Cheap Dual Band a/b/g/n WLAN upgrade for CF-18

My CF-18, and maybe all CF-18's, has a mini-pci wlan slot, not the newer mini-pci-e slots of the CF-19 for the WLAN card. WLAN card upgrades for these have been hard to find in the past, and a couple of years ago the only one I could find was a 2.4gHz only wireless-n TP-Link card. Recently, while surfing ebay, I found a dual band, 2.4 and 5 gHz, wireless a/b/g/n card for only $6.89 shipped from China. Do a search on ebay for "Broadcom BCM43222 Mini PCI 802.11 a/b/g/n 300M Wireless N WiFi Card".

A driver for the card that works for XP/Vista/Win7 is here:
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/wireless/WIFI_V510082112_V510019615_XPWin7.zip

Credit for finding this driver is from here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-inspiron-dell-studio/648578-need-some-help-finding-drivers-dell-inspiron-6000-broadcom-bcm4322-wlan-card.html

The driver is supplied by Asus, is the newest I could find (dated early in 2012), and installs fine under Win7 (on another computer) and XP on my CF-18. Installation of the card and driver is as follows:

1. Remove external power and the battery from your CF-18.
2. Remove the 13 screws holding on the bottom cover and remove it. WIll likely take some gentle prying to get it off.
3. Carefully remove the antenna connectors from the old WLAN Card, and carefully peel off the plastic insulating sheet, and rubber buffer stuck to the card, noting their position.
4. Remove the old card and install the new one, and reinstall the plastic sheet and rubber buffer and antenna leads. The card is held in by the same clips on the side, similar to the way ram modules are held in.
5. Reinstall the bottom cover on your CF-18.
6. Reinstall the battery and power cord.
7. Boot the CF-18. It should find the card after WIndows loads, but not find any drivers for it.
8. Unzip the driver file, and run the installer. It will give an initial screen, and then disappear after you click ok, and the only way you will know it is still installing is the hard drive light flashing. Eventually it will finish, and give an indicating window. You should also see the WLAN icon in the taskbar give an indication, usually before the driver has completed installing, that networks are available.
9. Right click on the WLAN icon in the taskbar, and select a network. If you have both wireless g and n networks, you should see both. Select one, enter your security code, and you should be online.

You will find a new Broadcom application installed in the Add/Delete programs in the control panel. The good news is that it does not appear to install its own management program, it uses the standard Windows wireless interface to control the card. In Device Manager, you can control a whole bunch of advanced features of the the card.

Note that I didn't remove the old Intel WLAN drivers, and they don't seem to interfere with anything.

I have tried this card both in my CF-18, and an old Dell D400, and it works fine in both. I'm using it now in my CF-18. Has good signal strength, at least as strong as what I had with the old Intel card, and MUCH faster downloads. I've ordered several more of these cards for older laptops, as they are such a bargain.

This should help those in cities with a saturated 2.4gHz specktrum, as 5gHz is used a lot less. Simultaneous dual band routers are getting cheaper and cheaper, so it doesn't make sense not to upgrade.

Jon

 

Why don't you upgrade to CF-19?
They

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P.S. 5GHz is only good if the AP and the client are in the same room. It works much slower through the walls.

 

I am! It's being shipped today! But it was a lot more expensive than $6.89!

I've not noticed any problem with 5gHz. Have good signal, walls or not. Consistently higher thruput than 2.4. And many places in the US, particularly big cities, are getting saturated with 2.4, so 5 gHz is a better option. This way people can have both.

Jon