thinkpad T61 Second Wifi Adapter

[alitahriki]

hello everyone.
i have a thinkpad T61 with 4965agn.my second minipci slot is empty i wantto add second wireless adapter to this slot but of course it has only 1 wifi antenna. there is three antenna cable for first card is everyone of them for separate network (i mean one for 802.11b/ one for 11g / one for 11n)

i have two wireless networks one of them is 802.11g and the other is 802.11n can i use 2 network cards with this built in antennas?

[ajkula66]

You won't be able to utilize two wireless cards in the same machine.

If you properly configure a card with both "N" and "G" support, one will suffice - such as Intel 4965AGN which you already have.

[Radioguy]

You won't be able to utilize two wireless cards in the same machine.

What is the specific reason?

[ajkula66]

I highly doubt that the option we're discussing is supported in BIOS.

Give it a shot by all means...I'm at a loss what one would gain by having two separate wireless cards...even if they had enough antennae at their disposal...

[Radioguy]

Oh, I wasn't curious about practicality; I just wondered what you based your statement on.

I'm sure the BIOS would only recognize one, but I wonder if the hardware switch would affect both. I would assume that both would be recognized by Windows once booted up, but, again, I see no reason for adding a second one either.

Well...I suppose if one were stuck with an 802.11b/g and a separate 802.11a card and couldn't afford a combined one to take advantage of the total spectrum, this might be something to consider. Doubtful, though.

[rssb]

Tested both cards work, show up as 2 NIC interfaces. Each one connected to a different SSID. The setup is similar to having 2 addresses, one for wired and one for wireless. But the subnets were separate, i.e both are not in the same 192.168.1.0/24 , unlike the wired and wireless which can be served by the same router.

May be useful for someone who wants to run a proxy, firewall type scenario, ( internal , external zones ).

[ajkula66]

I'm impressed and stand corrected. Was expecting a conflict or something along these lines, but was obviously wrong.

Thanks to rssb the truth is now known...

[richk]

My experience was different. I used a W500 and had a USB card and an internal one. I could not use both at the same time. (subnets, etc were different)

[Radioguy]

Tested both cards work, show up as 2 NIC interfaces. Each one connected to a different SSID. The setup is similar to having 2 addresses, one for wired and one for wireless. But the subnets were separate, i.e both are not in the same 192.168.1.0/24 , unlike the wired and wireless which can be served by the same router.

May be useful for someone who wants to run a proxy, firewall type scenario, ( internal , external zones ).

That's even better than what I had envisioned. I can see how that could be useful.

[alitahriki]

i have two wireless networks. one for internet and other one for storage.
i need to connect them both simultaneously.otherwise my stuation is annoying :/ and also i cant connect storage machine to internet (because of security protocols of my company)

i ordered a network card it will arrive in 2 days. i will post the results. and is there anyone know about antenna cables?
there is 3 colors (gray black white) which one is for 11g which one is 11b which one is for 11n ??

[richk]

gray is primary; black is secondary - both for b/g. white was added with n. Newer n cards don't use white.

[TuuS]

This isn't my field, but I thought the three antenna were to support MIMO, not "N" mode specifically. I know some "G" cards have three antenna, and some "N" cards have only two, so my assumption was the one's with three has MIMO

[JeffCullen]

TuuS is correct. Lower-end cards use two antennas, while higher end cards like Intel's 6300 and Bigfoot's 1103 use three antennas. This makes a noticeable difference to throughput on the edge of reception.

[alitahriki]

i just get an idea and i took of cables from card without 3 antenna cables i cant get any reception :/(i havent added second card yet)

so i stuck with just one wifi adapter. how can i add second antenna? i dont want external usb dongles or cards :/

[TuuS]

If you want some antenna, I can send you a complete set of three, pulled from a T61p, but adding them to your system is going to take some work. Some people have added them to the palmrest area successfully. You could probably add them to your lid too, but it would be more work. There may also be room in the keyboard bezel on the widescreen models, but i think the palmrest is the best choice.

Send me a PM if you're interested in the antenna set.