IBM Thinkpad 390E

[Titan]

So I have this old computer I would like to use to let my kids surf and watch movies. I am going to get a replacement battery from the net but want to enable it to surf. It currently is running windows 98.

It has a 3com Megahertz Lan 10/100 Lan PC Card.
http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/d...thtype=support


How do I use this? It has a funny little connector on the one end. Can i just hook that up to a rj45 with the right connector? What is that connector called?

Can I buy a wireless version of this thing? Would it work on this ancient computer?

Thanks as always.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Titan

So I have this old computer I would like to use to let my kids surf and watch movies. I am going to get a replacement battery from the net but want to enable it to surf. It currently is running windows 98.

It has a 3com Megahertz Lan 10/100 Lan PC Card.
http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/d...thtype=support


How do I use this? It has a funny little connector on the one end. Can i just hook that up to a rj45 with the right connector? What is that connector called?

Can I buy a wireless version of this thing? Would it work on this ancient computer?

Thanks as always.

The product specs for that say this:

Connectors: RJ-45 cable LAN connector

So it should just plug right in.

You can get a wireless adapter either USB or if you can find a compatible PC card to replace that 10/100 card.

USB that old will be USB 1 , so you might have a speed issue since it is quite a bit slower than a USB 2.0

In fact, I have a PC card for sale in buy and sell , here. I am 90% + sure that this card, or another card of its type will work. Maybe someone can confirm as I always get confused about PC card types (hence the reason I bought the wrong card type for my computer).

[Titan]

Originally Posted by Rathji

The product specs for that say this:

Connectors: RJ-45 cable LAN connector

So it should just plug right in.

You can get a wireless adapter either USB or if you can find a compatible PC card to replace that 10/100 card.

USB that old will be USB 1 , so you might have a speed issue since it is quite a bit slower than a USB 2.0

In fact, I have a PC card for sale in buy and sell , here. I am 90% + sure that this card, or another card of its type will work. Maybe someone can confirm as I always get confused about PC card types (hence the reason I bought the wrong card type for my computer).

The slot on the card looks a little bit like a usb port and would not accept the cable. There must be a connector to interface the two.

It says that your card works on a CardBus slot. On the 3com site it says that my card needs: System Requirements

Notebook PC with a 16-bit PC Card slot or 32-bit CardBus PC Card slot
It would seem we have a match. If yours would work on my old computer I would buy it.

Can anyone else chime into let us know if his would work on my old computer?

[Cliche]

Yes, the PCMCIA card would work on your system. most likely you would need an additional dongle for the card.

Also, while the wireless network cards are compatible, the spec of your machine (probably PII 333) indicate it would not be a satisfactory experience anyways.

While perusing some other sites, it would also seem there might be difficulties due to the included modem that's on there.

Also NIC cards that use dongles are AWFUL. A decade ago when I was stuck with them for classes, probably 70% of the class of 60 had to replace the dongle as it was only rated for 1200 insertions. 1200 makes for a pretty flimsy connector.