Wireless Card Newby

[chizuka]

Hey there! I was just given my Thinkpad T21. It has Ubuntu and Windows XP loaded on it. That's not a problem but I do not have an owner's manual that can tell me the following answer..... I have a wireless card. Never used a wireless card. How can I connect to the internet? I think the Ubuntu is the main o/s so where do I look to connect this wireless card with the Wifi I will be using at the coffeeshop?


Thanks for the help. Also please send me any helpful links on how to use this computer. I did try to download some things off the internet but not very helpful. Thanks.


Sue

[jayton4]

What is the model of your wireless card?

Manuals for the computer are all located at support.lenovo.com, but they probably aren't going to tell you how to use your particular wireless card.

[RealBlackStuff]

Your wifi-card is useless for that T21, since it has no antenna wires built-in.
You can do a modification as per http://www.rkawakami.net/ibm_t2x/t23_wireless/
But it's not the same or as good as ex-factory antennae.
Also, even if you managed it, you would lose the Ethernet capability, because the wifi card goes into that same slot...
Your easiest bet would be a PCMCIA card, that fits in the slot on the left side.
Search with pcmcia wifi n on eBay.

[jronald]

I bet I have a couple of Lynksys Cards that are G. Your welcome to one of them for shipping.

Let me know
Ron

[cadillacmike68]

The Cisco Linksys WiFi PCMCIA cards worked well for me in my T22s. D-Links are also good.

[Medessec]

Yeah... a built-in Wireless card in a T21 is no-go, you can use it but you'd have to be feet away from the access point. To properly make use of it, as RBS said, you'd have to take apart the laptop... quite a bit actually, to get inside the screen bezels and actually install Wi-Fi antennas in there, and then string them to the Wi-Fi card. Takes quite a bit of work.

Best to take that out and sell it/lend it to someone/save it for another laptop, if you don't have the confidence or knowledge to perform such a mod. If you want wireless internet access however-you have the option of PCMCIA cards, and USB Wi-Fi devices, since the T2x series does have a USB port. I usually opt for cheap Wireless G hardware, you can look at the recommendations the guys gave above.