Made in China ebay wireless N cards reliable?

[fefrie]

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/IBM-thinkpad-Ath ... 19d4911ca0

Does anybody have any experience with these ebay wireless n cards?

If i did buy this, where would I get the drivers for it?

I'm looking to upgrade from wireless g, the throughput for wireless g is not enough for the burst speed I get with my ISP.

[ajkula66]

Presuming that it's the real deal - an official Lenovo card - the driver is available on their website for XP and Vista, and contained in W7.

Love that card, BTW. Never bought it from China, but I can't see it making much of a difference, since all of them were made over there to begin with...

[RealBlackStuff]

This one is much, much better! http://www.ebay.com/itm/140524668862
Needs a NO-1802 BIOS though.

[banhammer420k]

This one is much, much better! http://www.ebay.com/itm/140524668862
Needs a NO-1802 BIOS though.

Just curious, why would you buy this when a Intel 5300 could be had for less than 10 shipped?

For the record I have used many "chinese eBay" WiFi cards and have never once had a problem with any of them.

[91011]

Because for me anyway, the Atheros RBS linked to connects at higher speeds and has a much greater range than any of the Intel 5xxx or 6xxx I've used in a x201 and a x301
A 50% file transfer rate improvement in the x201.
Only downside is the WiFi icon below the LCD does not show it's connected.
Driver was a bit hard to find until I searched for: Atheros AR9380

And if you're in no hurry, it's available direct from Shenzhen for $11.89.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/450M-Apple-AirP ... 4668862%26

[Cigarguy]

Thanks for the info and links guys. Was looking for a couple of cards myself.

[banhammer420k]

Thank you for the info! I am a network guy myself and mess with wireless all the time and was under the impression the Intel 450mbps cards were about as good as it got. For $11.89 I can wait a week and a half for a new card to play with

[91011]

I thought I should more clearly point out that the card RBS & I linked to will not boot in most if not all Thinkpads that are not running a modified ‘Whitelist Removed BIOS’.

The 1802 error (Unauthorized WiFi Card) RBS mentioned will prevent booting until the card is removed.

[fefrie]

Although there are maybe 7 people that are sharing in the house, NO ONE except me does any sort of file transfer from one computer to another.

I don't have gigabit ports on my router, and I'm thinking that should I get into HD TV (not likely since I still have my commodore 64 tv running daily) I still wouldn't be playing full Blueray files for transferring.

If you're saying that the 'regular' cards are good for up to 450mbps, then that's pretty fine for me.

My internet connection is still 7.5mbps with an occasional burst speed to 30mbps.

So I can go for the regular card then right?

[fefrie]

I read the hack for the upgrade bios (the first page anyways) and can't be bothered...

Maybe if I get a t61 and want the sataII speeds.

Is there a simpler how to that's not 42 pages long?

[TonyJZX]

just install the middleton bios

its easy

also... intel cards have bad support under osx

i mean it says quite clearly in those ebay ads that they support apple/are apple pulls which explains the price difference

[Kasm279]

Why not get an Atheros 9285 chipset or such? I got bought a half card plus bracket (to make it fit the full length slot in my T60p) for less than $10 all together and it works very well, much better than the Intel 3945 that it came with. I had to flash the BIOS, but that was easy. If you use the drivers that Windows 7 downloads for you, Access Connections even recognizes the card and will let you shut it off separately from the bluetooth. The only bad thing is that the wlan LED no longer flashes with data transfer.

[Thrakath]

Some ideas which ones have the lowest power consumption? Just heard that my 4965 Intel is the worst...

[banhammer420k]

Why not get an Atheros 9285 chipset or such? I got bought a half card plus bracket (to make it fit the full length slot in my T60p) for less than $10 all together and it works very well, much better than the Intel 3945 that it came with. I had to flash the BIOS, but that was easy. If you use the drivers that Windows 7 downloads for you, Access Connections even recognizes the card and will let you shut it off separately from the bluetooth. The only bad thing is that the wlan LED no longer flashes with data transfer.

Nothing wrong with Atheros 9285 I just don't know why you would spend about $10 on a card which only supports speeds up to 150mbps and single band (2.4ghz) when one can easily get a card that does 300mbps and 2.4ghz+5ghz for the same money. Even the Apple stock Atheros AR9380 is only $13 shipped from the USA...

One ebay seller who sells lots of Thinkpad parts cheap sells a Intel 6250 with half height to full height bracket for only $6 shipped if I recall correctly, that one does 300mbps and both bands.

[misfit]

should I get into HD TV (not likely since I still have my commodore 64 tv running daily)

What a coincidence! I just dropped my old Commodore 64 monitor off at the recycling at the weekend. I used it as a monitor for TV and CCTV for a while - it was still working. I offered it free in the local computer group but no takers, was sad to dump it.

