And sometimes we don't come through.

[reddragdiva]

It's just as well everyone asked for more whiny geek entries. The eminently *pint*able mr_eleganza kindly gave us a PCMCIA network card. The card is recognised by the laptop and the cable is known good, but the little green lights on the modem don't come on, which implies the dongle to connect the cable to the card is not working. Of course PC card dongles aren't available separately or compatible between manufacturers, as that would be sensible and helpful and lessen their deserved reputation as some of the least reliable and most hated PC hardware in existence.

Bah. Anyone got a currently working one? I expect it's eBay time. I must say, this is quite a temptation.

Update: Have just purchased a Xircom Realport for twelve quid plus postage. Known to work okay with FreeBSD 5. (4 doesn't do CardBus.) And there's always L*n*x.

Comments

[dan-lane.livejournal.com]

If you have a double-height pcmcia bay, might I suggest you pick up a Xircom Realport (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=xircom+realport&sa=N&tab=wi) on Ebay?

Having killed around 8 of those 3com dongle ones I'm a huge fan of these, plus everything supports them (Linux, Free/NetBSD and of course Windows).

They manage to cram an RJ45 socket and two RJ11s on that little thing, I have a couple here but they are both in use.

[lpetersson.livejournal.com]

Ahem, sorry about that, it's the only one I had, and it used to work...

[vatine]

If you remember, my 3Com laptop dongle thingy is "slightly dodgy" in that it requires semi-precice positioning to get everything working fine. Have you tried wiggilg the sticky-out bit until all is good and TCP/IP gushes from the end?

[reddragdiva]

I tried doing that whilst carefully observing the green lights on the modem/router. It failed to light them. The essential problem is that dongles are rubbish.

[reddragdiva]

That's OK, it's a dongle therefore it sucks. You still get points (or *pint*s) for effort.

[grumpy-sysadmin.livejournal.com]

I discovered no fewer than two, and probably three, new-in-protective-baggy 3com dongles bouncing around my cube in the purge and realignment (http://www.livejournal.com/users/grumpy_sysadmin/51849.html) earlier today. If you've no other options, email me (mailto:grumpy_sysadmin@livejournal.com) to arrange some sort of cost-sharing for international shipping from Philadelphia, PA, USA. Multiple instances (I'll be retaining one for my own just-in-case needs) would probably make sense, since evidence shows that you'll be breaking a few.

[grumpy-sysadmin.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, if you're following up with me on this, it's worth noting that I (and by "I" I mean "my employer", but screw them) also have "several" 3com cards in the random-bits bin there. I confirm nadnad's high recomendtion of the Xircom RealPort cards (and I think 3com sells them too) or, fuck it, a decent (read, WaveLAN) PCMCIA 802.11 card. But if you're bent on working with what you've got, I've got some spare parts with your nym on them.

[ickle-yuki.livejournal.com]

RealPort cards+++

I got one when I broke the 3com dongle on my 10/100 3com card.

tis a nice Intel one. Not bad for £15! Especially as the ones with dongles cost about as much often too.

[jagaroth.livejournal.com]

Probably of no help to you at all, but while were on the subject, I purchased a rather cheapo Surecom "EP-428X" on monday. I did have a but of trouble setting it up (all due to my own ignorance). The damn light just would not go on and the OS (Debian) would not pick it up. After nearly all day and well into the night I eventualy checked the BIOS and realised it was just set to the wrong bus type (live and learn), so i set it to cardbus and all was fine and dandy. Though of no help to you, it does work with a Linux distro, and it most likely will on BSD too (though thats obviously not always the case).

The next problem I have is the laptop locks up when shuting down while the card is installed. It gets as far as stutting down the PCMCIA and then halts with the HD light left on. The only solution that I can find is removing it from the shutdown sequence. I have not tried this yet but will probobly later today or tomorow. I have read about a similar thing with Windblowz NT based OS's with some PCMCIA setups. I don't know if the problem is the card or the cardbus setup.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

I have a Xircom dongle right next to me right now. It works.

Want?

Hello

[wendy-whiplash.livejournal.com]

I just thought I'd be ultra scary and say hello!!

Love


Wendy Whiplash

PS Keep your teeth sharp!!!

Re: Hello

[reddragdiva]

Crikey, everyone's on this thing. Anyone else from Perth I should be adding?

[reddragdiva]

And it appears they're specifically supported! I think we might be going for one of them ...

[reddragdiva]

Mmm. We're just buying the Xircom Realport now. £12 plus postage. IBM says it's specifically supported by the hardware. FreeBSD 5.x has cardbus drivers, I suspect 4.x doesn't yet and probably never will.

[jagaroth.livejournal.com]

I have a Xircom card kicking about the house somewhere but it needs a dongle. If i found a broken dongle then Intel usually replace them with repaired dongles free of charge (if you give it too a mate who works at a wholesaler with in intel account).

[rbarclay.livejournal.com]

Have just purchased a Xircom Realport

Since I love to do this, here it is: I told you to get a Xircom.

SCNR.

[owdbetts.livejournal.com]

Not all Realports are cardbus, FWIW. The older ones are just standard PCMCIA (and they look identical except for the model number).

-roy