IBM Thinkpad T21 - wireless options?

jem16

I'm having a problem with the above laptop and its combi lan/modem card. I've tried 3 different cards now so I'm fairly sure it isn't the card itslef but somehow its connection with the motherboard.

As soon as the card is installed, the laptop will freeze. This started off as freezing at the Windows splashscreen, now it won't boot up at all. The only way to fix it is to take everything out and put it back, one bit at a time.

Anyway as it seems to be the board and I don't want to go to the expense of replacing it, can I use a different method of accessing my lan through wireless for example?

Can I just get a USB wireless lan?

Kilty_2

USB wireless stick would be fine yes, see dabs.com for their Value offering, £8.23 inc delivery for a Linksys adaptor, fantastic price for a good, stable adaptor. Only problem is that it is the 802.11b version that only runs at 11mbit, but if you dont need it for copying a lot of data back and forth it doesnt matter.

albertross_2

Are you talking about a mini-pci card , or pcmcia card?

What equipment do you have broadband, router, wireless router, dial-up?

jem16

albertross wrote:

Are you talking about a mini-pci card , or pcmcia card?

Do you mean the combi card which is giving a problem? I think it's a mini-pci card.

What equipment do you have broadband, router, wireless router, dial-up?

I have broadband with a wired router and a wireless access point.

jem16

Kilty wrote:

USB wireless stick would be fine yes, see dabs.com for their Value offering, £8.23 inc delivery for a Linksys adaptor, fantastic price for a good, stable adaptor. Only problem is that it is the 802.11b version that only runs at 11mbit, but if you dont need it for copying a lot of data back and forth it doesnt matter.

I can't find this on dabs.com.

Do you have a link?

albertross_2

These are mini-pci

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=mini-pci&sa=N&tab=wi

These are pcmcia:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=pcmcia

Kilty_2

jem16 wrote:

I can't find this on dabs.com.

Do you have a link?

Damn, its been discontinued, sorry

I bought one back in May, was an old model then so thatll be why they are no longer available.

Look for Linksys USB adaptors at eBuyer etc, even if you need to pay the extra for the 54mbit version they are worth every penny, stable and long range adaptors, unlike the one we bought at first for £20 from Tesco that was totally useless.

jem16

albertross wrote:

These are mini-pci

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=mini-pci&sa=N&tab=wi

These are pcmcia:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=pcmcia

It's definitely mini-pci.

albertross_2

Have you tried updating the bios, and mini-pci drivers? And turn off all wake-on lan functionality in the bios.

http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4ZDTHP&selectarea=SUPPORT&tempselected=5&brand=IBM%20ThinkPad

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_unauthorized_MiniPCI_network_card

jem16

I haven't tried any of this.

The card worked happily for about 18 months then started giving us problems. I tried a different card and it seemed fine but then it started giving us problems after a few weeks.

To be honest it's such a pain to fix when it goes wrong - removing the card itself doesn't help. You almost have to strip down the whole laptop. It's only going to be used occasionally to use Linux so I'm looking for a cheap, cheerful and easy solution - hence the USB option.

albertross_2

You'll have to make sure you get something that works under Linux then..