Upgrading wireless adapter to 802.11ac?

[CometCKO]

My understanding is that Intel has released their latest AC adapter that should work in the X220/x230. Does anyone know for sure that this will work?

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

I'm looking at putting in an AC bridge for my home business. I would like to upgrade my laptops as well (X220 and X61). It would be nice if the internal wireless could take advantage of the higher speed connection.

A less good solution would be an external one. I've seen one or two USB wireless AC adapters (one of which was USB 2.0 which seems like it would be too slow to take advantage of the new standard?). I think Belkin may have an 802.11ac USB 3.0 adapter. But the more elegant solution would be to replace the internal adapter with the Intel 7260, if it will work.

Google search tells me that some of these are appearing in new products, being sold in bulk and offered on sites in South Korea, etc. I'll be keeping my eyes open for retail availability which I'd think might appear around the same time as Haswell laptops start hitting the market in quantity.

Anyone have better information about these adapters and/or recommendations for how to move to 802.11ac?

Thanks!

[CometCKO]

Well, I guess I'm going to be the guinea pig on this one.

I wonder if Lenovo still whitelists the Wifi adapters in BIOS? I had this issue when I replaced the wireless adapter in my X61, or maybe it was the X40. I forget. At that point, someone had created a hacked BIOS that I was able to use to run the new adapter without error codes. I do remember that it would not even boot without the hack.

I'm hoping that the Intel AC 7260 can be used without generating error codes.

I found a listing for them at the PC Superstore for less than $25, so not a huge risk if it does not work. Shipping direct from factory. These have only been released in the past month or so according to the few sources I've found. Will probably be a few weeks before it gets shipped to me. I'll post back with my experience (hopefully success).

Now to purchase my Wireless AC router! I'm looking at the Asus and Netgear ones.

[twistero]

I wonder if Lenovo still whitelists the Wifi adapters in BIOS?

That's a definite YES. What's worse, no modified BIOS can be flashed on a #30-generation machine. Just go to that really big thread on mydigitallife for information.

[ajkula66]

What's worse, no modified BIOS can be flashed on a #30-generation machine. Just go to that really big thread on mydigitallife for information.

Oh my.

I was clueless about this aspect of the story. Now they really have everyone locked in. Nice.

[CometCKO]

Well, I'm still proceeding apace, undaunted so far.

The Intel AC 7260 wireless adapter is available in China, and "ships from the factory" when ordered in the US (e.g. comes from China).

PC Superstore (AKA Erie Computer) had a listing for it, but told me they could not complete my order because the item was no longer available.

PC Connection took my order online, but then cancelled it the next day. Perhaps Intel had some problems with the card and has delayed it for some reason, although the ARK listing on INTEL.com shows it as having been released.

So now I'm ordering it from China and we'll see how that goes. Should arrive mid-June (or at least a nicely labeled fake).

Checking out the big thread on MyDigitalLife reveals that there have been successes with the X220 on removing the whitelist via a patched BIOS. There are several confirmations that BIOS version 1.37 for the x220 has worked successfully as modified by Serge08?. there is also a version of the latest 1.38 BIOS file that has been released, but no reports yet back about success or failure. I'm hoping that some of the bleeding edge kids will have confirmed that it works before I have to test it in June sometime.

In the meantime, I'm exploring my choices for 802.11AC routers. I may simply add an AC wireless bridge on top of my existing network, however I may have several simulataneous users during biz hours, so I may want something more robust. There's good reports about the ASUS AC router, so a might take a gander at that one.

I'll post back as I proceed. At the worst case (assuming I don't brick my motherboard with a renegade BIOS), I will end up continuing to use the Realtek card, but add a USB 3.0 external 802.11ac adapter. Fortunately, my x220 is an i7 with a built-in USB 3.0 port which will be necessary to support the higher speed connection.

[CometCKO]

Life on the cutting edge...

So Intel has officially released the AC 7260 wireless adapter. I have one installed in my x220 now. I was able to flash my BIOS with the latest patched version 1.38 8DET68WW (8duj24us) from mydigitallife (whitelist removed, as modded by Serge008). This allowed me to boot the computer with the new adapter in place without generating an 1802 or other error.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that Intel has not yet released drivers for Windows 7, although there are Windows 8 drivers available. I've been running Win8 in a VMware virtual machine for a month or so, and I'm not enthusiastic about it. Not enough to warrant upgrading to Win8 just to get 802.11ac speeds. So I"m hoping that Intel will soon issue a Win7 driver for the Intel 7260AC.

Until then, I'm stuck with my lousy Realtek 1x1. Sigh. Fortunately the install is quick and easy when that day comes.