Wireless Issues

Message

house kitten · #1 Post by **house kitten** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:04 pm

I just received my new T-60 WS yesterday and at first I was not thrilled. Maybe the wireless is not confirgured correctly. What are people using to control the wireless? I have the IBM a/b/g/n card (which I chose because I thought going to N might allow me more distance). When I first turned the laptop on and added the security codes for my router I was getting about a 60-70% signal. The windows wireless icon (I am assuming that is what it is in the toolbar) indicates that the signal is very low. On my older T-42 I would get a full (excellent signal) with the Intel 2200BG.

I have turned off allowing windows to control the wireless on my computer and now I assume it is access connections controlling it. I am getting a better signal but at 80-85%. I uninstalled access connections and got nothing so I had to reinstall it. I assumed the card software would run without the access conenctions.

Can anybody offer any suggestions?? Thanks for your help!!!

Can I uninstall access connections and if so what do I use for software to run this puppy?

#2 Post by **gator** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:49 pm

Please see this thread:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=39024

edit: oops, posted wrong link, sorry. Will post the right link as soon as I find it. And please, add your responses in the same thread.

edit: found the correct thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=37740 - sorry for goofing up earlier.

#3 Post by **gator** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:17 pm

I am not able to locate the thread that I wanted to link right now, so I'll go ahead and repeat what was said there, assuming you have vista running.

Newer version of intel cards have more accurate signal strength reporting, so a lower number of "bars" on the taskbar icon does not necessarily mean low signal strength. (Also, the atheros cards have always had better reception than intel ones, so if you used a atheros card before and got a intel one, you might see slightly reduced signal strengths.)

Above all, you need a wireless N router to make use of the a/b/g/n card in your laptop. If all you have is a wireless g router, you will NOT see any improvement compared to the previous thinkpads.

house kitten · #4 Post by **house kitten** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:22 pm

I know I need a N router and no i do not have Vista running. I use XP Pro.

#5 Post by **gator** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:27 pm

house kitten wrote:I know I need a N router and no i do not have Vista running. I use XP Pro.

Do you actually see a difference in browsing/download speed compared with the older thinkpad, or just a difference in the reported signal strenghts?

You can also try using the Atheros Client Utility. Some users have reported better results with that compared to Access Connections or the default windows utility.

house kitten · #6 Post by **house kitten** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:54 pm

Hard to say becasue the old laptop is three years old. Hwn I first began it had on 60-70% and there was a noticable drop in speed. Now that is is 85-90 (or so) it is much better. (I have since turned windows networking off). Where do I find the altheros client software?

The point I was thrying to make it it appeared to be set up to use windows wirelsss as well as access connections. I was curious as to if they were fighting each other. I did uninstall access connections but had to uninstall it again becasue I need something to drive the wireless card.

#7 Post by **gator** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:15 pm

ftp://ftp.inexq.com/Drivers/CM10_DCMA-8 ... r_WHQL.ZIP

This was reported in this thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=39091

I have not used this before personally, and so I am not 100% sure that it will work with a/b/g/n (though it will work with a/b/g).

If I were you, I will not fiddle with the settings until there is a really low connection speed. There have been quite some reports of trouble with a/b/g/n card, so it is probably wise to wait till lenovo updates the drivers. I suggest you check for the drivers on your laptop and try updating them if a newer version available. Try using it with the windows utility (not AC 4.23, there are some issues again with this version. I use 4.12 myself)

If you want to try, the latest drivers can be found here:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 67351.html

This is all I know on this topic, we should wait for some gurus to reply here.

house kitten · #8 Post by **house kitten** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:39 am

It seems I was using access connections as well as the windows wireless and that may have been the problem. Windows wireless is turned off and I am now getting a signal of about 85% seems to be just as good as the intel except does not indicate it is a full signal as the intel did.

I have updated to the latest driver and that seems to help.

Thanks for the help!!

