Internet on old laptop?

smashey

I have found an old laptop that is working perfectly, and after reading through some of the stickys here, I am totally confused.

It is a Dell Latitude CPi D266XT with windows 98. It has an Intel Pentium II processor with a speed :rolleyes: of 266 MHz. The hard drive has a capacity of 10 GB and there is 128 MB of RAM. It has a CD-ROM. There is no modem.

My query is as follows. Could this thing be used for surfing the net, and if so, would this only be with a 56k modem? Alternatively, as I am on broadband at home with a wireless hub, would it support a wireless connection of any sort and if so, could somebody please give me some details?

Finally, is it a total antique and of no use other than typing the odd letter?

Any advice would be very welcome and please bear in mind that my knowledge is very limited.

Thanks.

Karoma

It'll work for general web-browsing & e-mails. You don't need anything fancy.

You can use a wireless network card: Just make sure that the card has Windows 98 drivers & client software supplied (double-check whether they specify OS support for win98 or win98SE); best to go for PCMCIA over USB as USB support in win98(and SE. Although SE is much better than 98) is dodgy.

Patch Windows when you get up and running - but keep in mind that MS no longer provides new updates. Ensure you have a firewall & anti-virus & anti-spyware installed.

smashey

Karoma wrote:

It'll work for general web-browsing & e-mails. You don't need anything fancy.

You can use a wireless network card: Just make sure that the card has Windows 98 drivers supplied (double-check whether they specify OS support for win98 or win98SE); best to go for PCMCIA over USB as USB support in win98(and SE. Although SE is much better than 98) is dodgy.

Patch Windows when you get up and running - but keep in mind that MS no longer provides new updates. Ensure you have a firewall & anti-virus & anti-spyware installed.

Karoma,

The web-browsing and e-mail bit is perfect. I haven't a clue about the rest of your reply (apart from the firewall/virus stuff), but I will make it my business to understand it.

Ruu_Old

It'll work alright, if you want to get another stick of RAM, the maximum your laptop can handle is 256MB. Not sure if its worth it but at least you know. Can you clarify that you have the first edition of Windows 98, right click on My Computer then Properties, the version number should be listed there?

What Karoma is talking about I think is the slot in the side of your laptop, like the one below where you would put in your wireless card for the interweb access.

PCMCIA slot


PCMCIA wireless card (goes up^ there)

smashey

Thanks Ruu. It has the second edition. Is this a problem?

Ruu_Old

Nope, it cleared up a lot of the bugs with the original edition so thats something I guess.

smashey

Excellent. So, if I buy a PCMCIA card tomorrow, it's just a matter of plugging it in and following the instructions?

Ruu_Old

Yep, I reckon you should be fine as Karoma mentioned make sure its compatible with Windows 98SE.

Karoma

Yep*, it should be easy.
A USB wifi dongle/Network Interface Card (NIC) should work as well - but Windows 98 SE isn't the greatest with handling USB...
ex: http://www.hometech.com/techwire/ic-521499.jpg (Plugs into a spare USB port)
A PCMCIA card may cause less headaches.


The rest of my post was simply about precautions to prevent the machine getting a whole host of crap: windows generally attracts crap. Crap loves windows 98. Windows 98 is crap. Windows isn't supported anymore by MS which is... a shame (Expecting me to type crap?) = more threats can get in easily.

*Not a gaurantee.

smashey

Thanks all. I will try it tomorrow and let you know how it works.

smashey

I've just noticed that it has USB 1. What is the difference between this and USB 2?

atheist

USB2 has the potential to be faster (each device on the bus can work at it's own speed) but this will make no difference in a connection to the web which will only be at a fraction of USB 1 or 1.1 speed anyway.

Ruu_Old

USB 2 is meant to be up to 40 times faster, won't matter anyway as mentioned.

TempestSabre

Windows 98se should be fine on 128mb of ram. The main problem is that they stopped doing security patches for it a long time ago. So its not that secure. Still behind a firewall and with decent AV installed I doubt you'd have a problem.

smashey

Okay. I installed the PCMCIA card and it is getting a connection to my wireless router at 54 mbps. However, when I click on the internet connection, I get a message saying that it is not available. Any ideas?

Karoma

start -> run -> command -> ipconfig /all
Dump the output here, along with the the IP address (and subnet mask) of the router.

thebman

I recommend Zone Alarm as a firewall and Avast Personel edition as an anti-virus. Both free and will do the job. I'd recommend Spybot and Adaware personel edition.

Some of these mightn't support Windows 98 (.NET framework support is probably lacking or non-existant in windows 98). AVG have a special edition of their anti-virus for the older versions of Windows and they have a personel edition. It might take some digging around their site to find it though.

I can't help you much with the Internet problem, see above post.

dingding

smashey wrote:

Okay. I installed the PCMCIA card and it is getting a connection to my wireless router at 54 mbps. However, when I click on the internet connection, I get a message saying that it is not available. Any ideas?

Smashy perhaps there is a encription key needed. A WEP key. If it can see the network but not connect this is probably the problem. Have you any other wireless devices connected to this router. Have you any device that connects in via a wired CAT 5 ethernet cable.

Cheers

Ruu_Old

brim4brim wrote:

I recommend Zone Alarm as a firewall and Avast Personel edition as an anti-virus. Both free and will do the job. I'd recommend Spybot and Adaware personel edition.

Some of these mightn't support Windows 98 (.NET framework support is probably lacking or non-existant in windows 98). AVG have a special edition of their anti-virus for the older versions of Windows and they have a personel edition. It might take some digging around their site to find it though.

I can't help you much with the Internet problem, see above post.

Pre version 6.5 of Zone Alarm will continue to run on the Windows 98/98SE/Me but they don't offer support for anything else. I have an old Dell that I use an old version of Sygate and Avira Antvir which does the trick.

ethernet

smashey wrote:

Okay. I installed the PCMCIA card and it is getting a connection to my wireless router at 54 mbps. However, when I click on the internet connection, I get a message saying that it is not available. Any ideas?

Do PCMCIA cards have MAC addresses [a sequence of letters and/or numbers with colons after each two]? If your router uses a MAC access control list, you may need to add the card's MAC to the allowed list [again, if it even has one -- I don't know if they do].

Capt'n Midnight

ethernet wrote:

Do PCMCIA cards have MAC addresses [a sequence of letters and/or numbers with colons after each two]? If your router uses a MAC access control list, you may need to add the card's MAC to the allowed list [again, if it even has one -- I don't know if they do].

yes they do,
even when you use dial up you can get a fake MAC, some wireless devices can take the MAC off a connected card or you can program them in.

smashey

dingding wrote:

Smashy perhaps there is a encription key needed. A WEP key. If it can see the network but not connect this is probably the problem. Have you any other wireless devices connected to this router. Have you any device that connects in via a wired CAT 5 ethernet cable.

Cheers

My PC is connected wirelessly to the router. Nothing else. I tried to do the WEP thing but I gave up.