R31 Wireless Connection Problem

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ABond007 · #1 Post by **ABond007** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:39 pm

Hi, first time poster here. I am so glad I found this site. I’ve been reading this forum for about a week and researching the internet about my problem and haven’t come up with a solution yet, so I am hoping someone here can give me some advice.

I have the IBM Thinkpad R31 2656 model with Windows XP SP3 (I just updated from SP2 yesterday the problems started before the update). I bought it as a refurb off of ebay about 3 yrs ago. It came with integrated wireless, but I have never tried to use it until the last couple of weeks. (I live in the sticks so I have always had dialup until recently so I am new to wireless!). My Thinkpad is equipped with the IBM high rate wireless mini pc card and Actiontec/Prism wireless radio.

My problem is I cannot get it to stay connected to my new router. I have tried updating the firmware and drivers, and that didn’t help at all. The first night that I connected it to the router it worked for like 4 hours straight (it was about 15 feet from the router), that was about a week ago and every since then it connects and disconnects about every 30 seconds. When I put my pointer over the icon in the taskbar, sometimes it will say not linked or poor link quality. If I put the laptop right beside the router or hold it over it, the icon turns from red to green and it shows it’s 100% linked. Meanwhile, my signal is always showing an ‘excellent’ connection from the router. I am pretty sure it’s not the router because I have a desktop in the bedroom with a USB wireless lan card and it’s doing just fine. But keep in mind, I am totally new to wireless so I may have a wrong setting somewhere. I read somewhere on this forum that others had uninstalled their access connection software, I tried that with no change also.

I guess my questions are:
1. Does anyone out there have an R31 with the same kind of wireless card and how far can you be away from a wireless network and still get a good connection?
2. In the IBM help menu, it mentions the wireless radio has a ‘configuration utility’ for changing settings. When I right click on the wireless radio icon in the taskbar, it has an option for ‘Advanced Configuration’, but it is greyed out and I can’t click on it. Is this normal or am I missing some software that I need?
3. Do internal antenna’s just get crappy reception?

Sorry for such a long post. Please someone help this noob.

ajkula66 · #2 Post by **ajkula66** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:46 pm

Welcome to the forum!

Combo card that your R31 uses (also used in X2x, A3x and T2x machines) is a "b" card only. Most of today's routers are "g" or above and have to "downshift" to "b" mode and even then all you get is 11Mbps in the best of circumstances...and the range isn't that great either...

Upgrading the card to Intel 2200BG would be my recommendation...

ABond007 · #3 Post by **ABond007** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:08 pm

Thanks for the welcome and the reply!

That could very well be my problem. I forgot to mention in my post that I am using Verizon Wireless EVDO for my internet connection with a CTR500 EVDO router. I'll check my documentation on the router and see if I can find out what mode it is.

I don't know if I am savvy enough to install one of those cards, although I did successfully open the laptop up to see if my antenna wires were actually in there--and they were--and then I got it put all back together again lol. I have installed things on desktops a bit, but not much on the laptop.

I guess I was hoping maybe I was just missing some software or update or something that could fix it. I have spent so much money on all this other stuff trying to get both computers hooked up to the internet so my husband and I can both be online--I was trying to avoid spending any more money. Looks like that may be unavoidable.

ajkula66 · #4 Post by **ajkula66** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:36 pm

The card, with the help of the manual, can be replaced within 10 minutes even if you've never done it before. And these cards (2200BG) can be purchased for $25 or under...

Hope this helps and feel free to post more questions, that's what we're here for.

ABond007 · #5 Post by **ABond007** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:48 pm

I might be able to do it, I did install some memory awhile back. That wasn't too difficult.

I checked the documentation on my router and it says it is IEEE 802.11b/g compliant. My settings are on mixed mode, so it can do either one. I guess it comes down to my antenna is just too weak to hold the signal. I may be better off just to buy another wireless USB adapter and put it on the laptop. I am a little afraid if I went with the 2200 internal one, I would get the same result.

I don't understand why it stayed connected for a few hours the first day and now it won't. It makes me think I did something wrong somewhere.

Thanks for your help. I was glad to find this forum, since my laptop is so old, there's not much support out there for it.

ajkula66 · #6 Post by **ajkula66** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:47 pm

Given that your USB is 1.1 the speeds won't be that great...

2200BG will give you 54Mbps in good conditions. And internal antennae will work a lot better with a stronger card.

Hope this helps.

mike-s · #7 Post by **mike-s** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 9:56 am

Also a handy hint, if you got for a 2200G, then opt to use the intel wireless card manager and give the windows one the flick as frankly it is a peice of rubbish, even before you compare it to the intel software.

I found when using the windows client i had far more instability and dropouts, as well as difficulty in connecting to the access point in general than when using the intel driver.

Same can be said for using a dlink pcmcia wireless card and the dlink card manager vs the windows one. Yet again the 3rd party software absolutely obliterated the built in software for performance.

ABond007 · #8 Post by **ABond007** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 2:09 pm

mike-s wrote:Also a handy hint, if you got for a 2200G, then opt to use the intel wireless card manager and give the windows one the flick as frankly it is a peice of rubbish, even before you compare it to the intel software.

I found when using the windows client i had far more instability and dropouts, as well as difficulty in connecting to the access point in general than when using the intel driver.

Same can be said for using a dlink pcmcia wireless card and the dlink card manager vs the windows one. Yet again the 3rd party software absolutely obliterated the built in software for performance.

I am glad you brought this up, because I am having trouble getting windows to stop trying to connect for me. I would rather use the utility that came with my wireless radio, so I stopped the windows zero configuration tool, but even after I stopped it, the little computer icon pops up in my system tray and windows still tries to find the signal. Is there any other place that I need to disable to stop windows from taking over my wireless connection?

R31 Wireless Connection Problem

R31 Wireless Connection Problem

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