#9 Post by **GomJabbar** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:41 am

The following link has been helpful to some...

http://blog.st-agnes.org/cs/blogs/the_c ... nt/34.ashx

house kitten · #10 Post by **house kitten** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:03 am

That doc appears to be for the Intel card and not the IBM a/b/g/n/ which I have. I am not having disconnect problems only low connection rates.

house kitten · #11 Post by **house kitten** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:28 pm

One minute it works fine. I power off and move it to another room and it now longer will connect. I get 100% signal strenght showing but I am unable to connect. What gives? I have read the post re the intel issues and have attempted to download all the various software so I can uninstall and reinstall in a correct order and see if that helps. Unfortunalty I am unable to find most of the drivers/software such as the intel proset card ( I guess I don't have it thats why I cannot find it (right?).

Dang I have work to do and I really need someone to remind me why I bought a Thinkpad and not a dell!!!!

steveg47 · #12 Post by **steveg47** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:34 pm

house kitten wrote:Dang I have work to do and I really need someone to remind me why I bought a Thinkpad and not a dell!!!!

Return the Thinkpad and buy a Dell.

#13 Post by **Kyocera** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:35 pm

Unfortunately distance from the access point is a factor in the stability of the connection, if you are moving further away you will likely have trouble.

#14 Post by **gator** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:37 pm

house kitten wrote:One minute it works fine. I power off and move it to another room and it now longer will connect. I get 100% signal strenght showing but I am unable to connect. What gives? I have read the post re the intel issues and have attempted to download all the various software so I can uninstall and reinstall in a correct order and see if that helps. Unfortunalty I am unable to find most of the drivers/software such as the intel proset card ( I guess I don't have it thats why I cannot find it (right?).

Check the status of your Norton Client Security firewall. I had lots of trouble with random disconnects (with 100% strength just like you) with Norton and after I switched to McAfee, I have not had any issues. Try disabling the firewall for a while and let us know what happens. Before doing that, check whether the firewall is reporting any issues (right click the norton CSS icon the the taskbar and see the status).

house kitten wrote: Dang I have work to do and I really need someone to remind me why I bought a Thinkpad and not a dell!!!!

Come on, you previously owned a thinkpad and still you say this? Just be patient and we'll resolve the issue!

#15 Post by **gator** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:39 pm

steveg47 wrote:
house kitten wrote:Dang I have work to do and I really need someone to remind me why I bought a Thinkpad and not a dell!!!!
Return the Thinkpad and buy a Dell.

Hey, you know better! Don't make House Kitten feel bad now - lets help him/her to resolve the issue. The T60 is an awesome laptop and we all know it. We should not let small s/w issues (though frustating) to take away the pleasure of using a T60!

house kitten · #16 Post by **house kitten** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:49 pm

Kyocera wrote:Unfortunately distance from the access point is a factor in the stability of the connection, if you are moving further away you will likely have trouble.

I moved into a room 10 feet away where I had a 100% signal yesterday.

house kitten · #17 Post by **house kitten** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:50 pm

gator wrote:
house kitten wrote:One minute it works fine. I power off and move it to another room and it now longer will connect. I get 100% signal strenght showing but I am unable to connect. What gives? I have read the post re the intel issues and have attempted to download all the various software so I can uninstall and reinstall in a correct order and see if that helps. Unfortunalty I am unable to find most of the drivers/software such as the intel proset card ( I guess I don't have it thats why I cannot find it (right?).
Check the status of your Norton Client Security firewall. I had lots of trouble with random disconnects (with 100% strength just like you) with Norton and after I switched to McAfee, I have not had any issues. Try disabling the firewall for a while and let us what happens. Before doing that, check whether the firewall is reporting any issues (right click the norton CSS icon the the taskbar and see the status).

house kitten wrote: Dang I have work to do and I really need someone to remind me why I bought a Thinkpad and not a dell!!!!
Come on, you previously owned a thinkpad and still you say this? Just be patient and we'll resolve the issue!

