n wireless T61

When I configured my T61 at the beginning of last month I thought I would save some money and choose the cheapest network card that did not offer ieee-n support. In retrospect and after additional research I am second guessing this decision (it seems as if they finalized this standard). My laptop is not due to ship until June 18th now and I was wondering if any of you would think it would be a good idea to shell out the extra money for the draft-n support? If I decide not to, is the wireless card easy to replace in these systems after the fact?

 

Where did you find this information?

I don't think it is very difficult to upgrade the card, but it is not that much money for the upgrade and if yours isn't due to ship until June 18th you might as well just call and have it changed. IMO.

 

I think n is backwards compatible with b and g. In that case, if you don't need over 54mpbs then pass it up. The switch to n will be much more drawn out than g. Going to g provided a lot more benefit than going to n will. So I think the adoption of n even when it gets finalized will be slow. I would go without n unless you need it for something.

 

802.11n has not been ratified, nor finalized and adopted. They keep pushing it off. (It'll be at least 2008 before it happens)

After all the manufacturers wanted to jump the gun and start manufacturing "Pre-N" equipment, the wi-fi alliance people caved and recognized "Draft 2.0" as a halfway point for all the competitors to agree on. That has been finalized, but it doesn't mean all the 2.0 equipment will be final spec compatible. All the ThinkPad N cards are still draft N, although Draft 2.0 compliant...I think.

 

i've been using n-draft for a while, it's much faster than a/b/g.