[geeks] Wireless PC Cards - possible?

[Ross Lonstein]

On Fri, Mar 11, 2005 at 01:22:31AM -0600, Micah R Ledbetter wrote:
> I've acquired for free a Compaq LTE 5150 laptop (100MHz
> Pentium, heh) and docking station. I'd like to take it

I had a LTE5100 (P90). Heavy and slow even for its time. It's adequate
under Linux or FreeBSD.

> wireless, but I've read that this machine can't handle the
> CardBus PCMCIA cards, and requires PC Card PCMCIA cards...
> the way I understand it, PC Card was first, and CardBus
> was a later standard that was more like PCI.

True. You need 16-bit PCMCIA. The Linksys WPC11 is one such card and
can be had cheaply. I've tried that card in a number of old laptops
but not specifically that model.

> I've seen conflicting reports on the web. Reports of
> people turning these things into wireless access points,
> as well as reports stating that there is no wireless card
> that will work in this machine. Can anyone shed some light
> on this for me? Anyone gone wireless in a non-CardBus
> laptop, or researched it and found it to be impossible?
    [snip]

It should work. I've had grief with Compaqs but having an up to date
BIOS helps. Apply the last ROMPaq (7.32A, SP7804).

- Ross