Thinkpads Forum

Hello all:

I will be purchasing a new T61 soon and was wondering which wireless adapter I should select. I plan on dual booting WinXP and Ubuntu.


Wireless card
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (11n disabled)
ThinkPad 11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Express Adapter
ThinkPad 11b/g Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Express Adapter II

thanks in advance for your help!

Funny you should ask I was *just* literally looking at the exact same thing!

the atheros version has always been a better choice..
that would be the thinkpad 11..
better range..

and probably better driver availability for linux installs..

Tough choice. Right now there is no linux driver for intel 4965 (which came out earlier this week or so), but given intel's track record with the previous chipsets I think that they'll release a fully open driver soon which will eventually make it into the mainstream kernel.

The atheros cards probably work right now with madwifi, but that (binary-only) driver will never get included in the main kernel. Even if it works now this will inconvenience you later on.

About the wireless range, I'd be surprised if there is a noticeable difference between current intel and atheros cards. I'm using a T41 with intel ipw2915 card and I haven't seen a laptop with better wireless range yet.

I agree the binary HAL layer of madwifi is annoying, but it actually is included in the non-free part of debian (so I guess Ubuntu as well; in fact I think Ubuntu works out of the box)

There is now a open source driver from Intel for the 4965ABGN card, so I would definitely go with this card.

You can find the driver here: http://intellinuxwireless.org

Yes, driver is out. Definitely go with the intel wireless 4965AGN card.