T21 and wireless help!

[red_dragon]

Hi,
I just bought a T23 Screen for my T21 and the T23 screen has an extra wire sticking out. Seems like the antenna. Can I buy this card:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Pro-Wireless- ... dZViewItem
and then have the wireless work? Or do I have to buy this card:
http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-Intel-Pro-Wirel ... dZViewItem
to make it work. Thanks for your help!

Dave

[Nolonemo]

Any wifi card that will fit the connector will work (there are no bios issues as with the higher-number Txxs).

I was using the Intel 2200 bg in my T22 when I was fooling with internal antennas, it worked fine.

[red_dragon]

ok so there isn't bios issues with T22's how about T23's?

edit: cuz I was looking at the atheros mini pci card but someone else told me it wouldn;t work with my T23 or T21

[Nolonemo]

No bios issues with T23 either.

[Smiley]

The saga continues .... below is T21 user who made antenna with speaker wire. Can be found in Newegg customer review of Intel 2915:

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Fee ... 219&page=1

Extract below:

"Does NOT require WLAN antenna!
When I ordered this card, I knew it was going to work well. But after actually receiving it and installing it, I wasn't expecting it to EXCEED those expectations.

For $xx you are seriously buying one of THE best solutions for wireless connectivity in a laptop. I even have a few secrets for you NewEgg'ers.

1) THIS CARD DOES NOT REQUIRE YOUR LAPTOP TO HAVE A PRE-INSTALLED WLAN ANTENNA.
-- I have a very reliable ThinkPad T21. It is moderately outdated, meaning it has no WLAN capabilities whatsoever. My laptop does not have an antenna. Instead of buying an antenna, I simply improvised. In your house, find any THIN diameter wire or about 1 foot in length or so. [Speaker wire seems to work good.] -- just any wire with a plastic sheilding that can snugly wedge into the antenna port. [With a peice of speaker wire, I used a small sewing needle to push open a small opening in the end of the wire, so that the pin in the antenna jack could insert into the wire casing.] Then, secure the wire's end in place with electrical tape [or some other adhesive,] Place a cap at the other end of the wire as well [with tape or something else] just to prevent any shortages from other circuits. If you know how to dismantle your laptop, you can then find a way to string the wire antenna through your laptop in small acavities and whatnot just like a conventional antenna. Put your laptop back together, and voila, your signal is now boosted to almost the same / THE same results as using a real WLAN antenna. I've tested this thourougly, it provides no damage to the card, and wastes no extra battery. Highly recommended.

-- Some things about the cards operation: DO NOT be fooled if this card says your connection is merely "good" or "poor." This card has POWER SAVING modes set on by default! When the networking on your laptop is not being used, this card will enter a state of low-power mode, lowing it's transmit/receive range and frequency to conserve batter. Opening up a web browser or anything else will boost the performance back up to max again. -- or to a preset level you can choose.

This card also has a Software-Off mode just by clicking on the system-tray icon, so if you're laptop has no "WLAN OFF" button, don't worry, you can still turn the card off to conserve mega battery.

This card is awesome, it works perfectly in every respect, and then some.

Be sure to try the household-wire antenna trick, you will be surprised of the results."

Leave it to human ingenuity! Have fun!