Networking my old Thinkpad - please help

I have an older (1997) IBM Thinkpad 385cd running Win98SE that I would
like to connect to my wireless network. I picked up an inexpensive
PCMCIA Cardbus but it won't slide all the way in either slot and I can
see the sides of the card don't match the modem card that works.

Can any one tell me if I will be able to network this machine and what
card will work.

Thanks

Larry

means what your looking for is a straight PCMCIA card (16 bit ), not
cardbus. hard to come by wireless nowadays.

you can find some wired ones on ebay.. I managed to, but not any pcmcia that
I was able to be sure enough of to buy.






Larry Webb wrote:
> I have an older (1997) IBM Thinkpad 385cd running Win98SE that I would
> like to connect to my wireless network. I picked up an inexpensive
> PCMCIA Cardbus but it won't slide all the way in either slot and I can
> see the sides of the card don't match the modem card that works.
>
> Can any one tell me if I will be able to network this machine and what
> card will work.
>
> Thanks
>
> Larry

I have a ThinkPad 380D running WinMe. I use a Belkin F5D6020 ver. 2
Wireless-B PCMCIA card and it works perfectly. My AP is a WRT54GS, which is
Wireless-G, but I set it to mixed mode. My connection is a cable modem
which runs at about 4700 on the desktop, and the ThinkPad gets about 3000
via the Belkin.

When I first got the Thinkpad, it had Win98 SE and I couldn't get any nic to
work. I installed WinMe and it worked right away. If the Belkin doesn't
work for you with Win98, you might want to try WinMe (Or some other OS).

Brad


"lars" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:y42of.30988$(E-Mail Removed)...
> means what your looking for is a straight PCMCIA card (16 bit ), not
> cardbus. hard to come by wireless nowadays.
>
> you can find some wired ones on ebay.. I managed to, but not any pcmcia
that
> I was able to be sure enough of to buy.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Larry Webb wrote:
> > I have an older (1997) IBM Thinkpad 385cd running Win98SE that I would
> > like to connect to my wireless network. I picked up an inexpensive
> > PCMCIA Cardbus but it won't slide all the way in either slot and I can
> > see the sides of the card don't match the modem card that works.
> >
> > Can any one tell me if I will be able to network this machine and what
> > card will work.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Larry
>
>

On Wed, 14 Dec 2005 22:50:02 GMT, Larry Webb
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have an older (1997) IBM Thinkpad 385cd running Win98SE that I would
>like to connect to my wireless network.

I have 2 of those in the laptop pile. Old, but reliable. I use them
once a year for ham radio field day logging using an old Orinoco
Classic Silver Wi-Fi card. Works fine.
| http://www.proxim.com/products/wifi/client/goldpccard/

>I picked up an inexpensive
>PCMCIA Cardbus but it won't slide all the way in either slot and I can
>see the sides of the card don't match the modem card that works.

Look carefully at what you bought. It's probably a "cardbus" type of
card which is a 32 bit card. What you want is a "PCMCIA" or 16 bit
card.

>Can any one tell me if I will be able to network this machine and what
>card will work.

Just about anything that claims to be a 16 bit PCMCIA card. No
"cardbus" 32 bit cards will fit or work. In general, most of 16 bit
cards will be 802.11b instead of the faster 802.11g cards. You may
have to buy a used card as they are a bit difficult to find. For
example, of the 37 cards I found on TigerDirect, not one is a 16 bit
card:
| http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?Recs=10&Nav=|c:367|&Sort=0
Whatever you buy, make sure it has Windoze 98SE drivers available.
Many current cards do not support the older Windoze versions.

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Dec 2005 22:50:02 GMT, Larry Webb
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I have an older (1997) IBM Thinkpad 385cd running Win98SE that I would
>> like to connect to my wireless network.
>
> I have 2 of those in the laptop pile. Old, but reliable. I use them
> once a year for ham radio field day logging using an old Orinoco
> Classic Silver Wi-Fi card. Works fine.
> | http://www.proxim.com/products/wifi/client/goldpccard/
>
>> I picked up an inexpensive
>> PCMCIA Cardbus but it won't slide all the way in either slot and I can
>> see the sides of the card don't match the modem card that works.
>
> Look carefully at what you bought. It's probably a "cardbus" type of
> card which is a 32 bit card. What you want is a "PCMCIA" or 16 bit
> card.
>
>> Can any one tell me if I will be able to network this machine and what
>> card will work.
>
> Just about anything that claims to be a 16 bit PCMCIA card. No
> "cardbus" 32 bit cards will fit or work. In general, most of 16 bit
> cards will be 802.11b instead of the faster 802.11g cards. You may
> have to buy a used card as they are a bit difficult to find. For
> example, of the 37 cards I found on TigerDirect, not one is a 16 bit
> card:
> | http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?Recs=10&Nav=|c:367|&Sort=0
> Whatever you buy, make sure it has Windoze 98SE drivers available.
> Many current cards do not support the older Windoze versions.
>
>
>
>

I did buy a 32 bit card by mistake (my brother gets another Christmas
present). I'm going to go with the Belkin F5D6020 ver. 2
- purchased through J&R for $20.

Thanks
Larry

It would be hard to go wrong with a used Cisco Aironet 350 card,
the best PCMCIA 802.11b card ever made. (I'm not biased here or
anything like that.)

Google search for "air-pcm352": http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...8&q=air-pcm352

Cheers,

Aaron

---

~ I have an older (1997) IBM Thinkpad 385cd running Win98SE that I would
~ like to connect to my wireless network. I picked up an inexpensive
~ PCMCIA Cardbus but it won't slide all the way in either slot and I can
~ see the sides of the card don't match the modem card that works.
~
~ Can any one tell me if I will be able to network this machine and what
~ card will work.
~
~ Thanks
~
~ Larry