Hello all!

Another client, another question: thank you!

My friend (who is also a client) got a "new" (read 6 years old) IBM Thinkpad
from an organization called PCs for Maine for a great price ($300). Although
it works fine with XP SP2 installed (they also include Office 2007), it has
some interesting quirks with wifi. The wifi hardware is B, and I believe is
one of the first Intel Centrino chipsets.

At a hot spot (using a Linksys N router), using Windows wireless
configuration, the IBM can not always see the all of the available wireless
networks, most oddly the strongest network is absent. Reboot the laptop, and
there it is! Connect to the network, the connection lives for about 3
minutes at best, then dies. If the connection can still be seen,
reconnecting to it does not work. Reboot to try again. Obviously, this is no
way to run a laptop, so we (at the suggestion of PCs for Maine) re-imaged
the hard drive from the restore disk provided. Same problem <sighs>.

The client takes the laptop back to the organization of origin: it works
perfectly in their system: no drops or other weirdnesses. But they kindly
replaced the wifi card anyway. It works great there. She goes to a local
library on the way home, and the disconnects are baaack!

My theory of the moment is that there is some incompatibility between older
B and the newer N systems. Comments and thoughts are gratefully requested.

Thank you!

Will Stephenson
Acadia Technologies Inc


"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." -- Aldous Huxley

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