Add internal wireless to ThinkPad T30 2366-21U

[cn487311]

Folks, please tell me whether I have a correct understanding on adding internal wireless capability to this machine, ThinkPad T30, model 2366-21U. I prefer internal wireless than PCMCIA because I don’t like the outstanding antenna very much. Pardon me if this sounds really simple – I am not very familiar with IBM ThinkPad, but I started to love it since I bought this used T30 for my wife. Thanks in advance.

First question, is this model the so-called wireless upgradeable model? I tend to believe that it has an internal antenna built in but does not have a Mini PCI wireless card. So I only need to add a Mini PCI wireless adapter. Is that right?

Looks like IBM is picky, so only IBM High Rate Wireless LAN Mini PCI or Cisco Wireless LAN Mini PCI cards are accepted. To accept other cards, I need to run the no-1802.com utility, right? In fact I am tempted to add the Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG card. I just want to make sure it will work before giving away the money. By the way, if you could suggest a good place to buy this card...

Finally, how complicated is the installation process? I have only installed memory. I tend to believe the difficulty is at a similar level?

Sincerely,

Mike

[Starmanx]

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... STE-3QSPHY

[JHanko]

All T30's come with antennas in the lid. I just replaced the Cisco card in mine with the 2200BG. $35 on Ebay. You'll need to run no1802 and I recommend downloading the latest drivers from Intel's site. It's as simple as installing memory and takes less than 30 min, start to finish. Good luck...

[cn487311]

Thanks a lot, Starmanx and JHanko. I am ready to jump to ebay to grab one.

One last question, will there be any problem of future BIOS update after I have run no-1802? I have updated the machine to the newest version and my guess is that this may not be a critical issue because T30 is sort of "old". Probably IBM will not offer a newer version BIOS at all.

[MadeInJapan]

When I click on this link for the fix (http://jcnp.pku.edu.cn/~shadow/1802/no-1802.com) all that pops up is a bunch of chinese looking characters. Does anyone else have the no-1802 fix they could send me or direct me to another download page?

Never mind....I found out that opening this page with IE worked, but didn't work with FireFox (which I normally use). Just go to the page with IE.

[cn487311]

I have just installed the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG. The whole process is amazingly easy. Make a bootable DOS CD with the no-1802.com file on it (downloadable from http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~mjg59/thinkpad/wireless.html). Boot the PC with CD and run the no-1802.com file. Install the Mini PCI adapter. Configure it and it is up and running now.

Just remember not to install the adapter first. You will have to remove it to let the machine boot - I am stupid enough to install the adapter, remove it and re-install it. Wasted 10 minutes.

This works with the latest BIOS of T30: 1IE69WW (2.08). I downloaded the latest driver from the Intel website, I did not install their configuration software though.