T41P wireless strenght question

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jaholbro · #1 Post by **jaholbro** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 11:51 am

I've got a GEU with the ibm a/b/g card in it. The range is fairly quesitonable. In class one of my buddies has a crappy emachine laptop that will detect and be able to surf the net (even though his signal is low) but my computer will not pick it up at all. I have updated all the drivers through access ibm so I don't know if there is something i can do or is this pretty what other people deal with too?

pufftissue · #2 Post by **pufftissue** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 12:00 pm

Just want to second this observation. I am not a techie, but I just know that something ain't right with my a/b/g card. I got the $100 card b/c it got rave reviews here, that Atheros chipset. I replaced my 802.11b intel card with it. But the range is the same, if not worse. It just doesn't detect nearly as many networks. I'm certainly disappointed with it. I took great care to install it, and even then, when it wasn't so rangy, I reinstalled it. To make sure that I'm not imaginging things, I have access to some dell truemobile 1300/1350 b/g cards, and even the intel 802.11b card in my sis' 600m, and that sucker is connecting all over the house.
I am wondering if there is something faulty with my t41's internal antennae or something. The large premium I paid for this mediocre performance is disappointing, and that's why I am thinking about selling it all and getting a dell--it ain't as good on the whole, but paying literally $750 for similar specs vs $1500 would make my whine a whole lot less. FYI, I also had a 300m inspiron briefly and that little guy had superb range as well vs my t41. And my buddy's vaio vgn-s150, that 13.3" wxga screen, that one gets nice range as well, so I don't get it.

sktn77a · #3 Post by **sktn77a** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 12:23 pm

My a/b/g card is about 9 months old (so it is the earlier Atheros card). It's just fine and has a little better range than my intel b and b/g cards in my other computers. Have you checked to see that it's properly seated and that the antennas are properly attached?

hiengu · #4 Post by **hiengu** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 3:43 pm

I have the same wireless card on my T41 and have similar problems. I just got my laptop last Friday. All seemed well with the wireless until I did an update of drivers with "IBM Update Connector" ... I guess it flashed something. Ever since that time, my wireless range has decreased. It gets flaky in the living room on G mode, but is fine on B mode. If I'm closer to the access point in my bedroom, wireless G mode is rock solid.

Not sure if it's my Microsoft MN 700 wireless router or the IBM wireless card. Any thoughts???

gpvillamil · #5 Post by **gpvillamil** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:43 am

I have T41p with the IBM a/b/g card, and an X22 with a Linksys PCMCIA a/b/g card.

The Linksys card is between 4x to 8x faster, has about 30% more range and is more reliable at detecting networks. It is a bit disappointing that the X22 outperforms the T41p in almost everything except CPU and graphics.

If I didn't need the PCMCIA slots on the T41p, I'd get another Linksys card.

tripper · #6 Post by **tripper** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 2:31 pm

it's kind of weird because a friend has a T20 with a PC Card Netgear b/g card and that seems to perform MUCH better than my T42 with IBM 2200 b/g built in. i get all sorts of dropouts. perhaps the PC Card just has a better airial.

lfeagan · #7 Post by **lfeagan** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 2:48 pm

I have an Atheros based PCMCIA card (Lucent Orinoco Gold) and it seems to be slightly better than the Intel 2200BG with some situations (one wall) and worse with others (three walls to go through). Both cards on full power. It's a little curious. I am not sure what the conclusion one could reach is, though my general feeling from personal use is that the Intel 2200BG is able to connect from further away, perhaps by about 1 or 2 walls or 50 feet with no walls.

nikemen · #8 Post by **nikemen** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 2:57 pm

I think that Full power internal, and full power PC card are differant.
There was a review a while back that showed power drain on PC cards, much higher than internal ones.
this could mean that the pc cards are using more, and exercising more power than internal ones. Meaning, great signal strength and throughput?

skanky · #9 Post by **skanky** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 8:09 pm

i have a netgear wg511 pcimca and a ibm a/b/g card.

the wg511 has better range/link speed than the a/b/g with the 3.12 bios, actually the machine was unable to get a connection even when i held the machine up next to the router!

flashed back to 3.08 and am able to get a wireless connection in the same room, but nothing when trying to connect wirelessly through 2 walls.

windows is reporting 36mbps connection through the windows software but it actually connects at this distance and through the walls, something the ibm card isnt able to do! :/

bit weird that my T40 2373-RG9 didnt like that bios version for some reason..

T41P wireless strenght question

T41P wireless strenght question

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