[ltp] T520 Wireless

[Richard Neill]

>
> This may be interference with other access points - apartment building is full
> of Univ. of Texas students, over a dozen access points visible.  I caught the
> older T41 doing the same thing.  I need check part numbers, which is faster.

Check your access point for the channel selection. If you have an AP 
capable of wireless-N, (or 5 GHz A), that's always better. You can turn 
off B-compatibility mode; that's obsolete. Also, it's better to use the 
same channel as an existing AP (or one widely different). If you are on 
the same channel, they can co-operate to share bandwidth; if they are 
adjacent, they usually just interfere. WPA2 is the way to go (some APs 
will not work in N mode with WEP).

Also, for the machine I use only at home, I disable network-manager and 
hard-code the wifi in /etc/network/interfaces. That stops it constantly 
hunting for a "better" connection and keeps it on my home LAN rather 
than my neighbour's !

>
>> 2. If you do rather more disassembly (perhaps an hour), you can get
>> the screen off and swap it with the old one; you can also swap the
>> CPUs.
>
> So this is a matter of screens, not video chips?

Within reason, yes. The laptop panel (LVDS, 
low-voltage-differential-signalling) is not fundamentally different from 
VGA or DVI in the way it talks to the card.  If you can swap the whole 
lid, rather than just the screen, it's really easy to do (and to test).

Best wishes,

Richard