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Best AC Wifi Adapter

T60/T61 Series
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taichi
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Best AC Wifi Adapter

#1 Post by taichi » Sat Dec 24, 2016 3:19 pm

Any recommendations for a USB AC Wifi adapter for the Thinkpad T60P?

Thanks

ajkula66
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Re: Best AC Wifi Adapter

#2 Post by ajkula66 » Sat Dec 24, 2016 3:26 pm

taichi wrote:Any recommendations for a USB AC Wifi adapter for the Thinkpad T60P?

Thanks
Why USB? Reception will suffer without any doubt. If you're interested in taking advantage of AC speeds, an integrated card would serve your purposes much better.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

taichi
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Re: Best AC Wifi Adapter

#3 Post by taichi » Sat Dec 24, 2016 4:17 pm

Ok. I'm expanding my query to best internal and USB AC adapters.

Long ago I had a more or less constant memory parity error until I removed the internal wifi card. The problem went away immediately, never to return. That's when I went USB.

So...it was likely the internal N card that went bad, though I wonder if it's possible that the card socket might have gone south.

ajkula66
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Re: Best AC Wifi Adapter

#4 Post by ajkula66 » Sat Dec 24, 2016 7:55 pm

A couple of things here...

1) Any internal AC card will require a modded (Zender's) BIOS to be flashed prior to installation.

2) If you're still on Vista, you may want to give Intel's 7260AC a shot, I believe that the W7 drivers *should* work there...

http://ark.intel.com/products/75439/Int ... ss-AC-7260

You will need a half-size adapter for this one as well, which can be obtained for a few bucks...

https://www.amazon.com/Half-Express-Ada ... B009A29A8W

I am not affiliated with the seller, this was just the first pick that Google offered for the adapter in question.

Happy upgrading.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

jaspen-meyer
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Re: Best AC Wifi Adapter

#5 Post by jaspen-meyer » Sun Dec 25, 2016 3:04 am

ajkula66 wrote: I am not affiliated with the seller, this was just the first pick that Google offered for the adapter in question.
You don't need an 'adapter'. All you need is something to keep the card held down.

Dimensions I use are 28mm X 8mm, with a 3mm hole drilled near one of the long ends.
Material can be anything thin (1-3mm) and stiff.
T420 i7 3612QM seabios; T420 i7 3630QM; T400 Q9100 seabios; T61 P9600; T60 libreboot; x62; x60s libreboot, led; x24 xiphmont led

E350
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Re: Best AC Wifi Adapter

#6 Post by E350 » Sat Feb 11, 2017 2:56 pm

taichi, ajkula66 and jaspen-meyer:

I just upgraded my routers to TP-Link Archer C7 AC and put an Intel AC 7260 Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 2x2 Network plus Bluetooth adapter (7260.HMWWB.R) mini-pc wifi card with adapter in my X61. I friggin' love it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N7 ... UTF8&psc=1

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322406553653?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

Note: The above are aparently the same "revised" cards. There are a lot of older versions of the card for sale out there. I searched and bought the revised card for my wife's T61p (coming in the mail) but have the older version AC 7260 HMW installed in my X61 with no problems.

But I had already flashed the BIOS with Middleton's BIOS to remove the whitelist on the X61 years ago to accomodate the 4965AGN-wifi card I had installed in the X61. So, all I had to do to get the X61 working with the AC 7260 was download the drivers from the Intel website (for Windows 10 - which by the way I also love on the X61 and the T61p),

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/produc ... ss-AC-7260

install the AC 7260 mini-pc card with adapter,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262289730083?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

set up the router's SSID's etc., and renamed my Thinkvantage Access Connections locations to "2.4GHz" and "5GHz" and was good to go. Getting between 144.4 Mbps to ~333 Mbps on 2.4GHz and up to ~866 Mbps on 5GHz (of course that is in the local area network, so connection with the internet is still way slow, because I refuse to pay for the high priced high speed internet...)

But in trying to install the same AC 7260 card in my T61p, I have a couple of issues I would like your help with:

1. The T61p has three antennas. The AC 7260 card only has two, so I taped off the middle white antenna and am just using the left gray antenna and the right black antenna. (How robust inside compared to the cramped X61 - I would love the performance of the T61 in the size of the X61). Is there an Intel AC 7260 card with three antennas?

2. I never flashed the BIOS on the T61p's because they didn't need it because they shipped with N-wireless when the X61 did not have N-wireless. So, I see that ajkula66 recommends Zender's BIOS. Where can I find it? (And just for information's sake, did Middleton not make a BIOS for the T61p?)

Finally, I appreciate all your help in the past and thank you in advance for any help you can provide with this issue now.

