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vmpaul · Dec 18, 2002, 06:04 PM

Ok, here goes a unique question. I'm going to buy a Netgear MR814 to add wireless to my network. I'm going to cable it from my MacSense wired router.

I'm going to try get some use out of some old legacy equipment I have. So I was hoping to find a Wireless PC card that I could use for each of the following:

Newton 2100 MessagePad
PowerBook 5300 running OS 8
PC laptop running Win 98

I'll only get one card because I'll probably only use it sparingly. Anybody have similiar usage?

Any recommendations? I've just started to do research and Win 98 cards are easy to find. Mac OS8 are a little tougher and there's one website that has drivers for the Newt with recommended cards.

I was just wondering if anybody else has gone through the same needs.

howardm4 · Dec 18, 2002, 07:46 PM

well, the Newt is going to be the limiting
factor. I haven't looked recently at
the site of the Japanese guy who wrote
the driver but you might start there.
Also alot of talk about it on USENET
newsgroup for Newton.

I'm using an Orinoco Silver and it works
in my Newton 2000 (upgraded to 2100).
I know that they (Orinoco, now Proxim)
had OS8-9 drivers too. It's a currently
produced card.

I hear some of the D-Link's work too.

vmpaul · Dec 18, 2002, 08:00 PM

Originally posted by howardm4:
well, the Newt is going to be the limiting
factor. I haven't looked recently at
the site of the Japanese guy who wrote
the driver but you might start there.
Also alot of talk about it on USENET
newsgroup for Newton.

I'm using an Orinoco Silver and it works
in my Newton 2000 (upgraded to 2100).
I know that they (Orinoco, now Proxim)
had OS8-9 drivers too. It's a currently
produced card.

I hear some of the D-Link's work too.

Thanks. That's a start. I'm assuming Win 98 drivers are easy to come by for that Orinoco silver as well.

howardm4 · Dec 19, 2002, 06:48 AM

yea, the win98 are a given for Orinoco.
I didn't mention that I'm using an
Orinoco card on a Win98 laptop (ancient
Compaq) that also dual boots FreeBSD and
even FreeBSD has Orinoco drivers!

vmpaul · Dec 19, 2002, 05:43 PM

This is the card I was looking at. It's only 64-bit WEP but that's not a concern because I will use it sparingly. Is this the one you have?

I'm only thinking of using it on the Newton to connect to my network so I can Sync to Newton Connection Utilities. No need to surf the internet with it. Is that how you use it? Here's the site for the driver. Is that what you are using? Are you able to Sync with the Orinocco card?

howardm4 · Dec 19, 2002, 06:02 PM

yes, that is the card.

Personally (and I'm sure I'll get slammed
for this) I think the whole # of WEP
or PGP keys issue has been blown WAAAY
out of proportion.

I really dont use the wireless card on
the Newt too much. As I recall, yes,
I was able to sync w/ it. But then,
on the other hand, I also have one
or two wired ethernet cards for the
Newt too.

vmpaul · Dec 19, 2002, 08:54 PM

I agree on the WEP issue as well. Only brought it up because I noticed it on the web page.

I haven't even setup my wireless network yet. Not much of an issue with me either, yet.

OT question for you: Was it fairly easy to sync your Newt using your ethernet card? Wired or wireless doesn't matter, I just need to be able to backup my Newt notes on something. Where and which drivers do you need to ad to dock?

Thanks for any guidance you help with.

howardm4 · Dec 21, 2002, 08:36 AM

I'd really have to go back and look at
what I did but I got the NCU disks and
loaded them into Classic. Once
that was done, I just set the Newt to
use the Ethernet for Appletalk (in the
Newt driver slip). Started up NCU
and told the Newt to dock. The Newt
and laptop found each other and the
sync occured as well as NCU ever worked
(wink wink).

I noticed on versiontracker.com that
someone is writing a new 'newtsync' tool
but I dont know the status of it.

vmpaul · Dec 21, 2002, 02:00 PM

Originally posted by howardm4:
The Newt and laptop found each other and the
sync occured as well as NCU ever worked
(wink wink).

I know EXACTLY what you mean.

I have a couple bids on the Orinoco Silver card on eBay. Hopefully, I'll get one under retail and I know I can get the MetGear MR814 wireless router for $99 here locally.

So, I'm thinking I can go wireless here for under $150. Pretty good deal.

Thanks for all your help.