Has anyone tried replacing the internal modem?

[okto]

If I'm not mistaken, internally it talks to the mobo via a regular serial connection, which seems ripe for a Bluetooth or WiFi adapter.

Obviously it would need a new driver, but that is likely a solvable problem.

Has anyone toyed with this? A twisted-pair modem is good as useless these days, so there's nothing to lose.

 

[Dogmander]

It would be interesting to see something like an 10BASE-T Ethernet expansion for these machines, would make file transfer and internet stuff a lot easier with the proper driver.

 

[avadondragon]

Yep. Check out this thread - PowerBook 1xx Wireless Modem

As for 10BASE-T Ethernet there were a couple of options from back in the day. There was the DaynaPORT SCSI to ethernet adapter and the Farallon EtherWave which hooked up to the serial port. Probably a couple of others but those two I personally had.

New solutions include using a PiSCSI to emulate a DaynaPORT adapter and there was also the Scuznet a few years back but I don't know if those are still around.

 

[Dogmander]

Yep. Check out this thread - PowerBook 1xx Wireless Modem

As for 10BASE-T Ethernet there were a couple of options from back in the day. There was the DaynaPORT SCSI to ethernet adapter and the Farallon EtherWave which hooked up to the serial port. Probably a couple of others but those two I personally had.

New solutions include using a PiSCSI to emulate a DaynaPORT adapter and there was also the Scuznet a few years back but I don't know if those are still around.

I see. It'd still be nice to have some sort of modern solution for Ethernet, as it would be a lot nicer to have something that you can cheaply build instead of an out of production part from 30 years ago

 

[avadondragon]

I see. It'd still be nice to have some sort of modern solution for Ethernet, as it would be a lot nicer to have something that you can cheaply build instead of an out of production part from 30 years ago

The PiSCSI and Scuznet that I listed are the current modern solutions.

 

[Dogmander]

The PiSCSI and Scuznet that I listed are the current modern solutions.

Right, but it’d still be nice to have an internal version of these solutions, as SCSI is an external interface

 

[avadondragon]

Right, but it’d still be nice to have an internal version of these solutions, as SCSI is an external interface

Which model PowerBook are you interested in this for? I can only think of a couple that have internal IDE but lack built in ethernet. I use an internal PiSCSI on my PowerBook 180c to connect to WiFi. Here's a post with pictures of a guy using one on his Duo 280c.