Toshiba Internal Antenna - Missing?

Hoping someone can help as am tearing my hair out !

I've got a Toshiba laptop (S2400-103), which doesn't have built in
wi-fi support.

I obtained a Toshina Wireless LAN Card Kit (PA3189U-1MPC) which fits
nicley into the back of the laptop.

The wireless card connects happily to my wireless router, but the
connection isn't great (I pretty much need to be about 4ft away to
connect).

The problem is that I can't find any wires inside the laptop to
connect the wireless card to an internal antenna, in fact I suspect
there may not even be one.

Have checked Toshibas support site, but to no avail.

So, does anyone know if this model has an internal antenna? Or where
I could buy one, or how to make one?

I don't really want to buy a PCIMCIA card as I need the slots for
other things (Firewire card etc).

Thanks in advance.

Luke

Luke wrote:
> I've got a Toshiba laptop (S2400-103), which doesn't have
> built in wi-fi support.
>
> I obtained a Toshina Wireless LAN Card Kit (PA3189U-1MPC)
> which fits nicley into the back of the laptop.
>
> The wireless card connects happily to my wireless router, but
> the connection isn't great (I pretty much need to be about 4ft
> away to connect).
>
> The problem is that I can't find any wires inside the laptop to
> connect the wireless card to an internal antenna, in fact I
> suspect there may not even be one.

If the machine were "wireless ready" (i.e. had built-in antennas), you
should have seen one or two loose antenna cables near the mini-PCI socket,
with tiny round connectors on the ends.

There's a guy who sells mini-PCI antennas for $20 on eBay. They aren't as
good as built-in ones, because they sit next to the mini-PCI card instead of
up in the lid, but they should be better than no antenna. Might be worth a
try. This eBay search will find them:

mini-pci antenna

Another option is a USB wireless adapter. PC Mall has a compact one for
$29.95 with a $29.95 rebate:

http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/de...sp?dpno=345833

I don't know if this adapter is any good or not.

-Mike

There's no guarantee that it either had the antenna or that it was even
supposed to have the antenna. Some models do, some don't. But it
sounds like your model was not prewired for it, in which case I'd give
up on the internal device and just use a PC card. Installing the
antennas, while possible, is usually a huge, horrible and high-risk job.


Luke wrote:

> Hoping someone can help as am tearing my hair out !
>
> I've got a Toshiba laptop (S2400-103), which doesn't have built in
> wi-fi support.
>
> I obtained a Toshina Wireless LAN Card Kit (PA3189U-1MPC) which fits
> nicley into the back of the laptop.
>
> The wireless card connects happily to my wireless router, but the
> connection isn't great (I pretty much need to be about 4ft away to
> connect).
>
> The problem is that I can't find any wires inside the laptop to
> connect the wireless card to an internal antenna, in fact I suspect
> there may not even be one.
>
> Have checked Toshibas support site, but to no avail.
>
> So, does anyone know if this model has an internal antenna? Or where
> I could buy one, or how to make one?
>
> I don't really want to buy a PCIMCIA card as I need the slots for
> other things (Firewire card etc).
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Luke

"Michael Geary" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...

> There's a guy who sells mini-PCI antennas for $20 on eBay. They aren't as
> good as built-in ones, because they sit next to the mini-PCI card instead of
> up in the lid, but they should be better than no antenna. Might be worth a
> try. This eBay search will find them:
>
> mini-pci antenna

Thanks Mike, I'll check them out (I had seen other posts referring to
items on eBay, but could never find them...)

Barry Watzman <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
> There's no guarantee that it either had the antenna or that it was even
> supposed to have the antenna. Some models do, some don't. But it
> sounds like your model was not prewired for it, in which case I'd give
> up on the internal device and just use a PC card. Installing the
> antennas, while possible, is usually a huge, horrible and high-risk job.

Cheers Barry, I'm starting to think that it's going to be a lot easier
(and cheaper!) to just go down the PC Card route.

Thanks for the quick responses :-)

Luke