I have unistalled any norton/symantec product.

house kitten · #18 Post by **house kitten** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:53 pm

gator wrote:
house kitten wrote:One minute it works fine. I power off and move it to another room and it now longer will connect. I get 100% signal strenght showing but I am unable to connect. What gives? I have read the post re the intel issues and have attempted to download all the various software so I can uninstall and reinstall in a correct order and see if that helps. Unfortunalty I am unable to find most of the drivers/software such as the intel proset card ( I guess I don't have it thats why I cannot find it (right?).
Check the status of your Norton Client Security firewall. I had lots of trouble with random disconnects (with 100% strength just like you) with Norton and after I switched to McAfee, I have not had any issues. Try disabling the firewall for a while and let us know what happens. Before doing that, check whether the firewall is reporting any issues (right click the norton CSS icon the the taskbar and see the status).

house kitten wrote: Dang I have work to do and I really need someone to remind me why I bought a Thinkpad and not a dell!!!!
Come on, you previously owned a thinkpad and still you say this? Just be patient and we'll resolve the issue!

With my past thinkpad when I resolved an issue it stayed resolved. With this thing it comes and go so you just don't know what the issue is.

#19 Post by **gator** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:00 pm

house kitten wrote: I have unistalled any norton/symantec product.

OK, lets go the ground basics then.

Can you check and let us know if your wired LAN is working properly? I remember one poster having issues with wireless and he uninstalled and re-installed wired lan drivers and the problem went away.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=38548

I'll search for any other posts that have an issue similar to yours in the meantime and get back here.

#20 Post by **gator** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:06 pm

house kitten wrote: With my past thinkpad when I resolved an issue it stayed resolved. With this thing it comes and go so you just don't know what the issue is.

Well. s/w issues can be very frustating sometimes, and I have had first hand exp. of not being able to use the wireless consistently. If nothing works, there is one obvious way: do a system restore (if you have it enabled) to earlier stages and try to see what update/install caused the issue. If nothing works, we may have to restore the system to factory state. Unfortunately, sometimes is is really difficult to pinpoint s/w issues.

I (and many, many others) will assure you that the T60 is a great purchase - there has been quite a few wireless issues with the T60 though and folks at Lenovo know it, and hopefully we will get a good update soon.

There is one more thing I want to suggest: try disabling the power saving feature of the wireless card (Can be done through advanced settings in access conenctions or through windows). Some routers have trouble with the PSP (polling feature to save power) feature on the wireless cards on the T60 and there are a lot of threads regarding that, like this for example:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=35962

(it mentions the intel card, the atheros card aslo has such a feature I think)

house kitten · #21 Post by **house kitten** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:54 pm

Access Connections does not even show up as installed. I uninstalled and reinstalled and still nothing. Version 4.23 becasue I could not find the verison you are running (4.12).

Access conenctions does not show on the tool bar but the windows wireless does. Says I have a very good signal howvever when I click outlook express nothing happens. Shows page not avalable.

I saw some comment about an association before uninstalling and reinstalling access connections.

#22 Post by **gator** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:56 pm

4.12 is available here:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... ZLNJB.html

Did you try disabling the power saving feature?

house kitten · #23 Post by **house kitten** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:04 pm

Windows wireless shows I have a (excellent) connection. I have nothing for access conenctions in the toolbar nor does it list in programs (under thinkvantage). I have installed it twice.

Outlook express will not start and when I plug in to my router I still get nothing. I must have issues other than the wirelss but why. all I did was unplug and move 10-15 feet.

I will try installing your version of outlook express tomorrow.

Alltweed · #24 Post by **Alltweed** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:29 am

Great Thread...

Sorry no answers "Yet"... I just wanted to tag along as I have the same issue.

T60/N card
Netgear Rangemaster 824n

Works great with my low end toshiba celeron rental which supoorts MIMO. Shows 108 Mbps when I highlight mouse over connection icon in tray.

yet, on my T60, it just says connection excellent, but 54G. I was planning to install latest wireless N driver which is the 3rd revision, but it reccomends that you first have minimally 2nd ver of AC and latest version of hot keys.

I tried installing hotkey, but it said installation failed. Said I could use software installer, but I never found that file anywhere so I just dowloaded the file using the option within "find Updates".

My next step is to figure out how to install latest hot key and then I'll download latest N driver. Hopefully, all these tips will lead to resolution.

When will we get to the point where we can run "find updates" and have the software figure out what version we have compared to the latest version avail and then install automatically in the right order based on critical, reccomended etc...All we do is say yes or no to each group of updates.

