[ct-user] Laptops and ethernet

[Tom Frenaye]

At 07:00 PM 11/30/2001 -0500, I wrote:
>Looking for suggestions on PCMCIA (PC card) ethernet cards to use in my laptop to connect to my CT ethernet network.   The doc on K1TTT's website has a little info about using them from I4UFH but not any specific suggestions about brands with DOS drivers that people have successfully used.
>
>Sent direct to me and I'll summarize for the group.

Thanks for the helpful information!  Here are the responses:

 From William Liporace NA2NA    na2na@vqsl.net

To use a PCMCIA card with a laptop, you need the DOS card drivers for the 
laptop and the PCMCIA card. This will allow CT to use the NIC via DOS. 
You can go to any web site and check out what you need.
I believe I have around card here. I do not know if I have DOS Drivers 
handy. I may even have a 3com. The laptop manufacture's WEB site may have 
the info you need.  If you need any help let me know. I will have a few questions :-)

 From Zoli Pitman HA1AG  ha1ag@compuserve.com

See www.qsl.net/ha1ag -> SO2R description. You will find what I use there 
with links to the products themselves.

>From  Rick Dougherty   NQ4I@compuserve.com

I use a LinkSys ethernet card (Abt $39) in my Toshiba Satellite 115CS (Older laptop) 
Pentium 100 mhz and it works great with DOS drivers(Packet)

 From Hank Kohl K8DD     k8dd@arrl.net

I guess the first requirement is price! 
And the second one (and most important) is the availability of packet drivers.
I use an EXP ThinLAN 10 MHz card and a Xircom 10/100 MHz.
The EXP came with packet drivers. Had to go to Xircom tech support for the drivers for Xircom.
Those are the only two I've used here with good luck.

 From Dan Karg  WR0DK  dkarg@mn.mediaone.net

This is not strictly related to PCMCIA cards, but I have successfully used an 
older LinkSys "Pocket Ethernet Adapter plus' Ethernet adaptor that plugs into 
the parallel port of my laptop. It has both coax (thinnet) and RJ-45 (10BaseT) connectors. 
It is not quite as slick of a solution as a PCMCIA card, but it will work on 
any computer and you don't get wound up in PCMCIA card drivers and all of 
that under DOS. 
I'm not sure these are still available, I picked mine up a few years ago on 
of the retailers clearance tables.

 From Dennis NB1B    NB1B@mediaone.net

At VB2V we used 4 different models of laptops, all with the same PCMCIA 
card. The card used was a Linksys "Combo PCMCIA Ethernet Card", the box 
says it is the Model EC2T. It is available at CompUSA for normally about 
$40, but I picked up two of them several months ago for $20 each when they 
were on sale.

Each comes with a disk of drivers, an enabler for the socket driver, and a 
dongle that will accept either a CAT 5 cable or a BNC coax plug. They all 
worked with CT and K1TTT's ethernet drivers; time from the box to the 
network was about 30 min per laptop.

I can recommend these, and I know they work with at least 4 different types 
of laptops.

>From  Brian McGinness N3OC   n3oc@wirelessinc.com

LINKSYS! All the various linksys PCMCIA ethernet cards have working 
DOS enablers and packet drivers, which you have to have to run the card 
under DOS with CT! And they are only $39...

I suggest to anyone to avoid the hassle of finding both the dos 
enabler and packer driver to buy the linksys card, either the 10mb or the 
10/100 one.

Most of the V26B lan uses thiy type of card.
Available at compusa, etc.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
e-mail: frenaye@pcnet.com    YCCC --> http://www.yccc.org/
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444