New Laptop - T61

[kouloubj]

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!

[wolfman]

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

[BillMorrow]

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..

[Volker]

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.

[MeaninglessNick]

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)

[brnf]

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

[Volker]

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