Is there a mini PCI option for WPA-enabled wireless to A30p?

[d94dsj]

I have an a30p with the integrated "IBM high rate wireless LAN Mini PCI" card.
Unfortunately, this does not support WPA (Wifi Protected Access), only WEP.

I have tried to search the IBM support site for any mini PCI WPA card for my a30p, but I haven't been able to find one.

Does anyone know if there is one, or do I have to get a PC Card to get WPA security?

Thanks,

Daniel

[d lehmann]

Got this card last week. 73p4301 abg adapterll from IBM. Works with a r40 that's not on the support list. Supports 2 flavors of wpa, but I just use wep. $68.00 including shipping in 2 days.

[jdhurst]

The High Rate wireless card (at least as supplied in the T30) does not support WPA. I have tried that. IBM tried to tell me it wasn't a supported card, but when I said an IBM Gold Partner sold me the machine and the wireless card, they backtracked and said they would report the issue. I have heard nothing and not yet seen a newer driver for the card.
... JD Hurst

[d94dsj]

Thanks for the answers, guys!

I will check on that 73p4301 abg adapterll - is the MiniPCI form factor the same for all TP models?

/D

[felixh]

I have an A30p that came with built-in wireless, and have already upgraded the wireless module twice. The latest upgrade is to an Atheros 5004X chipset based card, the CM9 (see here: http://www.wisp-router.com/product_info ... cts_id=332). This card does 802.11a/b/g. The upgrade is simple, just swap the Mini-PCI module, connecting the antenna leads. This card is much more sensitive than the original module; I detect a lot more neighbor's networks (most of them unsecured), and get a faster, more reliable connection in my house through several rooms and floors. I use WPA-PSK with AES and don't worry about anyone cracking that anytime soon.

However, on my machine I lost the modem (the old wireless adaptor was a dual wireless/modem card), but I don't miss it at all (it turns out I never even used it--all those modem driver updates from IBM were a waste of time). An annoyance is that, at boot time, the machine reports a useless error message from the BIOS about having two ethernet adaptors. You hit ESC to bypass this, and in fact everything works fine, you can run the wireless and LAN at the same time if you are so inclined. For a while I actually removed the LAN adaptor module, removing this error message, but I like the option of going hard-wired. You may need to look around the net to find the latest non-branded Atheros drivers and client utility, but the good news is that they are excellent. I run WPA-PSK, using AES, with a Netgear Atheros-based WGU-624 wireless router. The forums on dslreports.com are a good resource on Atheros client driver updates. With an all-Atheros solution you can enable the various "super" modes, and even try 108 Mbps (though I avoid this, since it forces me to use channel 6, which is in use by a lot of neighbors).

[dfumento]

The 73p4301 abg adapterll is a Atheros 5004X based adapter.