Do I need to replace the antenna?

[idata]

I have an Acer Aspire 7740G with a Atheros AR5B93 and I want to put a Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 in it but the Atheros card only supports 2.4GHz and the Intel card supports 2.4/5GHz and I was wondering if I would need to change the antenna in the laptop to be able to take full advantage of the card. Thanks.

[Jose_H_Intel1]

Hi Kameechewa, it may not be strictly necessary to replace the antenna; however, we highly encourage contacting your http://www.intel.com/support/oems.htm system manufacturer in order to obtain a list of validated wireless adapter models for your computer.

The installation of these adapters is subject to country-specific regulatory approvals which include the system, wireless adapter and antennas. The system manufacturer must obtain these approvals from the respective authority.

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-011644.htm Intel® Wi-Fi Products — Regulatory information regarding hardware installation or upgrade

[RA6]

You should not need to replace your antenna. 5GHz is a smaller wave length then 2.4 GHz. So the longer antenna should be fine. The card should tune to 5GHz. If you contact the System Manufacturer will most likely tell you not to change your card.

[idata]

Why would they tell me not to change it? What's wrong in doing that? Shouldn't any card work so long as it's compatible? And thanks for the help though.

[RA6]

In theory yes. But some System manufactures Black list cards. They do not like you to change pretty much any hardware because they can not promises that it will work. They pretty much want you to leave most things alone with a laptop. You can upgrade the RAM and Maybe change out the Hard drive that is about it.. If you have to open up the Systems case to install the Card it can void your warranty. If you do not care about the warranty or it is out of Warranty then you can do anything you want to it. I am a college student and at the school I go to you have to have a dual band card to get good WiFi speeds on campus. I have an HP and I called them to find out what dual band card I could get. Their parts store told me that they did not have a dual band card for my laptop. I bought the AC-7260 and have had no problems with it. I am running Windows 7. I have heard some people with Windows 8 and 8.1 have issues.

[idata]

Thanks for the answer, I will try the card. And if they blacklist cards would there be any way to un-blacklist them?

[RA6]

Well the first thing I would do is go to the System Manufactures website and make sure you download the latest version of your systems BIOS. After you do that I would try installing the card. If it gives an error when starting or if you start the system and install the drivers and it still does not see the card then the system has it blacklisted. The only hack that I have read about is to do research and finding a version of your systems BIOS that does not have it Blacklisted. BE ADVISED THAT IF THE BIOS UPDATES FAILS MIDWAY OR CORRUPTS IT CAN MESS UP YOUR WHOLE MOTHERBOARD TO WHERE YOU WOULD HAVE TO REPLACE IT. Just understand this before updating your BIOS from outside your Systems Manufactures website.

[idata]

Alright thanks for all the help

[RA6]

Kameechewa,

I was wondering if you have tried to install that wireless card? how is it working for you? If you have any other questions or issues I would be glad to help.

[idata]

No I haven't gotten it yet I plan on ordering it this week and then as soon a I install it I will let you know how it goes.

[RA6]

I am just writing you checking up to see if you had any problems installing the card or had any other problems with it.

[idata]

I finally got the damn thing and installed it and after searching for an hour I finally found a driver that works. Windows says my seed is 650kbps so yay. And I cant tell if its on the 5Ghz band or not but its working and now I finally have Bluetooth so yay.

[RA6]

First I want to say I am sorry for getting back to you so late. Been busy with school

Well the first Step to finding out if you are on the 5Ghz band is to know your router model and what type it is. If you have either a Dual band 802.11N router or have a 802.11AC router then you could get access in to the 5Ghz range. If your router is a single band then you will not be able to get the 5Ghz range and you would need to upgrade your router. If do have a router that has the 5Ghz range then most of the time it will say (e.g. Netgear5g and Netgear). In this example the Netgear5g would be your 5Ghz range. If your router has this then you would want to connect to it.

If are unsure if your router offers the 5Ghz range and would like to help Please provide the router Make and model (e.g. Netgear R8000 or Linksys EA3500)

[idata]

I have the new AC Apple Router, I also have an older model set up to extend the network.

[RA6]

If you go into device manager and then Click on the Intel AC7260. then right click it and go down to properties. and click on the advanced tab there in the box there is a preferred band. you can set that to 5Ghz and it should help for it to connect at 5Ghz. you say it is connect at 650kbps that is really slow if you said 650Mbps then you are where you should be.

[idata]

under the 5Ghz band it says auto and yes sorry it says 650Mbps

[RA6]

well that sounds really good. It sounds like everything is working fine with you.

[idata]

yep ^_^