Wireless card for Win98?

July 21, 2005 10:16 PM

Reccomend a wireless card for an old Windows 98 laptop?

GF has an older ThinkPad running Win98, not SE. The AT&T wireless card I have sitting around requires 98SE. Google has not helped me come up with a compatible model that I can search eBay for. Any thoughts? (I'd hate to have to buy 98SE just for this. The laptop probably can't run 2000 or XP.)

posted by Tubes to computers & internet (7 answers total)

This is one of those times you should just use someone's "backup" copy of SE. Beyond that, I can't imagine a legit copy could be had for more than $10 bucks on Ebay.

Since your laptop is so old, make sure whatever wireless card you get is PC Card and not Cardbus. I'd go with a Netgear, but always will like the classic Orinoco Gold.
posted by angry modem at 10:27 PM on July 21, 2005

You will almost certainly need 98SE, unfortunately, unless you buy a wired-to-wireless adapter like the Linksys Game Adapter (B, G). If you do end up with SE, go for the Orinoco Silver or Gold (the gold has better encryption if you need that -- the silver can be upgraded with software to the gold). The Orinoco cards have been sold under a number of other brands, the most common of which is Lucent WaveLAN.
posted by j.edwards at 12:00 AM on July 22, 2005

How much RAM do you have? The laptop may well be able to cope with 2000.
posted by krisjohn at 12:54 AM on July 22, 2005

A Netgear MA401 ran flawlessly for me on an old Win95 laptop.
posted by sageleaf at 5:51 AM on July 22, 2005

I have a Belkin card that is not supposed to run under Windows 95 but works flawlessly in an old laptop running Windows 95. Not just that you might try the Belkin, but I wouldn't believe what the card manufacturer says about operating systems. Once MS stopped supporting Windows 95 many manufacturers dropped their support as well. This does not necessarily mean their products won't work with Windows 95 or 98, just that they haven't been fully tested on them. Have you actually tried the AT&T card? It might work.
posted by caddis at 7:27 AM on July 22, 2005

Screw Belkin.

A Netgear MA401 ran flawlessly for me on an old Win95 laptop.

I had one of these, as well, and ran it with 98SE.
posted by angry modem at 3:24 PM on July 22, 2005

My laptop is running Win98, non-SE, and I'm pleased with the WiFi I get using an Instant Wireless Network PC Card ver.3 made by LinkSys.
posted by Rash at 6:16 PM on July 22, 2005