Thinkpads Forum

I just did a clean install of a Windows 98 on a IBM Thinkpad 390. Does anyone know of a good but inexpensive ethernet cardbus card that will work with this laptop. I am giving the laptop to someone who has no computer so I not looking to spend too much?

Thanks

I've had pretty good luck with Xircom cards for applications like this. The RBE-100 RealPort Cardbus Ethernet 10/100 PCMCIA is a "double-height" (aka Type III) card which means it will take up both slots. The good thing about it is that it does not require any dongle or adapter cable; it accepts a regular RJ-45 ethernet plug. There's other versions of this card which also has a modem embedded but since the 390 already has a modem on board, I'd avoid those models. Right now there's a few of them on eBay for under $10 (shipping included). Windows 98 may already recognize this card when installed and provide a driver. If not then the driver appears to be available for downloading from a couple of sites online. This is one:

http://www.nodevice.com/driver/RBE-100/get43819.html

Resist clicking on the huge "Start Download" buttons. Instead, there's a small box where you have to enter a "verification code". Type in the characters and click the blue "Download" button. A second download page is displayed, which is basically ads for you to read before the download automatically starts.

Thank you very much for the excellent and very thorough advice. really appreciated.
Thanks.
Rick