Thinkpads Forum

I notice 600x's on e-bay often have WiFi built in. ( I assume it is built in.) Would not these cards be a tad slow compared to what is on the street now?

Well, they can't be any slower than 802.11b which is 11Mbps. The latest is 802.11n at up to 160 Mbps

I like atheros a,b,g 108mps set to 30mw + intel centrino spec a,b,g 54 mps wifi cards for extended battery run time.
remmember centrino is not a cpu its intels definition of wifi terminoligy.
so technichally the upgraded 600x really becomes a centrino if fitted with intels wifi cards.
atheros got that bit right.

The Olde Man wrote:I notice 600x's on e-bay often have WiFi built in. ( I assume it is built in.)

I assume that in almost all these cases, the "built-in" wifi is actually a PCMCIA card. I have almost never seen a 600X on eBay with wifi built-in. The 600X does not have an antenna built into its body, so it requires serious hardware modifications to install an antenna in order to use the Mini-PCI slot and have truly built-in wifi.

The Olde Man wrote:Would not these cards be a tad slow compared to what is on the street now?

As others suggest above, the speed is tied to the standard used. The most common currently are "802.11B" or "802.11G". There are many, many different PCMCIA cards that are compatible with the 600X for both of these speeds.

For most casual web browsing on a 600X, you won't notice much difference between a good B connection vs. a G connection. You'll probably find that the time it takes your aging PIII CPU to render a web page will slow down your browsing more than the speed of the data being sent to your machine. Most ISPs can barely keep up with the ideal speed that you can theoretically achieve using 802.11B protocols. In that context, an 802.11G speed connection is primarily valuable for data transfer on an intranet or local area network.

Phil.

I have had a basic 600 with the original 98 for many years. Unfortunately, the body is coming apart on me, hinges etc. Apparently it got banged, although I don't know how. So I am kind of looking around. I do like the 600 series so will stick with it.

Many 600x are being sold with WiFi. Some photos show a plug-in, others don't which is what led me to think it was built in towards the end of its run.

Thanks for the info. I will continue my search for one the guy is giving away and nobody notices.

The 600X did not come from the factory with built-in WiFi. Unless the seller swapped out the MiniPCI modem card for an 802.11a/b/g AND install an internal or external antenna, then what they are advertising is a PC Card (aka PCMCIA) solution. I've done both (internal and external antenna) and it requires some major disassembly.

In "upgrading" the 600X to built-in wireless you will lose the built-in modem. An attempt was made earlier this year to install a combo modem/wireless card from a T23 into a 600X but the modem still does not work.

ref: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=25953 (External antenna)
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=35010 (Internal antenna)
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=47144 (T23 combo in 600X)

Harryc wrote:Well, they can't be any slower than 802.11b which is 11Mbps. The latest is 802.11n at up to 160 Mbps

Worse signal -> less Mbps

... an the signal through the case from 600x is worse

I think, 3com X-Jack WiFi is even better. In use: heavy signal - not in use: no batteryconsum.