Thinkpads Forum

Edit: Price Reduced to $25 shipped within USA.

Okay, here's something that you might not see very often... as the title states, its a Cordless Computer Connection. FRU 01K1215 also found under Marketing Part Number 04K0064.

Info available here:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... LAR-465M6X

It looks like this:
http://www.amazon.com/IBM-Cordless-Comp ... B001B23DY6
The base station antenna is visible in that picture, but the cordless antenna is on the opposite side so you can't see it there.

Basically this is a cordless phone that hooks up to your laptop's modem jack so you can use your dial-up without running a telephone cord. This is probably going to be useful only to someone who doesn't have high-speed internet.

Comes with base station, cordless attachment, and AC adapter. Can't guarantee the battery-life as I have not used this in years. The battery is not proprietary--it takes a common cordless phone battery that looks like a few AA batteries shrink wrapped together. I bought a new battery myself when I first got it. It was under $10.

I wouldn't mind having one of these for the few occasions that I go out to my mother-in-law's house in the country... If I were stuck on dial-up only, I would get this in a heartbeat...

Based on an internet search, this is a pretty darned good deal! The cheapest I found was $147!!

For those that are interested, here are the "froogle" search results through google...

I used to own and use one of these, back when I lived in Chicago. It actually worked pretty well. The IBM was a rebranded Panasonic device.

Hmm, it says it'll work on 33.6kb connections and up, but I wonder if that is hypothetical or actual? I have 56K but I connect to 21K so I'd guess it wouldn't work?

vintage ftw!

paintstikker wrote:Hmm, it says it'll work on 33.6kb connections and up, but I wonder if that is hypothetical or actual? I have 56K but I connect to 21K so I'd guess it wouldn't work?

If I remember properly, it should work. I had a 33.6K modem at the time that was upgradeable by flash to 56k, but typically only connected in the twenty-something k range.

paintstikker wrote:Hmm, it says it'll work on 33.6kb connections and up, but I wonder if that is hypothetical or actual? I have 56K but I connect to 21K so I'd guess it wouldn't work?

I had a 56k modem but it would connect at anything from 28.8 up depending on the day of the week. We lived out in the boonies and the line quality wasn't good. This device still worked though. The good ol' days of dial-up...

bump...

Just came across this again while cleaning out the garage. It aged a little more-- does that make it more valuable or less? Last bump!

I may want to get this. Is there more pictures of this device that gives a better view? How does the thing hook up to the computer? Does it provide a dial tone to the computer so the computer thinks that it is plugged into a phone jack?

BTW, does the remote unit only operate on battery? I mean, does it have an input for ac adapter if I need it plugged in for a long time?

No actual pictures at the moment, but I can snap some later.

aau007 wrote:How does the thing hook up to the computer? Does it provide a dial tone to the computer so the computer thinks that it is plugged into a phone jack?

It hooks up with a regular phone line. Dunno if you can get an dial tone... Its been a LONG time since I've used this. I don't recall if I had my modem set to wait for dial tone or not.

aau007 wrote:BTW, does the remote unit only operate on battery? I mean, does it have an input for ac adapter if I need it plugged in for a long time?

I don't have a separate adapter for the cordless part, but it does have an input jack for one.

Is it possible for you to plug a regular phone into the remote unit and see if the thing gives you a dial tone when you pick up the phone? If so, I like to buy it from you ASAP.

aau007 wrote:Is it possible for you to plug a regular phone into the remote unit and see if the thing gives you a dial tone when you pick up the phone? If so, I like to buy it from you ASAP.

Should have an answer tonight if the battery is still good (needs to charge up).

Any update?

aau007 wrote:Any update?

Sorry it took me a while. I had to charge up an old cordless phone to test it with. No dial tone though.

At this point, I will call off this sale until I get a chance to use a modem with it to test this out. Its been so long, I don't even remember how to dial with a modem anymore!

Bummer. I had high hope for this. Try to remember all your AT commands now. I am trying to use this with a fax machine though. Thinking if this works, I can put my fax machine anywhere without running a telephone wire in the wall and put in a jack.