Thinkpads Forum

Hi to every body in the forum, recently I buy an used R-40 2681 laptop, but do not com with wifi card, I saw in the botton cover the place to fit, but now here in Venezuela is very difficult to search and buy those cards, I search on the web but not find to much info, thanks god I found this furm for make a lot of questions,

WICH IS THE BEST CARD FOR MY LAP ???

Thanks to the Forum.

I don't know if that model got a built-in antanna, but i guess someone else in this forum would know.
If you have a built-in antenna i would recommend a IBM/Atheros card for sure. I had two different laptops with Intel wlan card and had to replace both since they gave me nothing, but problems. The Atheros card been working without any problems for me on my previous T40 and my current T43p.

Pretty much any IBM wifi card will work; Intel B, Intel B/G, Intel A/B/G, Cisco B, Atheros B/G, or Atheros A/B/G.

The important detail is that it is an IBM OEM card. Or it won't work without a hack.

Your machine already has the antennas. Good luck.

underclocker wrote:Pretty much any IBM wifi card will work; Intel B, Intel B/G, Intel A/B/G, Cisco B, Atheros B/G, or Atheros A/B/G.

The important detail is that it is an IBM OEM card. Or it won't work without a hack.

Your machine already has the antennas. Good luck.

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Hi, is very hard to believe:
I do not find any information about those cards, the problem here in venezuela, those cards are OEM with laptops, no reseller sale, I try to find where to buy through internet "dont find" I use the page of IBM, I do not saw the photos of cards to try to select the correct, PLEASE CAN YOU HELP ME ???

If you use IBM's or Lenovo's web site, the wireless card you should choose must have the words "Mini PCI" in the title, and not "Mini PCIe" or "Mini PCI Express".

I bought a wireless card from there recently for my R40 2723-26M and it worked but required the no-1802 CMOS hack. It was the ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II.

Terrahawk wrote:If you use IBM's or Lenovo's web site, the wireless card you should choose must have the words "Mini PCI" in the title, and not "Mini PCIe" or "Mini PCI Express".

I bought a wireless card from there recently for my R40 2723-26M and it worked but required the no-1802 CMOS hack. It was the ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II.

Yesterday the idea bulb ligths on I check on Ebay web site and I find a lot of cards, what do you think about the Atheros a/b/g or the Intel , or I left to you the advice If you can check on the Ebay web-site I will be glad.
Thanks

I have only ever used an Atheros card in my R40, and they seems to work well. I suspect they under-represent the signal strength compared to the Intel cards though - I put a HP nx5000 with an Intel 2200 a/b/g card in it next to my Thinkpad and it found all the same networks, but with more little green bars next to the network name (I am using the Windows wireless zero configuration).

Terrahawk wrote:I have only ever used an Atheros card in my R40, and they seems to work well. I suspect they under-represent the signal strength compared to the Intel cards though - I put a HP nx5000 with an Intel 2200 a/b/g card in it next to my Thinkpad and it found all the same networks, but with more little green bars next to the network name (I am using the Windows wireless zero configuration).

Could be the antenna, or the fact that it's sitting next to your R40, instead of where the R40 was

I have the Cisco 11b that came with my R40, and just upgraded to a brand new 2200bg that my friend happened to have. I had to do the no-1802 bootable CD in order to have my R40 NOT give me an error on startup. Quick and simple.

Terrahawk wrote: I bought a wireless card from there recently for my R40 2723-26M and it worked but required the no-1802 CMOS hack. It was the ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II.

If your 11abg card is an IBM part, upgrade your BIOS to the latest one, I think they added that card to the white list.

I have the latest BIOS installed (1.33). Apparently, it only adds the IBM a/b/g card, and not the IBM a/b/g II card.

With regard to the signal strength, this surprised me enough at first for me to perform a few tests, *including* turning either laptop off, completely removing one or the other machine from the area and yes, swapping places. Both cards always read the same number of green bars in the Windows Wireless Zero Configuration display, although the apparent lack of signal strength didn't seem to affect any real use.

I tried out a Toshiba Portege 4010 with an old 802.11b card, and it didn't detect half the networks that the Thinkpad or the nx5000 did. I almost bought one of those instead of the R40 too. I'm sure glad I didn't (slower, costs more and has lousy wireless).