Which 802.11abg mini-PCI card to upgrade to?

[SkiBunny]

I want to upgrade the Intel 2100b wifi card on my T40.

The thinkpad/atheros 802.11abg option for the T40/T41 (31P9701, 91P7301) has been discontinued. Lenovo now only sells the 2nd-gen thinkpad 802.11abg (40Y7026) for 60-series thinkpads.

Should I upgrade to that 2nd-gen thinkpad 801.11abg (40Y7026) anyway?
Or upgrade to some intel card?? (I found atheros to be stronger in the past)

What about this one? It matches the FRU# of the 802.11 option for my T40, but it's Philips instead of Atheros!! (huh?)
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0134082653

[bill bolton]

Should I upgrade to that 2nd-gen thinkpad 801.11abg (40Y7026) anyway?

You can't.

T4x ThinkPads use a miniPCI card interface for the WiFi card. T6x ThinkPads use a miniPCI-E card interface for the WiFi card.

The two interface types have electrical and form-factor differences, so are not compatible.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[tomh009]

The proper Atheros cards are still easy to find on eBay. I think this one should even work without the no-1802 patch:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0132606799

[underclocker]

I want to upgrade the Intel 2100b wifi card on my T40.

The thinkpad/atheros 802.11abg option for the T40/T41 (31P9701, 91P7301) has been discontinued. Lenovo now only sells the 2nd-gen thinkpad 802.11abg (40Y7026) for 60-series thinkpads.

Should I upgrade to that 2nd-gen thinkpad 801.11abg (40Y7026) anyway?
Or upgrade to some intel card?? (I found atheros to be stronger in the past)

What about this one? It matches the FRU# of the 802.11 option for my T40, but it's Philips instead of Atheros!! (huh?)
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0134082653

This is the correct, first generation Atheros A/B/G adapter that will work fine in the T40. A while back, Atheros and Philips either had a joint venture or were the same company or something. All of these adapters that I've seen (and I've seen many) say Philips.

The T40 will take nearly any mini-PCI made for ThinkPads. Atheros b/g, Atheros a/b/g, Atheros a/b/g II, Intel b/g, (I think, Intel a/b/g, too, but I personally haven't done this upgrade, yet...)

Good luck.

[jargoone]

The Philips card is the Atheros card, just rebranded.

I have one of each that I can sell you. PM me if interested.

[SkiBunny]

The Philips card is the Atheros card, just rebranded.

I have one of each that I can sell you. PM me if interested.

Yep. May you please check the FRU and/or part# on it?
Thanks!

[nichevo]

The Philips card is the Atheros card, just rebranded.

I have one of each that I can sell you. PM me if interested.

Yep. May you please check the FRU and/or part# on it?
Thanks!

Just bought a 91P7301 Philips-branded card on ebay, from pcsurplusonline.com who has a store there. Got lucky, but plenty on sale/auction in the $20s and $30s. It was a little wider, or higher, than the 2200 I pulled, but it fit, and it seems to work perfectly. No 1802.

(Anybody wanna buy a 2200?)

[SkiBunny]

I just did some comparison testing...

My T40 with its 2200B seems to be performing the same as as my T60 Atheros 11abg, in terms of wifi strength and time it takes to download a large doc (whether close or far from the router). Go figure. (The T40 shows speed of 11.0 Mbps and the T60 shows 54Mbps, tho the actual download speeds are much lower and about the same for both speeds. I have a Netgear MIMO router with cable ultra-highspeed service)

[underclocker]

I just did some comparison testing...

My T40 with its 2200B seems to be performing the same as as my T60 Atheros 11abg, in terms of wifi strength and time it takes to download a large doc (whether close or far from the router). Go figure. (The T40 shows speed of 11.0 Mbps and the T60 shows 54Mbps, tho the actual download speeds are much lower and about the same for both speeds. I have a Netgear MIMO router with cable ultra-highspeed service)

Perhaps this will explain your results...

An often forgotten and/or unknown fact about 802.11g is that if you mix 802.11b and 802.11g devices, ALL WILL OPERATED AT 802.11b SPEEDS!!! By connecting to your network with the T40 with a b wifi card, you are slowing the whole thing down!

[SHoTTa35]

well that is if you have one of those older cards and chipsets that can't handle it. Most newer routers can handle .11B and .11G at the sametime without dragging the whole network down to B speeds. Granted it wont be as fast as a complete G network but the G devices will operate faster than the B devices still.

I think the new N routers too are immune to this somewhat also, they will run each device as their speeds but to get full N speeds you put the router in N ONLY mode and you'll get a boost.

[tomh009]

I just did some comparison testing...

My T40 with its 2200B seems to be performing the same as as my T60 Atheros 11abg, in terms of wifi strength and time it takes to download a large doc (whether close or far from the router). Go figure. (The T40 shows speed of 11.0 Mbps and the T60 shows 54Mbps, tho the actual download speeds are much lower and about the same for both speeds. I have a Netgear MIMO router with cable ultra-highspeed service)

If you are on Rogers or Sympatico, their Internet connection will be slower than 'b' wireless, so switching to 'g' will not improve your Internet performance -- only connections within your local wireless LAN will get faster.

[tomh009]

An often forgotten and/or unknown fact about 802.11g is that if you mix 802.11b and 802.11g devices, ALL WILL OPERATED AT 802.11b SPEEDS!!! By connecting to your network with the T40 with a b wifi card, you are slowing the whole thing down!

Mixing devices can hurt performance, depending on the type of access point and the configuration, but generally will not drop you down to 'g' speeds.

'a' still rules in my book. Or 'n' on the 5 GHz band.

[SkiBunny]

if you mix 802.11b and 802.11g devices, ALL WILL OPERATED AT 802.11b SPEEDS!!! By connecting to your network with the T40 with a b wifi card, you are slowing the whole thing down!

Thanks for the good sugg, I'd tried 802.11g-only but no difference in performance with them.

If you are on Rogers or Sympatico, their Internet connection will be slower than 'b' wireless, so switching to 'g' will not improve your Internet performance -- only connections within your local wireless LAN will get faster.

That's it!