[banhammer420k]

should I get into HD TV (not likely since I still have my commodore 64 tv running daily)

What a coincidence! I just dropped my old Commodore 64 monitor off at the recycling at the weekend. I used it as a monitor for TV and CCTV for a while - it was still working. I offered it free in the local computer group but no takers, was sad to dump it.

For shame!!! Those are amazing monitors and if you weren't on the other end of the world I would have gladly given it a new home...

[misfit]

What a coincidence! I just dropped my old Commodore 64 monitor off at the recycling at the weekend. I used it as a monitor for TV and CCTV for a while - it was still working. I offered it free in the local computer group but no takers, was sad to dump it.

For shame!!! Those are amazing monitors and if you weren't on the other end of the world I would have gladly given it a new home...

I tried to find it a new home, it was still working perfectly after all these years.

I have too much stuff, am an invalid and may have to move house soon. I've been here a decade-and-a-half and don't like throwing things away so have quite a hoard. I decided anything that I hadn't used for a year and couldn't see myself using in the next three years had to go. (Except ThinkPads of course )

[Ken Edmonds]

It looks like I'm going to have to change all my Thinkpad wireless cards. I'm about to go fibre and at least some UK fibre routers are wireless n only.
I assume I'll get the same whitelist problem with my T60 and T42/T43 but what about the R51e? The T43 is already flashed to cure the hard drive complaint so presumably that will be happy.

[RealBlackStuff]

Any Thinkpad laptop BEFORE the T43/R52/X41 only needs the NO-1802 hack.
http://www.deveblog.com/index.php/make- ... 802-error/

From T43/R52/X41 onwards you need a modified BIOS.

[Tasurinchi]

It looks like I'm going to have to change all my Thinkpad wireless cards. I'm about to go fibre and at least some UK fibre routers are wireless n only

I was of the opinion that most wlan router software can be set to mixed modes (like n+g, n+g+b, b+g and so on). I wouldn't now rush to change ALL cards from your notebooks. Maybe only for the newest or most used ones.

My 2 cents...

[Ken Edmonds]

You could be right. I read about so many ISP packages and associated router reviews yesterday by the end I'd have believed anything.
I'll go back and check again.

[RealBlackStuff]

Get a decent Gigabit router with some USB ports.
Mine is the ASUS RT-N66U, fabulous piece of equipment.

[JohnD.]

I agree with RBS on the Asus RT-N66U router. I installed it the other day and for the first time and I get solid WiFi access on the opposite side of the house where from where the router is. I have had three sets of routers (Belkin (G), Linksys (G), Netgear (N)) and I would very low signal to where I get a very strong signal with the Asus. I highly recommend the router!

John

[Ken Edmonds]

Unfortunately, living on a pension I don't think that's going to be an option. All the ISPs supply a router, none of which look particularly good, but as we live in a typically small UK house we only need about 20 - 30 ft of range anyway. The current old Netgear's fine for what we need but needs replacing for fibre optic - says he, knowing absolutely nothing about fibre interfaces because I've never seen one.

[ParatoOptimal]

I've always read on here that the Intel 6200 with a moded BIOS was best and runs cool.

[ajkula66]

I've always read on here that the Intel 6200 with a moded BIOS was best and runs cool.

Try installing that one in a T4x/R5x and let me know...

[ParatoOptimal]

I don't have one but am planning on upgrading the card in my X60s next year.

I've always read on here that the Intel 6200 with a moded BIOS was best and runs cool.

Try installing that one in a T4x/R5x and let me know...

[ajkula66]

I don't have one but am planning on upgrading the card in my X60s next year.

That card is fine for *60 series with an adapter and modded BIOS...

However...Ken Edmonds was inquiring about his T4x/R5x machines and that would NOT work in one of them...wrong format altogether.

[fefrie]

Get a decent Gigabit router with some USB ports.
Mine is the ASUS RT-N66U, fabulous piece of equipment.

I'm cheap. That's probably why I got a linksys e900 instead of the asus.

The only real reason that I'm getting a wireless N card is that my ISP offers some burst speed to 22mbps that wireless g misses out on. Wireless g realistically tops out at 17mbps.

And since my old router died, I was looking for a cheap solution, and now since I've bought it, I'm "stuck" with the linksys e900.

Not a bad router. It did go bad with DD-WRT, but I reflashed it with Tomato which seems to run QOS better.

I don't see myself getting anything faster than my 7.5mbit service for a long time. I asked another question elsewhere and the result I got was that faster internet isn't necessarily faster experience. The real bottleneck is upload speed, but with QOS, I can make a cheaper connection work as well as a more expensive one.

Asides from torrenting (of which I can download more gigs in an hour than I can watch in a day) there's not much need for a faster download pipe.

[fefrie]

Which Driver should I use? I've gone to the website and am not sure which one to pick/.....


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