Please have a healthy and prosperous New Year.

ajkula66
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Re: Best AC Wifi Adapter

#7 Post by ajkula66 » Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:31 pm

E350 wrote:[
But in trying to install the same AC 7260 card in my T61p, I have a couple of issues I would like your help with:

1. The T61p has three antennas. The AC 7260 card only has two, so I taped off the middle white antenna and am just using the left gray antenna and the right black antenna. (How robust inside compared to the cramped X61 - I would love the performance of the T61 in the size of the X61). Is there an Intel AC 7260 card with three antennas?
AFAIK, no.
2. I never flashed the BIOS on the T61p's because they didn't need it because they shipped with N-wireless when the X61 did not have N-wireless. So, I see that ajkula66 recommends Zender's BIOS. Where can I find it? (And just for information's sake, did Middleton not make a BIOS for the T61p?)
Zender's BIOS is for T60 and related models.

For T61 you need Middleton's.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

E350
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Re: Best AC Wifi Adapter

#8 Post by E350 » Sat Feb 11, 2017 9:46 pm

Success again with the Intel AC 7260 wifi card!

5GHz = 866Mbps baby!!!
2.4GHz = 144.4 Mbps !!!

Interesting (and this also happened with the X61 with the same card) although after flashing the BIOS I didn't get an 1802 Error code, the card was not recognized, so I went into Device Manager and there it was, and it was acting properly, and when I went to Update Driver it said it already had the best driver. So, I restarted the laptop again and it was recognized and worked fine on 2.4GHz.

But it would not connect on 5GHz. So I went to Thinkvantage Access Connections location profile for my 5GHz and it still had the AGN card in there for the adapter. So I deleted that location profile and then hit Find and found the 5GHZ SSID that the router was sending out and built a new Multi Access Connection location profile around it which automatically recognized the AC 7260 card.

And now all is good.

BTW, I ended up finding that Windows 10 has its own CD/DVD buning software which, once I red 'bout it, was easy to burn the 7lug26us.iso image to CD. One thing to remember it will cycle continuously unless you pop the CD out after the machine shuts down before it automatically restarts.

Thanks RBS!

And thanks ajkula66!

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Re: Best AC Wifi Adapter

#9 Post by bighank » Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:09 am

Does the AC7260 which is a half size card have the right electrical connections to fit in the T61 socket? Did you get the card to work including bluetooth?

E350
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Re: Best AC Wifi Adapter

#10 Post by E350 » Tue Dec 26, 2017 8:41 pm

Better late than never !

Yes the Bluetooth works and I can turn it on or off to pair and/or connect with various audio devices via Windows 10:

Settings > Bluetooth and other devices.

TPFanatic
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Re: Best AC Wifi Adapter

#11 Post by TPFanatic » Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:30 pm

What happens if you have the laptop's bluetooth daughter card and the wifi card's bluetooth in the same laptop? Will they both work?

E350
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Re: Best AC Wifi Adapter

#12 Post by E350 » Wed Dec 27, 2017 12:29 am

I do have the original bluetooth daughter card too in both the T61p and X61. And I wondered about that when I bought the AC cards for them, but I have not had a problem. I really have no idea what is going on in there with the two cards or how Windows 10 knows what to do with them.

On a related subject with the internal bluetooth turned off via Windows 10 Settings > Bluetooth and other devices, when I plug this bluetooth range extender into the 3.5mm audio jack in the T61p or X61 I can work all over our .5 acre property and not drop signal to my bluetooth headphones:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N7 ... UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071D ... UTF8&psc=1

E350
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Re: Best AC Wifi Adapter

#13 Post by E350 » Wed Dec 27, 2017 1:06 pm

Ok I went into Device Manager and found this:

Bluetooth > the Thinkpad Bluetooth with Enhanced Data Rate is enabled.
Network Adapters > Intel Dual Band Wireless - AC 7260 > Advanced > Bluetooth(R) (AMP) is disabled.

So, I disabled the Thinkpad Bluetooth.
And enabled the AC bluetooth.
And restarted the machine.
And the result was that Windows 10 Settings > Bluetooth and other devices could not locate the AC bluetooth. So I could not direct the audio to the bluetooth, so no bluetooth transmission.

Now I have re-enabled the Thinkpad Bluetooth with Enhanced Data Rate and left the AC bluetooth also enabled.

And everything works as before.

I have looked at the BIOS settings and cannot see anywhere where I could "select" the bluetooth on the Intel AC card. I wonder if I physically removed the oem/internal Thinkpad Bluetooth with Enhanced Data Rate card if BIOS would "see" the bluetooth on the Intel AC card...

Alternatively, I wonder if there is an updated version available for the oem/internal Thinkpad Bluetooth with Enhanced Data Rate card (i.e., "Daughter card") which is now in my X61?

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