Wireless options on a new Thinkpad?

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#1 Post by **carbon_unit** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 10:43 pm

When configuring a thinkpad how do you tell which wireless network upgrade is the IBM card and which is the cisco card?
They are listed as:
11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Adapter II
ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter
ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II (US)
I'm not wanting the intel cards.

Steve007 · #2 Post by **Steve007** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:14 am

carbon_unit wrote:I'm not wanting the intel cards.

Why not?

#3 Post by **carbon_unit** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 5:24 am

The Intel cards are not as well supported in Linux as the IBM (atheros) and Cisco cards are.

sugo · #4 Post by **sugo** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 6:11 am

Not sure about first one. These two are Atheros

ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter
ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II (US)

#5 Post by **carbon_unit** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 7:58 am

Why is there two atheros listed? What is the difference?

brainpicker · #6 Post by **brainpicker** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 9:07 am

carbon_unit wrote:Why is there two atheros listed? What is the difference?

The newer card uses the latest version of the Atheros chips. It's supposed to offer greater distance and reliability. I don't have (nor have I had) a laptop with the newer model, but the older model was wonderful so I would be satisfied with IT should the new model be quite a bit more costly.

I don't believe the Cisco version is available other than in just 802.11b. The Cisco version isn't "really" Cisco manufactured either. Cisco loaned their name out to the chip maker. You can confirm this by going to the Cisco website where they direct you to the chip maker or the manufacturer of your laptop who sold you the card. It was a great distance card from what I remember having in my previous T42's that had one. Cisco never offered support to the end user either.

The Intel a/b/g is a fine card to me. I have it in my X41's and can't tell a difference in performance from my older IBM 11a/b/g cards.

Just my opinion.

Yak

kevinh · #7 Post by **kevinh** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 9:52 am

I'm not sure what distribution you are using, but all of the current Red Hat versions (RHEL, Fedora, CentOS, White Box EL) support the Intel chips, as does Ubuntu, and others I'm sure. The idea that Linux supports Atheros better than Intel is an outdated myth. I'm running CentOS 4 with the Intel chip just fine--the modules for Intel were already pre-installed with the OS.

Kevin

#8 Post by **carbon_unit** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 11:40 am

In the Xandros forum I have seen that some people were having problems with the 2200bg driver and were having to use ndiswrapper to get it to work.
I am trying to avoid potential problems.
I've surfed a lot of distro's. For now this is the one I want to use.

c333 · #9 Post by **c333** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 1:23 pm

I was wondering the same thing. The T43 through the Visa discount comes with Intel 2915ABG standard, and an optional 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Adapter II for $35. But you have to install/replace it yourself. About 15 screws and remove the keyboard the man said. Is it worth it? I guess i could always buy and upgrade later.

sugo · #10 Post by **sugo** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 6:18 pm

carbon_unit wrote:Why is there two atheros listed? What is the difference?

AR5001X+ vs AR5004 chipset.

#11 Post by **carbon_unit** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:08 pm

sugo wrote:
carbon_unit wrote:Why is there two atheros listed? What is the difference?
AR5001X+ vs AR5004 chipset.

Thank You!
That is Exactly what I was looking for.

zman3001 · #12 Post by **zman3001** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 5:19 pm

actually the cisco card is a cisco chipset on the card...its the same chipset used in the b card for the 1200 series access points..i know this because i pulled one out of a ibm and installed it in the ap and it worked...anyone know where i can get the native atheros config program?

sugo · #13 Post by **sugo** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 6:09 pm

zman3001 wrote:where i can get the native atheros config program?

Fujitsu lifebook support downloads

Wireless options on a new Thinkpad?

Wireless options on a new Thinkpad?

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