PowerBook Ethernet PCMICA setup

I’m trying to get my 1400 online! I’ve got several Ethernet PC Cards, found that one has an unofficial driver, set it up and the card is recognized.

It won’t access the internet though, it won’t even establish a link with my router as the lights remain dark. The dongle isn’t from this card, but it fits and the “Act” light lights up when I select Ethernet in the AppleTalk settings.

I’ve never done this sort of thing before, so let me know if I’m missing anything obvious. I’ll try another card tomorrow.

Here’s the card:

If the AppleTalk control panel is allowing you to select it and doesn't produce an error when you close it, the driver is probably correct. Did you also check that 'Alternate Ethernet' is selected in the TCP/IP control panel? (if that CP isn't present you should probably install OpenTransport as it's much faster than using MacTCP.)

If that doesn't fix it, it's possible your router/switch doesn't readily negotiate with 10Base/T clients. I've found my Netgear and TrendNet gigabit switches work just fine, but others have reported many switches have issues with 10Mb links. Generally though, AppleTalk would produce an error if the link isn't established.

Router is made by Arris.

Now, what on earth do I do here. Ethernet wasn’t selected before. Couldn’t find opentransport on the garden, what is it and what does it do?
I do also have a Farallon EtherLink card with Mac support - have yet to get the proper driver installed though. Tried one and it didn’t recognize the card.
Edit: may have gotten it to work, will see. Set config to DHCP and actually saved it. Then IE tried to load Microsoft and froze, will try again with Netscape after it reboots.

It works!

Most likely you want “Configure” set to “Using DHCP Server” unless you have a network where you are hard coding IP addresses.

You already have Open Transport if you have the TCP/IP Control Panel.

3lectr1cPPC said:

It works!
View attachment 53955

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Glad you got it, have fun!

Oh this is just the beginning! Next I’m getting my 5300c online, which has the same 117MHz processor (it’s got a 5300ce logic board) but mine has 4 times the ram of the 1400 (64MB). Then it’s time for a slightly more modern browser (IE 5 maybe?) and then it’s Cornica, Macintosh garden and more. Plenty of fun to be had! Just need to get a better Ethernet setup, right now I need to be next to the router. Any way I can turn an old laptop into a Wi-Fi to ethernet bridge through software?
Edit: apparently windows can just do that itself! Can’t believe no one had mentioned that before when I was asking in some other thread about Ethernet solutions. Will have to give it a go tomorrow.

Have you considered an old WiFi setup? Buy a cheap Apple AirPort Basestation* and get some Lucent/Orinoco 802.11b wifi PCMCIA cards… I plug mine in when I want to “work” with my old PBs and unplug it otherwise.

*(Benefit of the Apple Airport Basestation is AppleTalk works)

Can they act as an extender? I’ve certainly considered it, but when it comes to tech stuff, networking is my weakest area by far. Thus why it took me an hour to set up an Ethernet connection that didn’t hold my hand through the whole process

My house is not wired for Ethernet, so it would need to pick up the signal from the main router through wireless only, or I suppose I could situate it next to where the router is itself, as long as the signal reached far enough, which it should. My basement room is directly below the living room where it’s set up. Honestly though, if I just got an Ethernet bridge set up with my main laptop which is apparently possible, that’s all I need. There’s very few occasions where I’ll be using a laptop too old to have in built Wi-Fi on the go with batteries that work, meaning I wouldn’t be able to wire in direct to my main laptop. I’ll have to see if I can get that working tomorrow. 95% of the time at home I’m using my vintage laptops at my main desk. When I’m not, it’s out of the house where that old Wi-Fi setup wouldn’t be of any use anyway.

The other issue is that those Orinoco Gold cards appear to be quite expensive. I’ve already got a handful of these Ethernet cards lying around.

you also can check Ethernet internet connection with a network cable into a newer powerbook..I connected to my 12" G4 PB, there checked ' sharing internet connection' and off it went. The 1400 alone, I only could get internet connection with an original orinoco gold card and TCP/IP set up manually because 'using DHCP server' automatically it only would generate 192.254. ... . .... nonsense.

Fizzbinn said:

Have you considered an old WiFi setup? Buy a cheap Apple AirPort Basestation* and get some Lucent/Orinoco 802.11b wifi PCMCIA cards… I plug mine in when I want to “work” with my old PBs and unplug it otherwise.

*(Benefit of the Apple Airport Basestation is AppleTalk works)

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I‘ve been wanting to try a setup like this. I know zero about WiFi security but - aren’t there security concerns with this type of old kit?

A neighbor could crack the WEP password and use your network. Is that really going to happen though? Probably not. Especially if you only run the old network when you’re using it actively.

Crutch said:

I‘ve been wanting to try a setup like this. I know zero about WiFi security but - aren’t there security concerns with this type of old kit?

Click to expand...

3lectr1cPPC said:

A neighbor could crack the WEP password and use your network. Is that really going to happen though? Probably not. Especially if you only run the old network when you’re using it actively.

Click to expand...

There definitely are security issues with running ancient WiFi but I'm not terribly concerned about someone nearby trying to hack into it or capture my network traffic.

I do want to keep random folks from connecting to it but rather than use a WEP password I just configure MAC address security in the Airport Basestation, entering the MAC addresses of my old WiFi cards allowed to connect. Not bothering with encryption also means you can use old cards with lesser or no encryption compared to the Orinoco Gold that might sell for less.

That’s another option as well. Which airport model specifically do you use?

3lectr1cPPC said:

That’s another option as well. Which airport model specifically do you use?

Click to expand...

Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station 54 Mbps 10/100 Wireless G Router (A1034)

Thanks!

Just for reference:

This is for Open Transport 1.3:


This is for the Open Transport 1.3.1 update:


Since its a PowerPC system, I would imagine you should be able to update beyond 1.3.1, but you'd have to look into that, I stick to the 68k side of things.

Orinoco Bronze is no WEP encryption, Silver 64 bit WEP, Gold is 128 bit WEP.

I think I used the white/bronze with my Amiga 1200 a long time ago to see if it worked (and it did), and the silver for my old PCMCIA laptops (have a few around). Not worth paying extra for gold in my opinion since hacking even that is easy.

It works! Set up network sharing on my main laptop. Had to go to my Wi-Fi adapter’s properties, go under sharing, then share out to Ethernet and that was all it needed. Ethernet from the comforts of my basement lair!