T23/A22M & Intel 2200BG wireless

[Phazer]

OK...I give. I've read most all the posts about adding internal wireless and some of the troubles. All of these symptoms also occur on an A22M to a T. Following is most all of the information that I can give and in no paticular order and apply to both a T23 and A22.


1. I run/ran both computers without antennas but I do have a wired access point in the same room and within 15' of the computers.
2. Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless router in the basement.
3. Two WAP11 access points, (one at one end of the house and another at this end of the house.
4. Normal wireless cards are Linksys PCMCIA and all computers see all 3 access points with varying degrees of signal strength but at least one is 100%.
5. I picked up an Intel 2200BG and thought that I would see how good it works.
6. Installed it and both computers recognized it with no problem.
7. I used Intels 10.5.2.0 driver.
8. I used Intels PROSet wireless connection program.
9. Both computers find the access point within about 10 seconds.
10. Both computers will take 3-5 minutes to "connect" to the access point.
11. Both computers will 95% of the time get an IP address of something other than 192.168.x.xxx. Usually it's 169.254.2.2.x or 169.254.202.5 or something along those lines.
12. I can disconnect and turn off wireless and it still gets a wrong IP address.
13. Signal Quality is usually "Very Good".
14. Two of five bars are green, (remember, no antenna but the cover on the bottom is off).
15. If it does connect correctly, my homepage will come up fairly quickly but is considerably slower than the PCMCIA but if I try to go to any other web pages, it just basically stops. No activity on the traskbar icon, packets received doesn't change.

Needless to say the frustration fun meter is almost on full. I don't want to try to install built-in antennas unless I'm sure this is going to work. Should I get some antennas and just let them hang out the bottom to see if that helps? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated before I throw the card "over the North forty".

[bobgarty]

The 169.254.x.x address is an APIPA address - Automatic Private IP Adressing - these are allocated when a DHCP address is not obtained from the DHCP server - may be worth checking the DHCP log entries on the device that is serving DHCP for you network (presumably your linksys router) to see if it is Nack'ing the requests (assuming it logs DHCP requests) .. should be identifiable from the wireless card mac address - if there is nothing then it's just not getting that far at all .
APIPA address will be assigned automatically whenever a DHCP address is not obtained unless you specify an alternate IP configuration (an option under XP).

Have you still got a normal onboard NIC as well as the wireless card? May be worth removing/disabling that if you have.

Antennae may well help - but you may just have a duff card

[Phazer]

Well...I went in a edited the registry to turn off APIP and now it still connects to the AP but doesn't even get any IP. I've got an Intel 2100 NIC coming, we'll see if that works.

BTW.........I don't have to remove the "daughter card" do I???

[Phazer]

Well........come to find out, it ends up I'm just a little too far from the AP. Even though it's behind me about 15' and 8' up on a shelf, it's just too far without an antenna on a PCI card. If I go downstairs and put it on the desk next to the router, it connects, and if I hold it about 4' away from the AP, it connects to both just fine. Looks like I'll keep my eye out for a wifi LCD bezel...

[RealBlackStuff]

I have the exact same T23 as you, I put in an Intel 2915abg and have 2x 70cm antennas coiled up under the T23's keyboard bezel.
It's reception is very good and it picks up my Dell TrueMobile 2300 wireless router in seconds after it has booted up.
On the same floor in the house it reaches about 50-60 foot, if I take the laptop downstairs, I'll need to be within 25-30 ft. from the AP upstairs (almost in the room underneath where the AP is) to get a workable reception.
I flashed the Dell router (which is made by Sparklan) with the Sparklan 6615 firmware, which is better than the original Dell-firmware.

A wireless lid would be super, but the loose antennas under the bezel will do the trick also, perhaps not as good though. I can't compare it.

[Phazer]

Yeah....I'll probably do that even though I hate to cobble, (not really cobbling), but lids are so far and few between.

[bobgarty]

Phazer - they do come up on ebay. i just bought a "scrap" t23 for £19 ($38 approx). When I received it I found it has an SXGA screen with just a minor dead pixel line (still very usable) and the built in antenae, a good 40Gb Harddrive with recovery partition, 384mb of Ram, an XP Pro COA, - basically all that was bad was the motherboard and it had no keyboard bezel or hinge cover ...
Swapped the disk (she had a 20Gb) and the lid plastics over on the wifes T23 and installed a broadcom 54G nic and it is great - it's attached to my network before it completes bootup anywhere in the house and at at least 38mbs. which is fine for what she needs to do.

[Phazer]

Do the words "I hate you" men anything......?



Just playin'............