macdownunder
Well-known member
Hi all,
I know others have done this, but I wanted/needed to try it myself in response to a challenge to a friend (full story on my blog page at RetroMacCast)
I had my old PB540c with a Rev C. PCMCIA card adapter (used to use it in my dorm when on campus, connected to a Nokia 2110e via a PCMCIA GSM adapter to get internet at 9600 baud!).
I also had an Enterasys Roamabout 802.11b card in my old Wallstreet that should work OK.
The Roamabout Card is a rebadged Orinoco Silver (40bit WEP) which is why it worked in my Wallstreet under MacOS9. But to get it to work with my 128 bit WEP network it needed to be upgraded to an Orinoco Gold card. There are a number of ways to do this set out on the internet, however the easiest (for me) was to slide it into my G4 Cube's Airport slot; reboot; and wait for the card to be automatically updated!
It still appears on the 540c as a Roamabout card, but it will accept a 128 bit key. So off to the internet again to find the Roamabout drivers (the newer Orinoco drivers for Mac will not recognise the card - despite changing the card ID). The older Roamabout drivers installed fine, and allows you to set the 128 bit key.
So after a few goes to get everything loaded, I now have a 540c that will connect to my 128bit WEP Airport network under MacOS 8.1. It will easily connect via Appletalk to my Cube (OSX.4.11) and my Xserve (OSX Server 10.4.11) and my Q950 (MacOS 8.1).
I can even get it to load my personal website (which is not content heavy) using Netscape 3.02. However, when trying to load iCab and just about any content heavy website, the poor beastie struggles (in fact freezes and crashes).
I think this is mainly due to the machine running MacOS8.1 with only 12Mb of RAM. So I'm off to downgrade to MacOS 7.5.5 and try it all again.
RAM for PB5xx's seems rare at the moment, but if anyone has a good idea on how to make this a little more stable, I'd love to hear it!
Regards,
Macdownunder
I know others have done this, but I wanted/needed to try it myself in response to a challenge to a friend (full story on my blog page at RetroMacCast)
I had my old PB540c with a Rev C. PCMCIA card adapter (used to use it in my dorm when on campus, connected to a Nokia 2110e via a PCMCIA GSM adapter to get internet at 9600 baud!).
I also had an Enterasys Roamabout 802.11b card in my old Wallstreet that should work OK.
The Roamabout Card is a rebadged Orinoco Silver (40bit WEP) which is why it worked in my Wallstreet under MacOS9. But to get it to work with my 128 bit WEP network it needed to be upgraded to an Orinoco Gold card. There are a number of ways to do this set out on the internet, however the easiest (for me) was to slide it into my G4 Cube's Airport slot; reboot; and wait for the card to be automatically updated!
It still appears on the 540c as a Roamabout card, but it will accept a 128 bit key. So off to the internet again to find the Roamabout drivers (the newer Orinoco drivers for Mac will not recognise the card - despite changing the card ID). The older Roamabout drivers installed fine, and allows you to set the 128 bit key.
So after a few goes to get everything loaded, I now have a 540c that will connect to my 128bit WEP Airport network under MacOS 8.1. It will easily connect via Appletalk to my Cube (OSX.4.11) and my Xserve (OSX Server 10.4.11) and my Q950 (MacOS 8.1).
I can even get it to load my personal website (which is not content heavy) using Netscape 3.02. However, when trying to load iCab and just about any content heavy website, the poor beastie struggles (in fact freezes and crashes).
I think this is mainly due to the machine running MacOS8.1 with only 12Mb of RAM. So I'm off to downgrade to MacOS 7.5.5 and try it all again.
RAM for PB5xx's seems rare at the moment, but if anyone has a good idea on how to make this a little more stable, I'd love to hear it!
Regards,
Macdownunder
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