I got my laptop back from Dell again today. This time, they actually replaced the motherboard, and with the damn tabs cut off the plastic panel on the back, I shouldn’t have the problem again. It’ll be something different next time.

The laptop is working, and Linux recognizes my new mini-pci 802.11a/b/g 108mbps wireless card. I’ll see tonight if it actually runs at that speed. Right now, I’m running at a whopping 38kbps, with a 2.5 second latency – using bluetooth dial up networking over my Treo. It’s not really usable for large downloads, but for web browsing from anywhere, it works great. Best of all, it doesn’t time out and die after 5 minutes like when I try to connect via the Treo with a cable. Stupid Linux USB bug, or something.

If you can read this post, my BT DUN has lasted long enough. 🙂

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