Thinkpads Forum

Apologies for this newbie question!

I have a 600E-2645 and have previously been connecting to the Net via USB with an external router.

I’ve begun using Linux and this setup is no longer compatible. It seems I can only connect via Ethernet in Linux. I assume this means that I will have to purchase a network card and insert it into the empty slot on the laptop.

Looking on ebay these network cards appear to be relatively inexpensive, but is there any way of knowing that the one I buy will be compatible with my particular Thinkpad model or is it a standardised system whereby they will work on any laptop?

Many Thanks!

They are not standardized, but nearly all wired PCCard NICs are supported on Linux. For example, both my LinkSys cards (a 16-bit 10/100 card and a 32-bit 10/100 card) just worked. Since you're in a big city, you might see if a computer shop will let you try some used cards they have.

Many WiFi cards are also supported natively, but it's a much smaller percentage. But with ndiswrapper, you can use the Windows driver for your WiFi card and make it work that way. It's just a lot easier with native support, of course.

Thanks for the quick reply Whizkid!

I assume in that case that any laptop network card with physically slot into the my Thinkpad ?

I'm not quite sure I got your meaning. So...

Any card that fits will not damage the machine or the card, but I won't guarantee it will actually work. Even LinkSys, which I often like, changed the controllers on their cards between revisions, making them completely incompatible with each other. For example, the WPC11 v1 16-bit WiFi card works natively with Linux but version 4 does not. I'm not sure about the versions in between.

It's much the same with wired NICs.

Google is your friend.

two points:
1. check out the "Hardware.HOWTO" as of 2005 it lists
gear known to work/not work, including plenty PCMCIA
NICs (section 27.): Xircom, 3com, IBM, etc. On one
machine it's in /usr/local/doc/howtos; another
/usr/share/doc
2. why doesn't yr existing USB setup work? I'm
connected now thru USB--wireless. No problem.

Most of the cardbus PCMCIA cards of the early 2000s work just fine. I used Linksys and 3Com for quite some time in my 600E. I liked the 3com because of the x-Jack (it was more robust than the Linksys, which kept breaking at the dongle socket) and the jack could be pushed in when not connected.

They should be available real cheap on e-bay. If you're not sure, I have a couple that woked just fine that I don't use any more.