Isn't that what computers do???

house kitten · #25 Post by **house kitten** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 5:04 am

Guess what? It works this AM using only the windows wireless. I reinstalled access connections last night (both 4.24 and when that didn't work 4.12), then said to heck with it and went to bed. Woke up this AM and it now works however it does not seem that access connections is loaded. Nor is the thinkvantage button working.

Editted to say that windows wireless works within 25 feet or so of the router. If I move downstairs I get a very low signal and I was getting a 85% signal with the IBM card (at this downstairs location), so I guess I will need to run and install access connections.

I did download and clicked to install access connections both versions mention above (again) and although I watch it being installed there is no indication it is on my hard drive.

#26 Post by **GomJabbar** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 5:58 am

house kitten wrote:I did download and clicked to install access connections both versions mention above (again) and although I watch it being installed there is no indication it is on my hard drive.

To begin with, when you manually download a driver from Lenovo's site and then execute the download (double-click on it), all that happens is that the driver package is extracted to your hard drive in a subdirectory of C:\DRIVERS\. You then need to either (1) Run Software Installer and uncheck box to "Retrieve latest information on the internet" OR (2) go to the subdirectory that the driver package was extracted to and (usually) run Setup.exe. Tip: you can double-click on the .XML file in each subdirectory to see which driver and it's version is in that directory.

See my post in the following link for more info on Access Connections.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 216#261216

house kitten · #27 Post by **house kitten** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:12 am

Well I installed access connection using the update system in thinkvantage as well as the hot key driver as I thought that may be why my thinkvantage button is not working. Seems OK for now. Later will be the real test. Now to get the thinkvantage button working.

steveg47 · #28 Post by **steveg47** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:36 am

gator wrote:
steveg47 wrote: Return the Thinkpad and buy a Dell.
Hey, you know better! Don't make House Kitten feel bad now - lets help him/her to resolve the issue. The T60 is an awesome laptop and we all know it. We should not let small s/w issues (though frustating) to take away the pleasure of using a T60!

Please, I've been working with PCs and clients professionally probably for more years then you've been alive(only a guess on my part) and I know a dissatisfied person when I see (read) one. This is not a criticism of house kitten as I am sure her issues are well founded. If she/he thinks she/he would be happier with some other brand of laptop then she/he should go for it. House kitten has a very limited time to return the T60 for a refund so a decision needs to be made immediately. I can think of nothing worse then having to work everyday with a piece of equipment you paid good money for that you are unhappy with. Sometimes Thinkpads and people don't work together. It happens.

At the very least house kitten should contact Lenovo support with her problems so that a record of them can be established with Lenovo in case house kitten decides to pursue returning the T60.

house kitten · #29 Post by **house kitten** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:16 am

steveg47,

The laptop was not purchased through Lenovo please don' tmake assumptions. I got it through pcsuperdeals.com and they have a no return policy on laptops or I most likely would return, but not becasue of this bump in the road, but becasue I really wish I would have gotten a 14" and not a WS. So yes sir you right I would like to return but since i cannot I'll continue to plug along. I am frustrated and that is all. I have worked 30 years in engineering and I know I can get through this.

#30 Post by **GomJabbar** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:27 am

house kitten wrote:Well I installed access connection using the update system in thinkvantage as well as the hot key driver as I thought that may be why my thinkvantage button is not working. Seems OK for now. Later will be the real test. Now to get the thinkvantage button working.

The ThinkVantage button performs two very different functions. If you press it on boot up, you enter the Rescue and Recovery workspace - also called the Predesktop Area. If you press the ThinkVantage button while in Windows, you should get ThinkVantage Help (well on my T42 it is called Access IBM). Which feature are you having a problem with? The solution is different depending upon which it is.

Wireless Issues

Wireless Issues

[censored] Laptop

Re: [censored] Laptop

Re: [censored] Laptop

Re: [censored] Laptop

Re: [censored] Laptop

Re: [censored] Laptop

Re: [censored] Laptop

Re: [censored] Laptop

Re: [censored] Laptop

Who is online