I have a laptop and need to put it on a network for a job im doing. The network uses eathernet cable. How do I network this? as I cant open the laptop and put a NIC card in it. The laptop has a PCMCIA slot do you get a card to fit this.

Regards

Jer

 

There's plenty out there Jer

Try...

 

If you are using ethernet cable in the office, then realistically, it could either be a 10 or 100 Base LAN. This is the speed rating. As long as you are certain that they are on this and not a BNC/coax network, then nowadays, you should get a dual (10/100Base) speed card. I could suggest many different places to get these from, but for simplicity for the standard user, then go to PC WORLD and look at a Netgear FA410 PCMCIA (PCCARD) Network Card. Dual Speed and works well. I have one of these, amongst others, and it performs just as well as the rest. £79.99 currently from them, which isn't bad for a properly branded make.
Hope this helps


Nick

 

I agree the Netgear FA410 PCMCIA network card is very good value for the money, with dual speed switching. Great if you don't know what your network is, and gives flexability for networking to other PCs in the future.

Hope this helps, cheers Phill Cocking

 

Cheers for the advice, very helpful.

Regards

Jer

 

I have a spare Xircom Realport cardbus 10/100 + 56k PCMCIA type 3 card (ie takes up 2* type 2 slots or one double hight slot). Good card cost £179+VAT (see

 

PART 2
Had a look at the hub today and it says 10 base-T / 100 base TX. It has cat5 wire coming out the hub with what look like big phone connectors on it. Is the card talked about the right card. Sorry I dont know much about networking apart from the theory at university I did.

Ps my laptop is running Windows 2000 and the server is win 98 any problems networking the laptop with this.

 

Any of the cards above should work fine with the network. Networking Windows 98/2000 should not be too hard to configure (I have both at home), It depends what you want to share over the network (I guess it is just for file sharing, not printers etc!) and which protocols are setup on the network, however win2k is generally quite good at sorting this out, and much easier to configure on the hit and miss approach as it usually doesn't need to reboot!

 

Is there a system administrator at the site?
Make sure your chosen card will negotiate properly with the hub/switch. Some PCMCIA cards don't like switches (i.e. the switch ports don't negotiate the speed correctly with the PCMCIA card making connecting it a pain).

Gethin.