what kind of expansion slots do I have?

I'm embarrassed to say, but I don't even know what type of expansion slots (PCMCIA-type) slots are on my used t60....

here's the parts lookup from the lenovo site for my t60:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/s...y=897&template=/results/partsLookupResults.vm

another thing that would be really helpful is to explain to me what's the difference between smartcard and PCMCI slots?

I'm looking for a high-power wireless lan card for this thing - sometimes it won't pick up my school's wireless network in places and I want to improve the access. preferable something with a small (5-in or so) antenna.... how much better reception is something like this going to give me?

 

Hard to tell unless I see a pic of your laptop, but you probably have PCMCIA and express card slots.

Smart Card: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_card
The smart card slot uses smart cards. The smart cart resembles a credit card. Most people do not get this option. It is not widely used in the US and when it is it seems to be used mostly for business use.

 

That model is listed as having the following:

# Expansion Ports: 1 - Type II PC Card Slot
# Expansion Ports: 1 - Express Card Slot

Here is the Webopedia entry on PCMCIA: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/PCMCIA.html

And a Wikipedia article for the Express Slot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard

Hmmm, Smartcards and PCMCIA are't really related. You can get a PCMCIA smartcard reader. PCMCIA is simply the interface used by the PCMCIA cards, a smartcard is a small embedded chip (such as on a phone sim card, or some credit cards and keypasses ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_card)