Wireless Networking → 802.11n PCMCIA card vs mini-pci (T42)

My Thinkpad T42 has mini-PCI wireless card (802.11g). I'm having throughput issues and considering upgrading my router to N. However, I can't seem to find a n-class mini-PCI card. I found an n-class PCMCIA wireless card. Does anyone know if this would be a step backwards? I'm unfamiliar with PCMCIA performance specs.

EDIT: I just found some mini-pci n-class cards on ebay, but I'd need to run the 1802 hack to use these with the T42. I'm guessing performance will be better if I could use my existing built-in antenna set. There's not much room for an antenna in one of those PCMCIA cards!

If anyone has experience running 802.11n on a T4x, please reply. In particular, I'm wondering if 150Mbs is the fastest speed using the existing antenna set. According to the specs, 802.11n can support 300Mbs with 2 data streams, but not sure if the T42 Main/Aux antenna setup supports that.

Hi,

Is this the card you found: »cgi.ebay.com/IBM-Thinkpa ··· 585474ba

You are going to need the Third antennae. The simplest solution is to use either a PCMCIA card or a USB adapter To get "N"

If you need more help go to thinkpadforums.com and to the T4x Forum. They will be able to give you the best info..

MnR

No. It's this one: »tinyurl.com/3rdpx2s. I started a thread in the thinkpad.com forum a couple of days ago. I learned that the legacy twin antenna design of my T42 will support n-class speeds, but range would be impacted. That's not really an issue in my setup.

I also found a mini-pci n-class card at newegg: »tinyurl.com/5vozdcr. It has two antenna connectors. The reviewers noted that the PCB includes a pad for the 3rd connector, and in fact this same card is sold with all three connectors installed.

One advantage of the card listed on eBay is that it supports 5Ghz.

Hi,

One problem with the first one: Not for IBM and some HP laptops.

And the second one needed a modded BIOS because of the whitelist in HPs.

MnR

My new laptop doesn't have a PCMCIA slot. If that's the current trend, then there won't be much incentive for producing 802.11n cards. There might be more choice if you look for a USB wifi adapter.

That's what the listing says, but my understanding is that it just needs the 1802 hack. I'm currently using an aftermarket card without issues (2200bg). Even though this card is unsupported for the T42, I didn't need to run the hack.But my laptop is not an HP, it's a Thinkpad. Presumably the 1802 hack would work with this card as well.USB? I've seen pictures of those things. The antenna can't be more than a centimeter or two! Unless someone can show me an A/B comparison with an internal card, I remain skeptical.