Coaxial to CAT 5 Adapter

We've got an old laptop running Windows 98 with which we'd like to be
able to access our network, which uses CAT 5 cabling. The laptop has
a built-in coaxial socket.

I was wondering if it's possible to get some kind of adapter which can
plug into the coaxial socket and present a CAT 5 socket to connect to
the network.

I also wonder if the speed of the built-in adapter would be
sufficient, compared with a 10/100 card like we put in our desktops.

Thanks for any ideas.

Coax has two conductors, while CAT 5 uses 4 conductors, so the translation is not all that
straight forward. The best thing I can think of is to find an old NIC for one of your desktops.
I have a few in my desk drawer, you may be able to find one on Ebay. Then, if you want the
old laptop to connect to more than just that one desktop you will need to run some sort of
a proxy program on the desktop or enable internet connection sharing.

I think those old cards were all 10mbs, but that old laptop is likely not to be able to process
much more information than that anyway.


"MIG" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> We've got an old laptop running Windows 98 with which we'd like to be
> able to access our network, which uses CAT 5 cabling. The laptop has
> a built-in coaxial socket.
>
> I was wondering if it's possible to get some kind of adapter which can
> plug into the coaxial socket and present a CAT 5 socket to connect to
> the network.
>
> I also wonder if the speed of the built-in adapter would be
> sufficient, compared with a 10/100 card like we put in our desktops.
>
> Thanks for any ideas.

You maybe able to find an old "hub" that has both the thinwire coax
connector and
the cat 5 ports to hook up both to your current network. I know that at one
point Linksys
and Compaq computer made these. Ebay or small used computer shop may have
them.

But if it was me I would just pay $30.00 and get a new PCMCIA card for the
laptop. BestBuy or
CompUSA or small computer store.

Good Luck


"MIG" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> We've got an old laptop running Windows 98 with which we'd like to be
> able to access our network, which uses CAT 5 cabling. The laptop has
> a built-in coaxial socket.
>
> I was wondering if it's possible to get some kind of adapter which can
> plug into the coaxial socket and present a CAT 5 socket to connect to
> the network.
>
> I also wonder if the speed of the built-in adapter would be
> sufficient, compared with a 10/100 card like we put in our desktops.
>
> Thanks for any ideas.

some of the older hubs had a BNC(coax) connector on them as well as cat5
connectors...have a look around


"MIG" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> We've got an old laptop running Windows 98 with which we'd like to be
> able to access our network, which uses CAT 5 cabling. The laptop has
> a built-in coaxial socket.
>
> I was wondering if it's possible to get some kind of adapter which can
> plug into the coaxial socket and present a CAT 5 socket to connect to
> the network.
>
> I also wonder if the speed of the built-in adapter would be
> sufficient, compared with a 10/100 card like we put in our desktops.
>
> Thanks for any ideas.

Thanks for the responses.

I've seen sense and ordered a new card and I'll disable the old adaptor.