T42p Intel 2200BG Wireless Problems

[fibersnet]

Hello, I just purchased my very first thinkpad. Overall, I am very happy with it. The keyboard is awesome, graphics are great, screen is sweet, battery is okay at 2:45 on a full charge.
One of the last things I have yet to conquer is the wireless.
I am using the Intel 2200BG.
I have read all the other threads on the 2200BG but none seem to apply to my situation.
My upload is always around 10Mb connecting at 100% signal strength on 802.11g
However, my download will fluctuate between 10Mb and 1Mb, sometimes, even lower than 1Mb, ~ 300kb
I use linux as my primary operating system, I am running version 2.4 of the firmware for ipw2200.
I also tested this problem in windows and it reproduced the exact same error. I also updated to the newest drivers from the Intel website as of today (11/05/05) for Windows and the problem still persists.
I am going to try to find out what kind of wireless router it is.
Has anyone experienced perfectly fine Upload speeds but varying download speeds?
If I download a large file, I notice the transfer starts at ~30KB/s goes all the way up to 650KB/s then back to 30KB/s and so on, over and over.
I hope I have given enough information, Could this be a hardware problem?
One last tid bit of information that might help troubleshoot, for the first few minutes after the computer is on and the OS is either Linux or Windows, I get a perfect 15Mb/15Mb on throughput tests to a device connected on the other side of the router. After that, the download goes downhill, the upload remains the same.
Thanks


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Update:
After reading many depressing posts about this wireless card, I have decided to either buy a new Mini PCI card and replace the 2200BG or buy a PCMIA wireless card.

Does anyone know if the T42P S/N 2373XXX will support a MiniPCI card from a differnet vendor?

http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~mjg59/thinkpad/wireless.html

Thanks

[GomJabbar]

Does anyone know if the T42P S/N 2373XXX will support a MiniPCI card from a differnet vendor?

http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~mjg59/thinkpad/wireless.html

Thanks

The link you provided answers your own question. The Mini PCI card must have an IBM sticker on it. In other words the card must have an IBM FRU number, otherwise the laptop will not boot. PCMCIA cards are not affected by this. Any PCMCIA card that is supported by the Operating System should work.

[carbon_unit]

Which distro are you running? I am running Xandros 3.02 and I do not experience the same problem with my 2200BG although I was expecting to. I connect to a Linksys WRT54G router at home and various equipment in the field.

[fibersnet]

I am running Debian Linux (2.6.14) but this problem also happens under windows. I now realize that my problem is the one that many other people are having too.

Another option is to return this laptop under the 30 day warranty and request a new laptop with an Atheros based minipci card.

[Ojisan]

You may want to check out
http://www.ces.clemson.edu/linux/fc2-ipw2200.shtml
although this is for Fedora Core, he has some good info on this subject.

I wonder if there is a strange firmware/driver issues...