Getting a PowerBook 1400 Networked

[akator70]

I've just purchased a 1400cs/133 and it's lovely (other than the typical issues with a PC card door not closing and hinge cracked plastic).

I've read through everything I can over the last several hours but I haven't been able to figure out a good answer to this question:

What's the best way to network a PowerBook 1400 now (in 2026)?

As far as I can tell it comes down to 2 options:

• A PCMCIA WiFi card (Orinoco or compatible listed here), but all will require a dedicated WiFi connection to deal with the obsolete WEP security.
• A 3com EtherLink II or compatible PCMCIA card with a 3C589C or 3C589D chipset and dongle. It's difficult to find one of these complete these days and it seems the cheapest option is to buy them separately.

These options seem to cost at least $30-35 each.

Is there anything I'm missing? Any caveats?

I personally lean toward wired connections whenever possible because of speed and reliability.

Edit: I've gotten spoiled with SCSI drive emulators also providing emulated DaynaPORT and WiFi. It would be incredible is there was something similar for a 1400 but if there is, I can't find it...

 

[akator70]

Something else I was wondering: from what I've read, all of the compatible PCMCIA cards are 10BaseT and not 100. Is this correct?

Other than having to connect to something using the defunct WEP security, are there any other issues with using one of the WiFi PCMCIA cards? How is the speed compared to the Ethernet PCMCIA cards?

 

[Snial]

Something else I was wondering: from what I've read, all of the compatible PCMCIA cards are 10BaseT and not 100. Is this correct?

Other than having to connect to something using the defunct WEP security, are there any other issues with using one of the WiFi PCMCIA cards? How is the speed compared to the Ethernet PCMCIA cards?

You also need to check if your card is compatible with the version of Mac OS you have. The same is true for ordinary pcmcia Ethernet cards.

 

[AlpineRaven]

I gave up with PCIMCA cards - I have a box full of them - either they are cardbus types - PowerBook 1400 uses 16 bit cards so just heads up.
As my PowerBook 1400 has ethernet card in it which works really well.

You still can buy ethernet card for PowerBook 1400 on ebay every now again but its getting rarer now as I just noticed used to be a couple on ebay years ago and now there isn't any - maybe you'll be able to find one in Japan.
Cheers
AP

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I have some Farallon ethernet PCMCIA card which is specifically Mac compatible and works well.
You can also use a hacked driver to get the very common 3Com EtherLink III card to work on certain Mac OS versions.

See: https://www.floodgap.com/retrotech/mac/enet3c589/

Also, if you have a PiSCSI, it can emulate a SCSI ethernet card. PiSCSIs are a little expensive (since you need a Raspberry Pi) but well worth it in my opinion. They give you a web-based interface for file transfer which I find a lot more convenient than something like an external BlueSCSI would be. The Ethernet emulation is just a bonus on top of that really.

 

[pl212]

There is also the rare Ethernet card that uses a unique-to-the-1400 slot:

https://68kmla.org/bb/threads/powerbook-1400-internal-farallon-ethernet-drivers.30383/

I made sure I got one of these in 1997, not realizing how useful it would be...

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Yeah, that's the card that @AlpineRaven referenced. There were similar cards made for the PowerBook 190 and 5300, which I believe let you keep the video output port.