Thinkpad owners with poor wireless connectivity read on...

Most of the time I don't face issues with dropped connections, but recently I found myself in a situation where the signal was not so strong (no repeaters were located any where near me, and the access point didn't have a 5dB+ aerial). As a result, connections were dropping so often, that I was nearly driven mad.

Every other wireless device was fine, dropping either occasionally, or not at all, but my Lenovo Thinkpad T61 was, or rather the drivers for the Intel WifiLink 4965AG card were, quite frankly, performing pretty poorly.

In deperation, I visited the Lenovo site to see if there was any upgrade available. There was:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-70504.html

However, I realised from reading that page, that it wasn't going to be all that simple. The webpage lists a daunting number of prerequisites and caveats relating to model number, card version, current installed program versions and so on. So many, in fact, that I was beginning to get turned off.

Eventually, for me at least, it boiled down to this:

Note: The part numbers are listed so that you can find each component driver easily.

Intel Wireless LAN (11abgn, abg, bg) driver: 6hwc05ww.exe
ThinkVantage Access Connections for Windows XP - Notebooks : 6hcx41ww.exe
ThinkPad Power Management driver for Windows - ThinkPad : 6hku06ww.exe
Hotkey driver for Windows Vista, XP, 2000 - Notebooks : 6jvu32ww.exe

From the readme notes for Intel Wireless LAN (11abgn, abg, bg) - 6hwc05ww.exe:

Make sure that the following driver prerequisite were installed on your system
  before installing this driver:
  - MSXML6.0 Parser or higher
  - Windows Installer 3.14 or higher
      (Download installer from http://www.microsoft.com)

- If you use ThinkVantage Access Connections, the following software must be
  installed.
  - ThinkVantage Access Connections for Windows XP/2000
      version 5.1 or higher
  - ThinkPad Power Management Driver for Windows 98 SE/Me/2000/XP/Vista
      version 1.51 or higher
    or
    ThinkPad Power Management Driver for SL Series
      version 1.44 or higher
  - ThinkPad Hotkey Features for Windows 98/98 SE/Me/NT 4.0/2000/XP
      version 1.24.0603 or higher
    or
    Hotkey Features for Windows Vista/XP/2000
      version 2.09.0002 or higher
    (Note: Refer to each Hotkey package for which version to use.)

- If you currently use IEEE 802.1x authentication on Windows XP Service Pack 1
  and do not use WPA encryption, Lenovo recommends you to uninstall Q826942 (WPA
  Supplicant update rollup package in Windows XP) and Q815485 (WPA Wireless
  Security Update in Windows XP).
  This does not apply if you are running Windows XP Service Pack 2.

  To check if Q826942 or Q815485 is installed and to uninstall it:
  1. Start Windows XP and logon with administrative privileges.
  2. Click Start and then click Control Panel.
  3. Click Add or Remove Programs.
  4. Click Windows XP Hotfix (SP2) Q826942 or Windows XP Hotfix (SP2) Q815485
     if it is listed under Currently installed programs.
  5. Click Remove and follow the instructions on the screen.

  Note:
  The above action will remove all the fixes within the update rollup package,
  Q826942. You may need to re-install the other specific hotfixes you expect for
  this rollup package.

- You may need to re-enter security information after updating the Wireless LAN
  driver.

- If you use Single Sign-On with the following authentications, ThinkVantage
  Access Connections version 4.22 or higher is needed.
  - LEAP on Windows XP

- [Specification changes] 2200BG/2915ABG Network Connection will report lower
  signal strength than with previous driver versions. Because the 2200BG/2915ABG
  methodology was changed to be more accurate and responsive, similar to the
  3945BG/3945ABG. However, wireless network performance and functions are not
  affected at all by this change.

 I don't know about you, but I find even the readme a little bit discouraging.
So from the notes, check you have the right MSXML parser 6.0 +, and the latest Windows Installer, and from there:

Switch off wireless radio (use the hard switch to be sure it's not going to come back on)

For the T61 with the 4965AG WiFi card:
Install the following parts in this order:

1. Hotkey driver for Windows Vista, XP, 2000 - Notebooks : 6jvu32ww.exe
2. ThinkPad Power Management driver for Windows - ThinkPad : 6hku06ww.exe
3. ThinkVantage Access Connections for Windows XP - Notebooks : 6hcx41ww.exe 
4. Intel Wireless LAN (11abgn, abg, bg) driver: 6hwc05ww.exe

You will have to restart after each install. Make sure you do this. Messing this up is not an option!!!

Note: you may find that you are already at some of the minimum driver / program levels, but still look for the latest for your platform. For the Vista versions of the drivers above (points 3. and 4.) visit those pages and you'll find the link to the page for the Vista drivers / programs.

So, after doing all this, how was the performance of the new wireless adapter driver?
In short, pretty much perfect. Not one droped connection, and even a 40% signal could be used to get acceptable transfer speeds (18-24Mbps out of a possible 54).

What was an added bonus wass that the new Access Connections program is pretty cool and flashy. It's still the same underneath, but there are some extra features. I won't spoil the surprise for you in this post. Maybe later.

If you are suffering at work or at home from all-to-often dropped connections (and I know many of you are), you could do a lot worse than upgrade. Your sanity will thank you for it.