Gigabyte AirCruiser N300 Dual

Last month we had looked at the Gigabyte AirCruiser N300 GN-WI30N-RH 802.11n WiFi adapter. The wireless adapter uses the Ralink RT2860 chipset, which doesn't have a Linux driver in the kernel, but we were able to easily get this 802.11n wireless adapter working with Ubuntu when using ndiswrapper and the Windows driver. Today we have our hands on the Gigabyte AirCruiser N300 Dual GN-WI06N-RH, which is a PCI Express Mini-Card with dual-band 802.11a/b/gn support. How well does this Atheros-based WiFi card work on Linux? We'll tell you in this review.

Features:

- Dual-Band: 2.4GHz/5GHz
- 802.11n with advanced MIMO (Multi-In, Multi-Out) technology
- Backwards compatible with 802.11b/g
- Auto power management support
- PCI Express Mini-Card v1.0
- 64/128/152-bit WEP encryption, TKIP, AES, 802.1x, WPA, WPA-PSK, WPA2 and WPA2-PSK

Contents:

Like the Gigabyte AirCruiser GN-WI30N-RH, the GN-WI06N-RH arrived in a slim cardboard container that's similar to a CD jewel case. Included with the PCI Express Mini-Card was a CD that contained the Windows drivers and connection software for this card. Also like the earlier Gigabyte WiFi card we reviewed, the GN-WI06N-RH is only being made available to system integrators, but it's not hard to find this wireless card online if you wish to buy one as an end-user.

Examination:

The Gigabyte GN-WI30N-RH supports MIMO (Multi-In, Multi-Out) technology and as such, it has support for three antennas. At the end of the card opposite the PCI Express connector are the connections for two main and one auxiliary antenna. This card for mobile devices measures in at 51mm by 30mm and its net weight is 8.5 grams. If using 802.11n draft wireless, this notebook module supports speeds up to 300MB/s. On the opposite side of the card is the MAC address, model number, and serial number. The GN-WI30N-RH was manufactured in China. Unlike the GN-WI30N-RH that has a Mini-PCI Type III interface, this module is a PCI Express Mini-Card.