Thinkpads Forum

My 600x has a bright red plastic gizmo on the right side with three connectors of various sizes, all looking like telephone connectors, except for the size. One looks large enough to be the direct line from a router.

The only diagram of the 600x I can find is a little reticent about them. In fact, it says nothing about them at all.

What do I have here?

You most likely have a Xircom PCMCIA ethernet/modem combo adapter. Use one of the small buttons next to the slots (blue-tipped I believe) to eject the card when the power to the laptop is off.

Oi? PCMCIA cards are hot-swappable, aren't they?

Yes, they should be but for safety sake, I'd recommend that if the user is not familiar with the operation of the PCMCIA eject levers and/or bounces the adapter in and out of the contacts at the back, that the system be off.

Well, I got the thing out and it was as identified. I assume it was used as part of an office net where everybody was hooked up by cable?

And as I don't have any such cables running around here other than one from my DSL router to my desktop, I gather its use to me is about zero?

Absolutely not. If it's similar to the model like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0231353888 (Xircom RBEM56G-100 PCMCIA Ethernet LAN/Modem)

then it can be used as a modem (telephone line connected to the smaller of the jacks) or as an ethernet connection to your router (assuming you have a spare port on the router and an RJ45 patch cable) AND assuming that you have the proper drivers installed on the laptop. The 600X should have it's own built-in modem so I'd gather that the reason you have the Xircom card is that the previous owner wanted an ethernet connection.

If your DSL router only has one output port (being used by your desktop), then you would need a small box called a ethernet "hub" or "switch". Both will basically work but a switch is better, although they usually cost a few $$$ more. You could probably find a 4-port hub for $10 or a 4-port switch for $15. Plug a cable between the DSL router and the hub or switch, then plug your desktop and laptop into the hub/switch. Of course this means your laptop is "chained" to one spot. However, if you download a lot of data or you need to share files between your laptop and desktop, then a wired connection is faster than wireless.

Thanks for the info.