Charles, Joshua Micah (UMKC-Student) wrote:

>As it turns out, it get's a signal when the laptop is within a few inches of the router.  Then, as 
I move it farther away, the signal disapears all together after about two feet.  As you can 
imagine, I find this unacceptable.
> 
>
Is it a built-in wireless card?  If so, most likely what happened, was 
when the laptop was in for service, the tech who worked on it 
disconnected the antenna leads from the mini-PCI card in the laptop.  
Flip the laptop over, there should be a few compartments that can be 
opened with a screwdriver.

Find the one with the wireless card - you'll probably notice two very 
small circular points on it, and a couple of leads that aren't connected 
to anything.  Connect the two leads to the mini-PCI card, (both the 
leads and the mini-PCI card should be labled which is Primary and which 
is Secondary). 

Needless to say, those mini-PCI cards, when not connected to antennas, 
have very very little range.

-Lucas