WiFi problem I am sitted in a place where wireless reception is weak. I have two laptops side by side: a three years old Thinkpad and a high-end MBP. Both of them report low reception. However, in the Thinkpad I can navigate at a reasonable speed (actually I am typing this from it). But from the MBP I simply can't. Slowness is incredible. I have seen in several forums many people complaining about wireless in the MBP, and tried some of the proposed solutions without success. Can you give some advice to solve the problem? Thanks in advance

Firstly download WiFi Analyser from Google Play store and compare you WiFi with others in your area. This will enable you to change the channel. Change channel by logging into your router - 192.168.1.1.
Try moving your router to a more central place in your home and use the analyser to check if any improvement.
Next try a wireless extender. This will drop your speed a little but give a stronger signal in weak areas.
Also try power line adapters.
If you are using a few devices ensure that you are not mixing wireless g and n products at same time. Using a g product will mean that your whole wireless will be running at that speed even when your other device is n. If you need both connect another g router to one of the n router LAN ports with dhcp disabled. That way you can have the two devices connected at the correct speed.
Some routers will let you connect a bigger aerial which could boost you reception. Some devices have very poor wireless antennas - seems you what you pay for in this area.

Step 1:
which operating system ?
For the most part, IBM has switched its focus away from personal computers and more towards large business items such as servers and networks. However, it is still possible to use and purchase an IBM Thinkpad. These are IBM's version of the laptop. A majority of IBM Thinkpads still use Windows XP and offer the function of connecting to WiFi, as long as the connection has been properly configured.

Power on the IBM Thinkpad and wait for it to completely boot up. Right-click the small wireless desktop icon in the bottom right corner of the screen. Select "View Available Wireless Signals" from the pull-up menu. This is going to load a small window that displays all of the available WiFi signals in the area. There are going to be padlock icons next to the signals if a password has been placed on them. Click on one of the WiFi signals to which you want to connect. If a password is required, you are going to be asked here to type it in. Wait a few moments for the IBM Thinkpad to connect to the WiFi signal. The computer is going to display a small message window once the connection has completed. You have now finished the configuration, and you can begin to surf the Internet.

t43-nnnnn what is nnnnnn?????
it came with options
1;NONE
2: BLUETOOTH AND DIAL UP MODEM
3: OR INTEL PRO CARD. WIFI Wireless: Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG

DOES ETHERNET CABLE WORK DIRECT (1ST ACT ALWAYS)
THIS 1ST ACT MAKES PNP WORK DO THE WIFI CARDS CAN WORK NEXT. the jack is left side RJ45 !
OR Go to lenovo.com get your wifi driver or all of them and back them up.
if you run this.
https://www.hwinfo.com/download/

see left side if page that app,see see all LAN network things
what you see is what you got. (its more fancy device manager)

learn to get ethernet working first and WIN
PnP is useless with internet dead.
xp is worse yet. run lunix on old trash boxes

Extend the range of WiFi signals with Hardware If your router is placed on the ground floor of your home, the Wi-Fi signals will be very weak or may not even reach the basement computer or the printer upstairs. The situation will be no different if you work in a fairly large premises or if there are too many walls in the area.
In that case, here are some hardware device that you can consider to extend the reach of your Wi-Fi network:
Option #1. You can attach a WiFi Repeater (also known as Wireless Range Expander) to your router and quickly expand the coverage of your wireless network without using any cables.
The Repeater should be placed within the range of your existing router and it will reflect the signals to other areas where the wireless reception was earlier poor (or totally absent). The Repeater can connect wirelessly to both routers and access points (see #3 below).
Option #2. (This is my current setup) You can get another wireless router and connect it to your existing router using an Ethernet cable. The advantage is that this setup comes pretty cheap and the Internet speed stays almost the same even for computers that are accessing the web via the new router.
You can get a 100 feet long Ethernet Cable (also known as Cat5 or LAN or RJ45 cable) for less than $10 and wireless routers start at $20. Here's a detailed guide on how you can connect two routers together.
Option #3. You also have the option to use an Access Point instead of a router to extend the WiFi range but that's often not required because Wireless Access Points can be more expensive than equivalent routers.
The other advantage with a router is that is has extra LAN ports so, in future, you can connect more wired computers for sharing files or you Internet connection.
Option #4. If you have an old desktop or laptop computer, you should consider adding an external (USB based) wireless adapter or upgrade the internal network card to improve the wireless reception (and thus Internet speed).

IBM Thinkpad T22 doesn't have Wi-Fi adapter installed. you need a USB Wi-Fi adpater in other to have Wireless connection.

You can go for D-Link, 3COM,belkin USB Wi-Fi adapter. Make sure the USB Wi-Fi adapter support the Operating System you installed.

Good Luck.

YES ThinkPad R51 2887-MQ5 supports wi fi .
For that make sure wireless network adapter driver installed in laptop.
For that right click on my computer icon thne click on proeprty then hardware ->device manager.
It shows all driver in list.
Make sure wireless driver is there and Enable to.
Make sure WI-FI switch is turned on in laptop.
Then right click on my network places and then click on proeprty you can see your wireless network adapter there then right click on it then click on "view available networks".Then connecrt.
If you need driver for your laptop you can download from below link.
click here
Let me know if you need more assistance.Thanks.

Try placing the router closer to the center of the house, and in a higher area, and away from cordless phones, and high voltage wiring.

This is going to be with the machine, yes, too old. These machines take a 16 bit wireless card which is almost impossible to find since they stopped making them 6 or 7 years ago, and 16 bit cards were never produced by cellular providers, so a cellular card is completely out of the equation. The cards on the market today are a 32 bit card. I know you're trying to go wireless, but if you want to connect to high speed, you can use a bus port ethernet card that will allow you to plug an ethernet cable into the machine.

http://www.wikihow.com/Improve-WiFi-Reception

yeppers..those are simply receivers, and sometimes, after a period of time, and vibration, and shock, they just lose some of their ability to tune into a signal. I've seen it in net cafes and inside wireless nodes too.

got backup for your Gateway?