederikS|TPU]

Funny most newer Linksys is based on Atheros chipsets. At home I have a WRT300N and WMP300N card in my PC works like a charm. Handles up to about 4000 connections. This is with the newest firmware and all QoS and other poorly implemented technologies turned off. Basic PC operation with steam or windows updating running on is anywhere from 300 to 1500 connections. Checked on a D-Link enterprise level router that can handle up to 12000 connections. Btw: if you want N from Linksys get the EU version, the US version is based on a broadcom chipset and craps out all the time.

 

[ericj]

you know, the older linksys routers are just fine. with openwrt at least.

'course, for the last 14 months or so I've been using a Microsoft MN-700 that i jtagged with a new bootloader and flashed with OpenWRT. It's been completely rock solid, and the signal quality is as good or better than the linksys all over the house, while my wrt54gs sits and collects dust. They're both broadcom based, fwiw, but broadcom's 802.11N chips might not be as good as their G chips.

 

[FrederikS|TPU]

Anything that can run DD-WRT, OpenWRT, Tomato or any other high quality firmware is sweet and will do the job just fine.

I actually had the WRT54GS, but then I need more range so I went all in for a N based setup and it has work just fine. I do miss all of the features that DD-WRT and OpenWRT flashed routers have.

Old Broadcom rocks, but the new stuff sucks at least that is my experience. Especially 1st generation N stuff from Broadcom is really bad. 2nd generation is a bit better seems as though the capacity and stability is much improved it is still not as good as the Atheros based ones.

 

[Pepsione1]

So I can blindly choose any Atheros card and it will be much better then the DLink USB wireless I have? It will handle the heavy torrent traffic I will be putting through it?

I will also get an mini-PCI adapter of course.

 

[ericj]

Well, go for a B/G card. There are some 802.11A atheros cards out there - you don't want that. There might be A/B/G cards too, not sure about those.

I can more or less guarantee that any of the cards with the shield configuration like the one in the auction i liked to are excellent cards. They're all the same thing, off the same production line, no matter who sold them.

 

[dvw]

Torrent traffic will affect the entire network. A router with a large number of connection is essential but that will not solve the problem of concurrent application. You'll need to throttle the torrent download speed to prevent it from overwhelming the network.

Someone was testing torrent download at our company. The experiment brought all other traffic to a crawling speed.

 

[FrederikS|TPU]

Yeah, get an enterprise level router if you want to run connection heavy traffic. D-Link makes excellent small business routers, highly recommendable.

 

[terrymx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvw /img/forum/go_quote.gif Torrent traffic will affect the entire network. A router with a large number of connection is essential but that will not solve the problem of concurrent application. You'll need to throttle the torrent download speed to prevent it from overwhelming the network. Someone was testing torrent download at our company. The experiment brought all other traffic to a crawling speed.

[size=xx-small]Disclaimer, this is not about illegal download.[/size]
He makes a good point. You will want to limit your torrent software for the upload speed, make it such as 2/3rd of your maximum upload at most. Whenever I am uploading anything in general it drags the speed down substantially increases latency. Also use a torrent software that allows you specify the specific number of peers that can be connected, oh wait, you're trying to maximize that number, never mind.

Anyway I am using the Linksys Wireless-G usb adaptor, it uses usb cables and is external instead of being a flashdrive size and have no problem with getting the same speed as direct ethernet connection. But pci may be a good idea.

 

[Pepsione1]

I don't have a bandwidth issue. Just a connection issue.

 

[Pepsione1]

Do I need a little antenna with the PCI to mini PCI adapter? It appears there is a connection for one.