R40e wireless solution suggestions

[orchimaxi]

I just got an R40e off of eBay - was just over 310 shipped. Unfortunately, I didn't catch the "e" part until after the auction ended. Did I just open a can of worms I didn't want to open?

Anyway, I need to have wireless network access, primarily 802.11b. What would be the best (reliable but not too spendy) method to get this? Seeing as this computer is lacking USB2.0, internal wireless and other features I'm sure that I'll discover I wish I had this is a "temporary" solution until a better one can be found. Since I haven't received it yet I can't give you exact model numbers, which from searching your fine site I've discovered you folks use very often. I do know that it has the 2.2 GHz P4-M, which I also gather is sort of the [censored] child among the R40's, the 30 GB HD, 14" screen, 512 MB RAM, and XP Pro.

Anyway, I digress. I need an inexpensive but reliable wireless solution, and if it's PCMCIA I'd prefer one that didn't stick out too far. The primary purpose of this computer is to take with me to my training this summer at Fort Sam Houston (I'm a combat medic) and my deployment at the end of the year. I'm happy dealing with NewEgg, but if there are better/cheaper vendors to deal with please let me know...

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

If I were you I'd wait to receive the actual machine, find the 7-character model number on the bottom of the laptop, and then start asking questions...so we all know what you're talking about...

You might get lucky and receive a real R40, or it may get damaged in the shipping for you to get your money back and spend it more wisely the next time around...you never know.

[orchimaxi]

Will do. Is the 'e' really as much of a step backwards as I'm starting to gather?

[ajkula66]

Well...on R series "e" stood for "economy"...while "p" stood for "performance"....

These are not necessarily bad machines, and if you get a decent example, you will be able to do all the stuff that you'd do with any other ThinkPad of that generation.

[kajencik]

I installed generic chinese wifi antennas into the LCD of my R40e without any trouble, I also installed some unknown 802.11g minpci card into the minipci slot, but the no-1802 patch had to be applied to make it work, I used the PCMCIA wifi before, but it's a shame to let the minipci slot unattended

The problem you will have with the R40e is battery life, even with new battery, it won't be much more than 2,5 hours, especially with your quite fast CPU, compared to the pentium M R40's over 5 hours with new battery.

And I can say: I had quite good chinese battery, which died completely, but before that it gave about 2 hours to my R40e, and I have two 60% capacity batteries for my R40, and It can do almost 4 hours on such battery....