Wireless cardbus 802.1g

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Paul D Smith - 12 Apr 2006 19:20 GMT

Anyone recommend an 802.1g cardbus (32-bit PCMCIA) adapter for Windows NT?
Preferably one that supports WPA?

Thanks,
Paul DS.

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Calvin - 13 Apr 2006 00:44 GMT

Hey Paul,

GOOD QUESTION - you must have beat me to asking it by about 5 minutes. I've just
acquired a Toshiba Satellite 1830 laptop here (Celeron 900 512MB SDRAM) works
really well running NT4 - but no wireless card fitted - bummer !

I was hoping a manufacturer somewhere will still be making PCMCIA wireless cards
with NT4 drivers. The latest hardware is becoming a real problem in this
department :-(

Anyway - we'll have to wait and see if anyone has any recommendations - if I get
some free time (yeah right) I may go 'net "window shopping" and see if I can
find any candidates.

Calvin.

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Paul D Smith - 13 Apr 2006 09:26 GMT

Tha alternate route, of course, is Windows 2000. All the bells and whistles
of XP (USB support, lots of drivers etc) but none of the "new look and feel"
bloat. Depending on the cost, I might buy a copy of eBay and a cheaper
(maybe) wireless card if the only NT cabale wireless cards prove to be
expensive. I have an old copy of NT 4 so that's what I've used thus far...

My other suspicion is that an NT wireless card might not support WPA. OK,
nothing's "secure" but its better than WEP.

Paul DS.

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Calvin - 13 Apr 2006 11:05 GMT

> Tha alternate route, of course, is Windows 2000. All the bells and whistles
> of XP (USB support, lots of drivers etc) but none of the "new look and feel"
> bloat.

Had looked at alternative OSes - but NT4 still wins hands down - an 85MB
footprint for a base NT4 install vs probably 500-600MB for Win2k or 1GB+ for XP
(my God, what could you possibly put in an OS to make it so FAT) is a big factor
in NT4's favour.

The machine came 'pre-installed' with XP Home (YUK!) and ran like a dog !!! I
took great delight in executing the command "gdisk 1 /del /all" from a DOS
prompt and watching as XP got flushed down the toilet :-)

I already had a brand new (still shrink wrapped) NT4 Workstation to install. It
went really well. Have since added all the necessary Toshiba hardware drivers,
the IONetworks USB stack (works like a charm for USB mass storage devices and
USB web cam, which is all I need or want) and the standard patches to enable
shutdown after power off - the whole thing works like a bought one now, and I'm
delighted with the result.

I've been watching the eBay going price for Win2k - seems to be around AU$120
for a copy, which for a 6 year old (now in extended support phase) OS is IMHO
utterly INSANE !

> My other suspicion is that an NT wireless card might not support WPA. OK,
> nothing's "secure" but its better than WEP.

I had wondered about this point myself. Considering the newer encryption
techniques are 'post NT4' - depending on how the security model is implemented -
it may not be possible to do on NT4 :-( I'm NO expert on security matters and
how they are performed inside the 'inards' of the OS, so again I think we may
have to adopt a 'wait and see' attitude.

All the best,

Calvin.

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Paul D Smith - 13 Apr 2006 19:30 GMT

...snip...

> the IONetworks USB stack (works like a charm for USB mass storage devices and
> USB web cam, which is all I need or want)...

Umm, never heard of this. Off to have a look.

Paul DS

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Paul D Smith - 13 Apr 2006 19:51 GMT

> ...snip...
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Paul DS

OK I've looked but which of the various drivers do I download? Are they the
ones identified as "Edgeport, Rapidport, Watchport Sensors, USB Plus
Series"?

Thanks,
Paul DS.

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Calvin - 16 Apr 2006 04:00 GMT

> OK I've looked but which of the various drivers do I download? Are they the
> ones identified as "Edgeport, Rapidport, Watchport Sensors, USB Plus
> Series"?

Have a read of my article at http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/usb.htm

I'd recommend you start with the V2.35 drivers from here
http://ftp1.us.dell.com/utility/R62200.EXE (these were released specifically for
DELL systems, but in fact work on virtually all hardware just fine)

This stack seems to be stable and reliable and is a 'known good' starting point.
The V2.55 drivers I also mention in the article may also be worth
investigating if you feel so inclined.

Officially speaking, you are not supposed to be using these drivers unless you
own qualifying IONetworks hardware (a cam, a card etc..) but I doubt at this
stage they will really mind much. The 'DELL' release I use was/is freely posted
on the DELL website with no restrictions on it's access.

Calvin.

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Calvin - 14 Apr 2006 01:11 GMT

Hi Paul,

Have a look here: http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/usb.htm for a full rundown on USB
functionality on NT4

Calvin.

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Paul D Smith - 15 Apr 2006 10:28 GMT

Calvin,

Thanks for the USB link. Having delved long and hard into the various
manufacturers, it seems that the ONLY wireless PCMCIA card I can find is the
Cisco Aironet cards (340/350, not the CB20A cards though!). BUT these only
support WEP with Windows NT.

Paul DS

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Calvin - 17 Apr 2006 05:10 GMT

> Thanks for the USB link.

No problem - I hope the info is of some use to you :-)

> Having delved long and hard into the various
> manufacturers, it seems that the ONLY wireless PCMCIA card I can find is the
> Cisco Aironet cards (340/350, not the CB20A cards though!). BUT these only
> support WEP with Windows NT.

I had the awful feeling that this would be the case. I see the Aironet 340/350
are also at 'end-of-life' status with Cisco and are no longer being sold or
supported. I think I'm just going to have to accept that Wireless networking on
my new playtoy NT4 Laptop is out of the realms of the possible :-( A pity, but
I'm sure I can grin and bear it on a wired network connection !

The satellite 1830 actually had an inbuilt 'wireless card' option, but my
particular purchase didn't have it fitted :-( I also suspect that attempting to
obtain one now, at this late date, may be impossible, or at least ridiculously
expensive !

I've had a similar problem here I've wrestling with for the last couple of
weeks. the laptop only has a TEAC CD-ROM reader installed atm. There were
options at purchase for the Satellite 1830 for a CD-RW writer or DVD-ROM
Reader/CD-RW writer combo drive.

Toshiba tech support have tried to tell me that only their 'sanctioned' model
drives can be installed - other brands/models will not function. My
understanding of the situation is that the form-factor / interface etc.. for
optical drives on laptops is fairly standardised and many models/brands should
in fact physically fit - whether or not I can get them to function is another
story however.

I'm leaning towards the (very pricey - AU$380 incl tax) option of sourcing the
right drive through my local Toshiba agent (it's a Matsushita UJDA-720 that
Toshiba say is the right model for this laptop) - at least it is brand new,
comes with a 12 month warranty and will definitely work. Oh what fun this all is !

Calvin.

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