ethernet access question

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R

rb

Found an old pc in a closet I'd forgotten we had. Thought I'd put to use in
a kid's room.

A problem, leading to my question is: discovered it has only a dial-up
modem, no Ethernet.

Is putting Ethernet connection in as simple as putting an Ethernet NIC card
in an empty slot? Will that get it to where we can hook it to our
hub/router?
 
Oops---somehow double posted. My bad. Sorry about that.

Old, senile, forgetful???? All the preceding?
 
rb said:
Found an old pc in a closet I'd forgotten we had. Thought I'd put to use
in a kid's room.

A problem, leading to my question is: discovered it has only a dial-up
modem, no Ethernet.

Is putting Ethernet connection in as simple as putting an Ethernet NIC
card in an empty slot? Will that get it to where we can hook it to our
hub/router?
Click to expand...

Yes, it could be that simple, depending on exactly how old
the PC is and the OS it may be running.

Luck;
Ken
 
rb said:
Is putting Ethernet connection in as simple as putting an Ethernet NIC card
in an empty slot? Will that get it to where we can hook it to our
hub/router?
Click to expand...

Pretty much, very simple. Any cheap NIC will most likely do just fine.
 
rb said:
Found an old pc in a closet I'd forgotten we had. Thought I'd put to use in
a kid's room.

A problem, leading to my question is: discovered it has only a dial-up
modem, no Ethernet.

Is putting Ethernet connection in as simple as putting an Ethernet NIC card
in an empty slot? Will that get it to where we can hook it to our
hub/router?
Click to expand...
I have done that with an old computer and there was no problem.
 
ProfGene said:
I have done that with an old computer and there was no problem.
Click to expand...

Well, I've done that, too, and found I had to have the correct drivers.
Depends on what OS is on that old machine. You should find needed
drivers on the manufacturer's website.
 
Well, I've done that, too, and found I had to have the correct drivers.
Depends on what OS is on that old machine. You should find needed
drivers on the manufacturer's website.
Click to expand...


The OS may or may not have native driver support built in,
but the other factor is that the OS is considering the
present dial-up adapter as the primary network interface
device (if it had been used for dialup ISP) and may need the
internet connection wizard ran to set the NIC as the new
adapter bound as the primary TCP/IP device.
 
The OS may or may not have native driver support built in, but the other
factor is that the OS is considering the present dial-up adapter as the
primary network interface device (if it had been used for dialup ISP) and
may need the internet connection wizard ran to set the NIC as the new
adapter bound as the primary TCP/IP device.
Click to expand...

THe machine I'm working now (win 98) had both modem and nic. The only
issue I had was causing it to discover that, 'hey, there's an IP gateway
hooked up to the NIC!'
 
I have done that with an old computer and there was no problem.
Click to expand...

I have done this too but there are several gotchas that may occur.
If the computer is "really" old, the slots may be ISA only and finding
the correct NIC card could be a hassle (fleamarkets). If the cab
files are not on the computer no matter which NIC card you choose
you will al least have to find these if the native Windows has drivers
for said card. There are other network related files that the install
process will need that are in the cab file set. Finally, worst case is
that the card you pick may be so old that the manufacture has
decided to retire the drivers to "bit heaven" and no longer keeps
them on their servers. So the final thought is yes, it might be real
easy and then again it could turn into a nightmare.

later.....
 
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