Dual Wireless LAN in a T60P?

[ScottishCaptain]

Greetings to all!

While looking over the IBM Service manual for the T60 series, I noticed that they have two Mini-PCIe slots for WLAN/WAN cards.

Having already ordered (but it hasn't gone through yet) a T60P, I was wondering...

Providing I can get Lenovo to custom-order me a unit with the WAN Antenna and everything else for WAN, except the Verizon/Cingular Mini-PCIe card...

Can I stick a second WLAN (like the Intel 3945 or the IBM Atheros card) in the WAN's Mini-PCIe slot, and hook the WAN antenna up to it?

Both the WLAN and WAN antenna's have a Aux and MAIN connector, but I can't tell if if it would actually work properly. It certainly would be nice to have dual Wireless LAN cards for use under Linux in a T60P.

Cheers!
-SC

[ScottishCaptain]

Hmm.

Okay, so both the WLAN and WAN cards use U.FL RF connectors with Main/Aux antenna connections.

Now, the question becomes... The Seirra cards for Mini-PCIe say that they are compatible with 50 Ohm antennas. I would think this would be common for most WAN Cards.

So the question becomes- would the WAN Antenna on the T60P, be good enough for a WLAN card sitting in the Mini-PCIe slot of the T60?

Would this work? Or would it just offer reception that "barely" works or doesn't work at all?

-SC

[BillMorrow]

my brain is still spinning a bit from all the WAN WWLAN WWAN et al., BUT

if the WAN (EvDO, etc) antenna is made for the same frequency as the WiFi (WLAN?) is might..

but i doubt the frequencies are the same so if it DID work it would not work well..

besides, why would you want two wifi's in one thinkpad..?

[ScottishCaptain]

WAN = Wide Area Network (Cellular)
WLAN = Wireless Local Area Network (802.11a/b/g, your typical wireless router)

I think there are CDMA cards for the T60 which run at 1.9ghz, which is sort of far away from 2.4ghz...

Looking at the Service Manual, both antenna's look quite similar (same size, etc). I know I'm not an RF expert, but if an Antenna's just wire, then the only thing I could assume would effect it's performance is the resistance. Unfortunately I can't for the life of me find the ratings for any WLAN card, just the Sierra WAN card that expects a 50 Ohm compatible antenna.

Anyways, it would have been nice since I do a lot of security testing, some of which involves Wifi (WEP/WPA). Rather then having one card do the injection and passive monitoring at once, it would be grand to have one card to do injection with and the other for passive monitoring under Linux.

Can anyone else by chance offer some information on this issue, or the second Mini PCIe WAN slot and if it will take a WLAN card?

-SC

[GomJabbar]

While you might be able to get something to work, I think it would be easier and preferable to just get a Cardbus WiFi card and use it for your second WLAN.