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February 18th, 2004 02:00
802.11g Card Hacking HOWTO
802.11g miniHOWTO
OK, theres a lot of people asking what the easiest way to get 802.11g into their laptop without paying Dell etc. This isn't the EASIEST way, but its probably the cheapest. You will need:
1 Netgear WG311 54 Mbps Wireless PCI adapter ($40 @ compusa)
1 Soldering iron
Skills to use said soldering iron
Willingness to possibly break your laptop.
DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU BREAKING YOUR STUFF!
1) The crux of all this is the fact that the above mentioned card (the WG311) is nothing more than a MiniPCI (the kind of wireless card your laptop takes) in soldered onto a PCI card. First, you need to melt the 3 solder points that hold the yellow cover off of the back of the PCB. Remove the cover.
2) Unfortunately, netgear soldered the MiniPCI clips onto the MiniPCI card (probably to prevent people from doing this). You will need to melt these solder points very carefully to loosen them up, and pull away the clips. Be careful not to dislodge or burn any of the components.
3) Install th card into your MiniPCI laptop (i8600 for example).
4) Install latest drivers and firmware. Be happy with your new Atheros 5212 chipset card that supports winderful things like Linux, BSD, 108MBit (in theory).
OK, theres a lot of people asking what the easiest way to get 802.11g into their laptop without paying Dell etc. This isn't the EASIEST way, but its probably the cheapest. You will need:
1 Netgear WG311 54 Mbps Wireless PCI adapter ($40 @ compusa)
1 Soldering iron
Skills to use said soldering iron
Willingness to possibly break your laptop.
DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU BREAKING YOUR STUFF!
1) The crux of all this is the fact that the above mentioned card (the WG311) is nothing more than a MiniPCI (the kind of wireless card your laptop takes) in soldered onto a PCI card. First, you need to melt the 3 solder points that hold the yellow cover off of the back of the PCB. Remove the cover.
2) Unfortunately, netgear soldered the MiniPCI clips onto the MiniPCI card (probably to prevent people from doing this). You will need to melt these solder points very carefully to loosen them up, and pull away the clips. Be careful not to dislodge or burn any of the components.
3) Install th card into your MiniPCI laptop (i8600 for example).
4) Install latest drivers and firmware. Be happy with your new Atheros 5212 chipset card that supports winderful things like Linux, BSD, 108MBit (in theory).
No Events found!
HansFelsh
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58 Posts
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February 20th, 2004 03:00
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
SwampNut
220 Posts
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February 20th, 2004 13:00
BTW, have you tried the different antennas to see if one is better than the other?
mattcowger
2.6K Posts
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February 20th, 2004 15:00
mattcowger
2.6K Posts
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March 1st, 2004 02:00
chodaboy19
22 Posts
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March 1st, 2004 02:00
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.
Enki42ea
7 Posts
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April 14th, 2004 09:00
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
SwampNut
220 Posts
0
April 14th, 2004 13:00
Enki42ea
7 Posts
0
April 14th, 2004 21:00
Thanks.
That leaves the problem of the type of miniPCI:
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
Enki42ea
7 Posts
0
April 15th, 2004 06:00
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