:? Wireless Cards Compatible with R31?

[led_snapper]

Does anyone know which mini pci wi-fi cards you can drop into a R31? I was thinking of getting one and not sure which. I would dearly love to slot a 802.11g one in but lenovo won't say anything about backwards compatibility of the newer cards to older models.

[Jay95]

I recently dropped in a Broadcom BCM94306MP into my R31 and it worked perfectly without any hacks or errors (I'm running the latest bios).

The Broadcom BCM94306MP is a 'g' card.

I bought it (and the antenna) from Underclocker on these forums and he was great to do business with.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=35056

Cheers

J

[led_snapper]

That's great to know Jay - I have now asked Undeclocker on that link.

Does it pick up good signal strength? I have a PCMCIA card by linksys and it struggles to get a connection - apart from tidyness and freeing up the PCMCIA which use to do my downloading of pics (via USB2 hub) I would think something with proper antennae should be better

[Jay95]

Yep, signal has improved a lot. Where I used to get around 30% signal I now get 75-80% !

The only issue I've had, and it's not really an issue, is that it's not 100% compatable with Net Stumbler. Not exactly sure but maybe Net Stumbler tries to refresh the card too fast or something, and sometimes (only done it twice) Net Stumbler will lock up.

But apart from that small issue it is a great card.

J

[Thane_Bitter]

Led_snapper,
Mine came with the “IBM High Rate Wireless Combo mini-PCI Card (FRU 12P3637)” unfortunately this is card supports 802.11B, 128bit WEP (no WPA/WPA2 support). When it died last spring I hunted around looking for something that support G, and better encryption, unfortunately like you I could not find anything that would be guaranteed to work. From what I understand, all wireless models used the wireless/combo card, and non-wireless models used the CDC modem (see the HMM for details). I needed to keep the functionality of both (wireless & modem) so I found an equivalent IBM FRU from eBay. Any of the following “High Rate Wireless Combo” FRU numbers will work: 12P3637 (original part for R30/31), 12P3657, 26P8092, 26P8160, & 91P7661 (most recent). These cards where also used in the X and T series as well, though the exact model numbers escapes me at the moment.

[led_snapper]

Thanks guys for your replies - glad to see signal improves with card Jay although never heard of netstumbler so I'm sure that wouldn't be an issue for me! As for combo cards Thane, I'm a bit confused - do you need a modem in that card if you already have the lucent one on your machine as I do (I believe that is a separate card somewhere else) and the wireless doesn't convert to analogue does it to talk to a router, so wouldn't need a modem, or am I missing something?

Ian

[Thane_Bitter]

Do not be confused Ian, your logic is sound – you don’t need the modem
When I say modem I mean ye old POTS (plain old telephone system) variety - as in voice/data/fax; I am not referring to the kind one would use for DSL or Cable based internet services - sorry for being rather obtuse in the last post, I should have been more specific.
Since your machine did not come with a factory installed wireless card, your modem is installed on a small secondary card located elsewhere on the mainboard (next to the CPU). The HMM refers to it as the modem card or CDC modem. On models that came with wireless, this extra part was omitted because the wireless card contains a voice/data/fax modem.

IBM/Lenovo mentions absolutely nothing about how one can “upgrade” a R30/31 to wireless, though I get the impression that if you used their card, one would have to remove the CDC modem, and replace the short modem cable (which connects the mainboard to the modem) with a longer one. If you have antenna already installed, Jay’s solution seems ideal – a neat and quick upgrade and you only have to undo a single screw.

Hey Jay, does the “Broadcom BCM94306MP” support WPA and WPA2 encryption?

[led_snapper]

Thanx for clarification Thane - I have been digging around and it seems that the Broadcom one mentioned is pre WPA/WPA2, but there is a Atheros based card by IBM which is compatible with X23/X24 which share same chipset (X24 does) as R31 and also have same minipci type slot (although for some reason IBM claims it's a 'user upgradeable' one when it says opposite for R31 - go figure). I am toying with the idea of buying the Atheros one as it does support WPA but may need an 'O1C9' error fixing. I am also guessing that maybe a bluetooth card could be added in place of the cdc modem card - for me that would be more useful as I hardly ever use dial-up connections on it.

Relevant links :

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 8c9b5635b7

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Hardware_Specifications

http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_Conn ... Bus.html#e

[underclocker]

FYI, I had an R30 with internal wifi. It had the combo wifi/modem card.

I was able to install an IBM (Atheros) B/G without the no-1802 hack and a CDC modem in the open CDC slot.

It was a great upgrade. The HMM came in quite handy for accessing that CDC slot.

[Thane_Bitter]

I was able to install an IBM (Atheros) B/G without the no-1802 hack and a CDC modem in the open CDC slot.

Underclocker - do you have an FRU number for that card?
Thanks

[STSinNYC]

I'm using a Linksys WPC55AG PCMCIA card in my A20 M (WinXP,SP2). Has the Atheros 5001X chip. I'm using the Atheros drivers. Range is excellent, better than the Intel 3945ABG miniPCI card in my T60. I'm using WPA2-PSK/AES encryption, and it connects quickly on boot up. Worth considering. I got the card for around $30.