I had thought of doing this, but I bought the TrueMobile 1300 from Dell for $44.57 shipped.  It works great with my Netgear 802.11g router, and no voiding of the warranty.  IMHO it really isn't worth it unless you really WANT to do something like this, but otherwise...you're not saving any money and the added "power" really won't help *that* much.

Hans
The Amazing Cams!
http://www.TheAmazingCams.com

Message Edited by HansFelsh on 02-20-2004 12:32 AM

To me, saving $50 would not be worth the hassle, but...getting better range and speed might be. I just started a new job which is eating all my time, but I'm hoping to do some testing with the current card and then try this hacked card to see what it does.

BTW, have you tried the different antennas to see if one is better than the other?

My understanding is that they use the same chipset, so it would work.

I just ordered a D-Link DI-624 to replace my Orinoco BG-2000. I was about to give up on 108mbps for my laptop until I found this post. I know that the D-Link router supports 108mbps Turbo mode or SuperG as they call it. Now, if I purchase this Netgear version of the card and remove the miniPCI, is there a good chance that it will work in 108mbps with my D-Link router? Or is it only with Netgear routers? Or can it also work with Atheros generic drivers to connect with D-Link @ 108mbps?

Thank you for your reply.

How do you update the drivers/firmware after removing the card from the original device?  The driver/firmware for wireless devices get updated constantly and would seem like the installer for the original device you took the card from wouldn't work as it wouldn't recognize the card as being the same thing.  Or is the PCI card just an adapter so doesn't do anything to contribute to the actual working of the card (PnP ID and the rest)

Also know of any miniPCI cards that use the AR5004G version of the chipset?  That one seemed to add better range and power savings.

Going by:
http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/ClientAdapters_2f802_2e11g
its just PCI, not miniPCI.  Would seem to be hard to be sure as they may change the revision of the card and make the card not use a minipci card.

Can't tell for sure but if you look at this graphic it looks like a miniPCI card may be inside:
ftp://ftp10.dlink.com/images/products/DWL-G520/DWL-G520.jpg
(depending if thats just a reflection of the pci slot or a view under the cover)

Thanks

Message Edited by Enki42ea on 04-14-2004 06:53 AM

Message Edited by Enki42ea on 04-14-2004 06:59 AM

The PCI to mini PCI adapter is transparent. It merely changes the physical form of the connection.

Thanks.

That leaves the problem of the type of miniPCI:

• Type IIIA is 50.8 x 59.6 x 4.9mm
• Type IIIB is 44.45 x 59.6 x 4.9 mm

• So I'm going to guess both are the same connector wise and electronically just IIIA is a bit taller.  So that means a IIIA slot could take either.  Going by the size of the wireless card in my Inspiron 4100 its using a IIIA card now so I can use either, right?

  This also leaves the problem of finding a card that is currently using a minPCI card in it.  Going by my previous link it looks like the card this thread previously talked about doesn't use minPCI anymore but the pic of the other card makes it look like that one does.

   

  Thanks

There is also http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_network&message.id=2057&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

but looks like its based on the older cards so doesn't help much for todays cards