Looking for the perfect platform.

[genius_cube]

Hi All!

I am looking for the perfect laptop to run BT3. I am hoping that someone on here might have stumbled upon a laptop, current or out of manufacture (eBay is a wonderful thing), that runs BT3 seamlessly including wireless injection support using the built-in card. It also needs to be cheap (sub £400) as I need to have several. Any suggestions would be nice as a search of the forums didnt turn up anything and the HCL is a little sketchy.

Regards

GC

[imported_cybrsnpr]

I'm sure there are others out there, but I've found the IBM T42 Thinkpads to be very compatiable with BT3 (no graphic, sound, usb, power or other issues). The 1 thing that it doesn't meet your requirements is that the internal card is a broadcom. However, since I get them cheap off of eBay (usually less than $325) used/refurbished, I either replace the internal card with an inexpensive Atheros based one (also off of eBay) or I use a Ubiquiti SRC pcmcia card. Also, on the plus side, they are rather sturdy and can handle a good bit of rough handling.

[Barry]

The first gen eeePc works perfectly with BackTrack.

[genius_cube]

Thanks for the tips. Any more out there? Also does anyone have a reccomended atheros based mini pci card for the T42?

[Sabesto]

I bought an Acer Aspire One A150 yesterday, Works well with BT3 and should be in your pricerange. There are 2 versions i think, one with 3G and one without.

Integrated wifi card has Atheros chipset and supports injection (at least the 3G version i bought)

Only thing i miss is bluetooth for connecting GPS/mouse, althou i bought a tiny BT dongle that only sticks out 5mm.

I dont know about the battery time, since this is my first laptop in ages, but for wifi hacking i've had it running for at least 2 hours. You can also buy a larger battery, someone said something about 6-7 hours with the larger one, not shure there thou.

I am happy to answer any additional questions.

[imported_Deathray]

Well since BackTrack is a penetration testing OS, I would guess the perfect platform would be one of these http://www.fz-juelich.de/portal/lw_r...ter_neu_03.jpg, just don't forget a WiFi dongle when you make the order. I don't think they are included.[/irony]
Well first get together a list of well supported laptops. After that make up to yourself what you want to use the laptop for and how and where. On the go? Acer One or an appropriate Asus EEPC maybe? Planning on bruteforcing with at least a moderate speed? Is WiFi injection vital? Planning on playing with bluetooth? I don't think there is a perfect platform out there but there is hopefully one out there which will fulfill your needs

[MosGuy]

I have an older Dell Precision M60, that I've had no issues with. Everything runs fine out of the box. Like the thinkpad mentioned, it also has a broadcom chipset. If memory serves it does injection ok. Though I didn't test injection much with it. As I have a D-link pcmcia atheros based card. I also recently bought an Alfa awus036h that's become my main for injection. Overall the Dell has run flawless and trouble free for me. With both BT2 and 3.

[imported_cybrsnpr]

Thanks for the tips. Any more out there? Also does anyone have a reccomended atheros based mini pci card for the T42?

Anyone that uses madwifi-ng drivers should work fine with minimal, if any, problems in BT3.

http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/Compatibility/Atheros

has a list of chips and how they interact with the current madwifi-ng drivers

I also want to mention that I'm not a fan of internal cards due to limitations of range. I prefer something that has an external antenna. But it depends on what you want to use your laptop for. As always, YMMV.

[Barry]

Thanks for the tips. Any more out there? Also does anyone have a reccomended atheros based mini pci card for the T42?

You could build your own.

The Box.

I also want to mention that I'm not a fan of internal cards due to limitations of range.

The internal cards have plenty of range.

[Thorn]

You could build your own.

The Box.



The internal cards have plenty of range.

Not to mention they microwave a mean hot dog!