Need Orinoco Gold PCMCIA card driver for 7.6.1

[rickyzhang]

My Powerbook 1400c runs smoothly in 7.6, 8.0 and 8.1. It becomes sluggish in 8.5 and 8.6.

It is cumbersome for me to exchange files for Intel Mac to OS below 8.1. I have to copy stuffs to 8.6 and boot it from 8.6 from CF card and then copy it to 7.6.

Recently I bought a Orinoco gold wireless card. However, all drivers version I can find are 6.3 or 7.2. Both of them only supports Mac OS 8.5 or above.

I found dead link that claim to supports Mac 7.6 with driver version 6.0

If anyone happens to have this version, please let me know.

TIA

 

[techknight]

The downside is, the older drivers will only work if the card has older firmware. Otherwise it wont be recognized and thats it. I do not recall if you can downgrade the firmware on the card. 

Driver: 

http://ftp.ufanet.ru/pub/wireless/wavelan/DRIVERS/MACOS/

 

[rickyzhang]

Thanks for your link! I saw the LED on PCMICA card is blinking. I'm not sure if it is working or not. I have to find a secondary router to enable WEP encryption. My ASUS AC router doesn't support WEP or no encryption any more.

 

[rickyzhang]

I can't make it work under 7.6. But I make it in 8.6. It shows version:

Hardwar 5.0

Primary Firmware: 4.4

Station Firmware: 8.35

Do you know if it is older firmware you refer to?

 

[techknight]

5.0 hardware is too late. You have the Agere systems card, Completely different hardware. You need driver 6.2 or better. Which is PPC 8.5+

The orinoco gold cards had various different hardware configurations over the years. One was lucent, and one was something else. I cant remember its been too long ago. I used to have a card that worked under system 7, and it was an ooooold one. One of the original release cards. 

Take a look here: 

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/ORiNOCO_PC_Card

You need hardware version 4 and earlier. 

 

[rickyzhang]

Even in Mac OS 8.6, I can't make TCP/IP connection.  I will return the card and find another one. Thanks for your guidance!

This time, I will ask sellers about hardware version.

BTW, can firmware get updated? Eg, flash firmware so that it supports harden encryption. But hardware can't be updated, is that correct?

 

[IPalindromeI]

Just a quick point: Cards that don't support encryption (branded as WaveLan Bronze) don't have the capability to at all. Silver cards that support weaker encryption than Gold cards CAN be converted into Gold cards with Alchemy. I did so on my WaveLan silver and it Just Works.

 

[techknight]

Aaahhhhh... Yes, I remember this vaguely. 

 

[rickyzhang]

Encryption is not quite important at all. Because all WEP is easy to crack no matter 64bit or 128bit. I won't use PB to shop in amazon anyway

All I want is to find a way to transfer files between my Intel Mac and Powerbook easily.   

How about any CF card that supports ethernet? I bought two 3Com card. But neither of them work. Perhaps I stick to the old way -- use CF card copy to Mac OS 8.6 and then boot it from there.

 

[techknight]

You can get the Bronze or Silver card instead of the gold, and the grand majority of those should work with System 7, although I havent personally tried. I keep a couple Early golds around for that. 

I have a dedicated router for the weak/no encryption WiFi, and if I want to connect that network to my primary network, I use a PPP between networks/routers so if someone does hop on the wifi, they cant get anywhere without those settings. But I am all the way out in the sticks with 1 house next door which is a vacation rental, and we are both hooked to the same internet anyway. So the likelyhood is very small. 

 

[galgot]

Hi RickyZhang

 
I never could have Wifi working on System 7.6.1… Have Silver card and tried any kind of drivers I could find. Could only make it work on 8.6, but with out encryption.
I suppose there is a problem with my router here, and would have to try converting that Silver card into Gold.
 
The CF Ethernet cards that I know are working on a 1400c are
-  3Com 3c589D:

Using the modified driver from Floodgap :
http://www.floodgap.com/retrotech/mac/enet3c589/
I have that one, works perfectly on 1400c. Note you need the correct 3Com ethernet wire and connector to plug to it, one from another brand will not work.
 
- Dayna CommuniCard Ethernet Adapter
Don’t have that one anymore, but was working fine also. Still have the drivers if you find one. Same thing , must have the ethernet connector wire from the brand to work.

 

[rickyzhang]

@techknight

That's a smart way to design a wifi network. I happened to have a old belkin router to play around with dd-wrt. I should follow the way you suggest. But I can't get wifi working.

salut Galgot,

I got two 3Com 3c589D. But I believed the connectors were broken or may be incompatible. I got the one like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-lot-of-5-3Com-10-Base-T-NIC-Ethernet-Dongle-P-N-3C-PC-TPS-CBL-07-0405-000-/272362377586?hash=item3f6a101172:g:lyEAAMXQeKNTLPaD

PS: Thanks for your post card!