Thinkpads Forum

I have that 3945 wifi card in my T60p

I was trying to enable additional channels on that card to be able to work in EU, but I couldn't find a setting anywhere

With my old T42p it is under device manager, under device properties and called "Extended mode". Nothing like that on this particular card

Any ideas?

Dimitri_P wrote:I have that 3945 wifi card in my T60p

I was trying to enable additional channels on that card to be able to work in EU, but I couldn't find a setting anywhere

If your 3945 was sold in a T6x Thinkpad made for the North American market it will not support channels 12 and 13.

You need a 3945 card that was manufactured for use in a ThinkPad made for the European market (or some other country that uses the European channels standards, like Australia) to acccess the additional channels.

Cheers,

Bill B.

Any idea what FRU is that?

What's the deal with channels 12, and 13? Interesting stuff. I'm currently in Europe, and I have the same card, and the router does show the additional channels. What the benefit and need to have it? I can look up the FRU for you.

I could just use that channel to NOT overcrowd local channels; since many people use wifi locally, channels above that range would help.

Interesting. Anyone know what the reason is that 2 add'l channels are available in Europe, but not in the U.S.?

They're assigned to things other than wifi by the FCC.

Think about 802.11a? That tends to not be crowded...

Crunch wrote:Interesting. Anyone know what the reason is that 2 add'l channels are available in Europe, but not in the U.S.?

It's all about type acceptance by the FCC and who has the higher paid lobby to bring about the type acceptance. The FCC is quite bizarre in some of the decisions that they may. The US RF spectrum is overcrowded as it is anyway.

No kidding. Just like the cellular bands we have (850/1900MHz), whereas most of the rest of the world is on 900/1800MHz. I had a hunch it was the FCC. I guess someone missed a payment.

btw people checkout dd-wrt.com website - custom linux based firmware for your ifi router

Are the US and EU versions of the Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965AGN also different?

arlab wrote:Are the US and EU versions of the Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965AGN also different?

Yes... pretty much all Wifi kit is made in 1 to 11 channel and 1 to 13 channel versions.

Cheers,

Bill B.

bill bolton wrote:

arlab wrote:Are the US and EU versions of the Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965AGN also different?

Yes... pretty much all Wifi kit is made in 1 to 11 channel and 1 to 13 channel versions.

Cheers,

Bill B.

Is it easy to replace? I need the EU version. Also, will it void the warranty?

Yeah, there's a specific part number for euro/japanese wifi cards.

be careful in the US though, the space wifi channel 14 occupies supposedly interferes with emergency stuff. and is heavily interfered with itself.


up to 13 is good though, so long as the fcc never catches on.
if that happens you can just expect heavy fines.

You should also be aware the the EU version if I am not mistaken lowers the output power limit. Such that one gets more channels but less range.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

^^^ So you don't need a different card

So in essence, the card adapts itself to whatever region it finds itself in. Very cool, makes me feel better about having the Intel card, although perhaps they all work that way.

I have my Access Point on channel 13 now for the last hour and Wifi card is yet to see it; it not adaptable.

That behavior would appear to contradict what Intel states here http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/w ... 006064.htm

ok, why don't everybody try themselves?

By having posted the link to where Intel says your card should be able to see and work with an access point transmitting on channel 13, I didn't mean to imply that what you reported is not correct or possible. I'm just noting that there seems to be a discrepancy between your real life observation and what Intel says is supposed to happen. I agree it would be interesting if others who have access to their router settings could try to test this.

That's what i meant - more people try it, more statistics.

I use WRT54G v2 (Firmware: DD-WRT v24 RC-6 (12/29/07) std)

Channel set to 13

My T42p sees it with Extended mode enabled, not so much for T60p

FYI:

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.pdf (FCC radio spectrum allocation chart)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels (802.11b/g frequencies)

I would not recommend that you run a fixed radio station (i.e., your WAP) outside of the legal range of channels. You would be a sitting duck for any FCC monitoring van .

rkawakami wrote:FYI:

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.pdf (FCC radio spectrum allocation chart)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels (802.11b/g frequencies)

I would not recommend that you run a fixed radio station (i.e., your WAP) outside of the legal range of channels. You would be a sitting duck for any FCC monitoring van .

should I duck and cover too?

>trying to figure out why it doesn't work; because if it doesn't work here, it won't work in EU or Japan too.

I tried w/ my 2200bg (which is on the list on the Intel page referenced). Running dd-wrt v23 sp2 on a wrt-54gs I was not able to associate w/ it on channel 13 . . . How do you "enable extended mode"? I searched for "intel 2200bg channel 13" and did find these interesting tidbits, however:

http://www.fx.cz/sklad/intel/

http://www.fx.cz/sklad/intel/messageview1.html

http://www.fx.cz/sklad/intel/messageview2.html

All about writing to the wireless card's eeprom to configure. Maybe there's something there for you?

pae77 wrote:That behavior would appear to contradict what Intel states here http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/w ... 006064.htm

Read it carefully again.... the user had a "Japan adapter" (14 channel version) to start with, and Intel answered very specifically for that scenario.

Cheers,

Bill B.

That occurred to me, but then I thought they state "for example" so it was not clear (to me at least) that they mean their discussion is limited only to adapters made for the Japanese market. Also, at the bottom, they state the model numbers that the discussion applies to and it includes various adapter model numbers without stating they are limited to European or Japanese versions of the adapters. If your interpretation is correct, Intel certainly could have made their discussion clearer.

Dimitri_P wrote:I have my Access Point on channel 13 now for the last hour and Wifi card is yet to see it; it not adaptable.

According to that article of Intel, setting the card to infrastructure mode, the channel that the adapter utilizes is the same as the access point (AP) is using. Maybe your access pont is using only 11?

But, nonetheless I'm not sure whether an US card would function or not...

rkawakami wrote:I would not recommend that you run a fixed radio station (i.e., your WAP) outside of the legal range of channels. You would be a sitting duck for any FCC monitoring van .

</panic>

The FCC has better things to do than to bust someone's balls over a couple of extra channels in their WiFi router. Now... if there was a legitimate interference complaint... all bets are off.

They don't just arbitrarily dispatch monitoring vans around to listen for stuff like this. If they did then they would have to listen to every GMRS repeater and the tons of unlicensed users on there, they would have to listen for all of the Hams that don't ID exactly every 10 minutes, ad nauseum.

If you really want to try it out... I say go for it. But be discreet about it too. Discrete is elite. Also do a little bit of research through the FCC's site on the Wifi channels you are going to use. If there is a remote chance that you will be interfering... run far and run fast. If in all likelyhood you won't be interfering there is nothing wrong with some experimentation.

The FCC is horribly understaffed and underfunded to be taking on seek and destroy missions like that. So like I said... discreet is elite and don't go looking to cause interference if you don't have to.

OK. It seems that EU/US/JAP wireless cards are equal afterall. Read this thread.