Thinkpads Forum

I've been reading about Atheros chipset wifi cards for a while now, and I also have an IBM 11a/b/g card in my thinkpad, and I've learned that Intel also offers an abg card on the thinkpad now, at a little bit lower price no less. This interests me because I've been installing and configuring Slackware 10.2 Linux on my machine for a while, and gotten the wireless up and running by using madwifi. This seems to be the only way to get the Atheros card running in Linux, and I've read a little bit about the reasons for this limitation on thinkwiki.org, and it says that a proprietary HAL is all that is offered because one might be able to run the chip on any frequency. While I get this concept, I still don't understand why the intel chipset doesn't do that, and so the driver has now been compiled into the 2.6.14 kernel.

This is probably the wrong place to get into a long-winded discussion of this, but there are other things I wish I knew more about.

1) Is there any functional difference between the IBM and Intel cards besides the chipset (i.e. differences in power-consumption, connectivity,etc.?)

2) If I were to decide to change the adapter in my Thinkpad, would it simply involve buying the new card and swapping out the old-one, or would it require a complete change of the mobo?

3)Why does IBM/Lenovo offer both cards in the first place? It seems like there really need be only one offered since they both support all of the same IEEE standards.

1. functional..? maybe.. esp. if your AP is using an atheros chipset..
power..?? i don't know.. but the intel wifi card qualifies for that dumb centrino logo..
i always specified the ibm wifi but lately have used the intel offering..
seems to have as good range if not better around my house but that also could be due to a second generation antenna..

2. if you change the wifi card it should make no difference as long as it is an ibm offering and not a generic..
generic might not work because of a bios check on bootup due to FCC regs that the device be tested.. so ibm guards against strange wifi cards by not allowing one that has not passed the FCC tests in a thinkpad to work in a thinkpad..

3. one word, centrino and wanting to have what is, or was, widely considered a better wifi card..

They offer both cards due to buyer demand. Getting the IBM/Atheros card used to be the defacto recommendation since it was the most stable and consistent It also did a/b/g, whereas I believe the old 2100 intel chip did not. But you are right now with the 2200 chips (is there a newer one?) from intel, have a/b/g and decent operation. So the main reasons to go IBM/Atheros might not exist.

But some people still stay away from intel due to past experiences or baased on someone else's advice. hence a demand for IBM/Atheros. Unclear what this looks like from Linux-land, but I imagine both are probably supported at this point. But that might also account why.

Aaron

I am trying to finalize the configuration for my soon-to-be-ordered X32. On the customization page these are the wireless options:

11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Adapter II [$34.00]
802.11 b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter [$8.50]
Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Mini PCI Adapter [$33.60]
Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Mini-PCI Adapter [$49.56]
Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG Mini PCI Adapter [$8.50]
ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless CardBus Adapter [$80.10]

Having no experience whatsoever with wireless, I really need some guidance in choosing. For instance, what are the differences between the two 2915ABGs priced $33.60 and $49.56?

Your recommendations will be most appreciated.