Thinkpads Forum

Hi

I would like to buy a wireless card and need some help. I believe l have the 650 meg running wind 2000 pro.

Right now l have cable going into a Belkin wireless G plus mimo router. My wife has the T-61 with a Polycom phone which is connected to the Belkin.

Being that the Belkin has 4 ports l tried to hook it up directly to the Belkin using a USB (into 600x) and a ethernet into the Belkin. It's a double cord. Nothing happened and my computer said there is no connection.

Should l just by a wireless card even though l don't need it to be wireless or is there some way l can hook up directly to the router.

I went to my cable company and they said another cable would cost $45 a month and they do not offer a splitter.

Thanks

Alan

Mod Edit: Changed your subject line since you had posts on two different topics but the subject line was the same. Try to make your subject line more informative.

Not sure how your USB-to-ethernet connection attempt was made but if there's no additional hardware between those two different connectors, then it will not work.

If all you are trying to do is connect your 600X to the internet via an ethernet cable (to your Belkin router), then the solutions are fairly limited. Since the 600X does not have a built-in ethernet jack, your choices are as follows:

- use a PCMCIA (PC Card) ethernet adapter
- use a USB-to-ethernet adapter (not just a plain cable)

The first option would be to use something like one of these:

http://www.netcomdirect.com/xirerecaet10.html (takes up both PCMCIA slots but doesn't stick out)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833122117 (uses one slot but sticks out from the side of the laptop)
http://laptopsforless.stores.yahoo.net/ ... mbsla.html (one slot, doesn't stick out but uses a "dongle"; a short conversion cable)

The second option consists of one of these:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... ?CatId=589

Note that your 600X system only has USB 1.1, not the faster 2.0 version. Also, you might have to install some drivers either prior to connecting the hardware or after (read the installation instructions that comes with the adapter). After that, you may also have to deal with any router configurations to allow the new connection, depending upon how it's been set up. Issues to consider are if DHCP (dynamic IP addresses) is enabled or a static address needs to be assign. Additionally, the router may have MAC address filtering enabled.

The answer you got from your cable company was probably a misunderstanding. It sounds like they were under the impression that you wanted to have a second cable and/or router installed just to connect one more computer. That is not necessary. Your description of the Belkin wireless router sounds like it supplies 4 ethernet ports to connect additional equipment. Furthermore, if you do need to attach more than 4 computers, then just get an ethernet hub or switch; that will expand one existing port on the router into 4, 8 or even 16 more ethernet jacks, depending upon the model you get.

After all of that, your best solution may be just to use a wireless card. You could potentially have the same router setup issues, but you won't be tied down to an ethernet cable.

Thanks

The only reason that l still use my 600x is that it works and l only use it for e-mails at home.

Alan

Hi

I had a Belkin usb adapter and ran the cd but it says Network cable unplugged so l will call them in the morning.

Alan