Thinkpads Forum

Anyone know if it's possible to increase the signal strength (tx / rx power) on the ibm a/b/g I (atheros) wireless card? The reason I ask is I'm running third party firmware on my linksys wrt54gs router and I'm able to increase the wireless tx power (default is 28mW; many users suggest 70-80mW). That's great, but since wireless is a two part network upping tx power on one side (i.e., linksys router) requires an increase in tx power on the other side (i.e., laptop) to see any meaningful increase in range (the router will reach the laptop at greater range, but the laptop cannot reach the router at the same range w/o an increase in its tx power).

Well, just though I'd throw this out there . . .

Paul

I replaced my wifi card with the atheros a/b/g II. It has Extended Range Technology (AR5004X chip) and therefore better range.

You may also replace the antennae of your router with better ones. This will make the router "hear" your ThinkPad better as well as increasing "say" (transmit) signal without increasing wireless power. Increasing wireless transmit power too much will "bleed out" the signal into other frequencies.

DD-WRT is very nice, isn't it?

Unfortunately, I've not seen an Atheros card app that had that kind of specific tweaking. The chipset might support it, but I just haven't seen it.

Keep in mind, this is an OEM card, with a chipset that is also used in other types of adapters. There should be a slew of apps that could work with this.

For example, I had an Envara (Now Intel) chipset based Motorola 802.11g USB adapter, and was annoyed with how crappy the utility was, so I researched, and found an Hawking card utility written by Envara which even supported additional encryption. Worked like a charm. Unfortunately, they no longer exist, so an update will not be forthcoming.

You may find a better app, but deep down, if you want real power, go for an EnGenius/Senao card. They're still the best.

http://www.engeniustech.com/datacom/pro ... aspx?id=41

Tholek wrote:DD-WRT is very nice, isn't it?

No, it isn' t. It' s slow, buggy (often hags up the router), loses its configuration and backups can' t be used. And has VERY BAD QoS.

Tomato Firmware is a lot better.

Well, I was speaking to the OP there. Anyhow, I assume it's better than what he had before.

Show me Tomato for La Fonera, and I'll give it a shot.

Tholek wrote:Show me Tomato for La Fonera, and I'll give it a shot.

No, I won' t. You misuse the Fonera service and therefore should return the hardware and be banned. Really.

vpn-user wrote:

Tholek wrote:Show me Tomato for La Fonera, and I'll give it a shot.

No, I won' t. You misuse the Fonera service and therefore should return the hardware and be banned. Really.

A. = joke. Which I thought was obvious, since their routers are practically disposable.

B. I don't even use their service. Although, if I wanted to buy one and do this, I could since they're FOR SALE.

"Really", back at ya.

Tholek wrote:A. = joke. Which I thought was obvious, since their routers are practically disposable.

B. I don't even use their service. Although, if I wanted to buy one and do this, I could since they're FOR SALE.

"Really", back at ya.

A. You said show me Tomato for La Fonera. So I can assume you have one.

B. See A

You don't need to tell me what I said. I can see it above.

Assume what you like. I know FON and people in general are selling the [censored] things everywhere. I know people who have them, I can grab one cheap myself, and I'm sure as hell not gonna try Tomato, which I haven't heard of before this, on my Linksys.

See above paragraph.

So, you have succeeded in my not wanting to try Tomato now. I'm glad you aren't a Lenovo rep, or else I wouldn't have ordered a T61.

Go on, have the last word. I'll let you.

vpn-user wrote:

Tholek wrote:DD-WRT is very nice, isn't it?

No, it isn' t. It' s slow, buggy (often hags up the router), loses its configuration and backups can' t be used. And has VERY BAD QoS.

Tomato Firmware is a lot better.

I'm a Tomato user as well. I tried to use dd-wrt, but gave up: it's slow, buggy, loses its configuration and . . . Oh, someone already made that point Tomato has been stable and very friendly. Now if I could only figure out how to retrieve IP / MAC specific bandwidth usage . . . but I've posted on the Tomato forum for that issue. Anyway, it looks like I can't play with my atheros settings (sigh). I guess there's a reason for that

Paul Unger wrote:I'm a Tomato user as well. I tried to use dd-wrt, but gave up: it's slow, buggy, loses its configuration and . . . Oh, someone already made that point Tomato has been stable and very friendly. Now if I could only figure out how to retrieve IP / MAC specific bandwidth usage . . . but I've posted on the Tomato forum for that issue. Anyway, it looks like I can't play with my atheros settings (sigh). I guess there's a reason for that

I'll take your word on that.

What's the FRU on the card you have? Going with what I said earlier, I'd look up the OEM model number, and maybe the FCC ID to see if there are apps with additional functionality.

@ Paul Unger

There seems to be a small chance of improving Atheros reception:
http://s116441255.onlinehome.us/IBM.htm

I can't remember what I was looking for when I bookmarked this, though...