Ethernet Cardbus card for IBM Thinkpad 390

[rickkman]

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

[rkawakami]

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.

[rickkman]

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