Mini-PCI 802.11 n?

[kaczor47]

Hello,

With a recent purchase of a T61, I am trying to revive my trusty old T41 (2378-DMU) to be used as a secondary machine... One of the things (I am almost certain) I need is a new wifi card (mini-PCI, as I understand it).

Since my T61 has a mini-PCIe Intel 4965AGN and since I do have a draftN router, I was hoping to also upgrade the T41 to draft N. However I have not seen any mention of mini-PCI 802.11 N cards. Do either Intel or Atheros make them?

(I will post this in the Marketplace, but if you have a spare one, I will gladly purchase it)

[aaa]

There is a place called SparkLan that makes a couple. There's an Atheros version and an Ralink version. Of course, the Atheros is the most expensive (60?), and the performance of Ralink is unknown.

For maximum performance you'd probably want a third antenna, and you'd have to find a good place to put it (not being blocked by metal).

Keep in mind you can probably get the hack-free IBM A/B/G cards for around $30, less money and less hassle.

[kaczor47]

aaa, (excuse the pun) forgot about the additional antenna.

I don't know if I feel adventurous enough to disassemble the lcd in order to put in an antenna...

[aaa]

Well you don't have to disassemble the screen, see here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ht=antenna

Whether that situation is ideal is a good question though, my bluetooth worked pretty well at least.

[bill bolton]

However I have not seen any mention of mini-PCI 802.11 N cards. Do either Intel or Atheros make them?

No, they don't. I think there might be one on the market from a smaller card supplier, but I'm not sure if it meets the Draft 2 specs?!?

You would need to arrange a third antenna if you expect to achieve reliable 270 Mbps speeds. If you get reasonable WiFi signal level where you normally use your T4x, you may be able to get away with putting the third antenna under the palmrest, above the HDD.

Cheers,

Bill B.