In the old days there were PCMCIA (or maybe Cardbus) wifi cards with
antenna
connectors. If your card has such a connector, a high gain antenna
plugged
into such a card and correctly pointed might get you connected
better. I have
no idea if your card has such a connector - the ones I've seen have
small
rubber caps to protect the external antenna connector.
Another option would be a wifi bridge unit - it connects to the wifi
router
with wifi and presents ethernet, effectively giving you a hard wire (but
slower). Again, some bridge units can accept high gain antennas. There
are a variety of high gain antennas. Usually the higher the gain the
more
directional and those require pointing at the router. You could also
ask
your landlord to put high gain omnidirectional antennas on the router
as long as you aren't above or below the router - you might offer to buy
them as they aren't cheap (at least from Linksys). Basically the high
gain
omni antennas flatten the pattern to more like a disk increasing the
signal
in the plane of the disk while decreasing it above/below the disk. The
plane of the disk is perpendicular to the long axis of the antenna. I
know
Linksys has such antennas available for their units as I put them on
a friends unit - it helped connect a computer across a fairly large
house
using wifi. Linksys makes two different antennas with different
connectors.
Make sure you get the correct connectors on any high gain antenna to
connect to the bridge/router/whatever.
Flat plate or more complicated (yagi for example) antennas can have a
quite
directional character - you MUST point them at the signal source. Some
high gain directional antennas can make quite a difference if you have
an appropriate antenna connector on you card/bridge. They usually have
a wire running from the antenna allowing you to put the antenna in a
better
signal environment - various obstructions can change the signal
radically
so sometimes moving things even a short distance can improve (or
degrade) the signal a fair amount.
Good luck,
Stuart
On Apr 6, 2011, at 7:13 AM, Stuart Friedman wrote:
I have an ancient, but still performing, T23 with a PC Card wireless
card, Linksys WPC54G. I am trying to access my landlord's router, a
Netgear model I believe, and have a very weak signal on the T23. In
the same space by other Thinkpads with internal wireless (T43 and
X32) receive a decent signal. I am looking for ways to improve the
situation with the T23. Hard wiring into the router is not a good
option.
Would a different wireless radio in the T23 be an option, if such an
animal exists? Other suggestions
Would a better
Stuartf
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