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Getting a 486-class PC onto a Wireless Network

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dvanaria

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This is really going to show my ignorance about home networking, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

I'm building a DOS gaming box based around a 486 CPU and motherboard that has only ISA slots and 8 MB ram.

I have an ISA network card that I can plug in, and I could plug it directly into our home network with an ethernet cable, but what I'd like to do is plug the network card not directly into our network, but into a wireless access point. That way, I can get the PC on our home network without having to run a network cable out to it.

Is that even an option? The basic problem I'm trying to solve is how to move data to/from this machine without having to resorts to splitting everything up into 3.5" floppies, or burning CD-Rs every time. I know a lot of people use ZIP drives for this (the 100 model seems popular for DOS-boxes), do you think that's a better way to go?


Thanks for any advice/help you can give me on this subject.
 
You can connect your network card to a small wireless access point that is configured in "bridge mode". In that mode it basically takes the wired Ethernet connection and converts it to a WiFi connection so you can connect to your other wireless router.

I haven't tried it myself (yet) but I know that some of the smaller travel routers like the Asus WL330N can do it. (I was given a tip by a member here; their handle escapes me at the moment.)
 
Ok great, thanks both mbbrutman and Krille.

I'll try using mTCP with a direct connection first, and if I can get that working, I might looking into adding a wireless access point using something like the Asus WL330N you suggested. If I can get it working I'll post my results here.

I may look into the ZIP drive also as an alternate. The only problem with that is that I'll also need a drive for one of my modern computers, and blank disks. Still, good to know that's an option, thanks
 
dvanaria said:
Ok great, thanks both mbbrutman and Krille.

I'll try using mTCP with a direct connection first, and if I can get that working, I might looking into adding a wireless access point using something like the Asus WL330N you suggested. If I can get it working I'll post my results here.

I may look into the ZIP drive also as an alternate. The only problem with that is that I'll also need a drive for one of my modern computers, and blank disks. Still, good to know that's an option, thanks
Click to expand...

You could also try something like this. Same thing but infinitely cheaper! :) At that price even if it doesn't work you aren't out much. I have one for my IBM 5140 using a Xircom LPT port.
 
I saw some 16-bit ISA Wireless adapters on eBay. Maybe one of those would be helpful. There are Parallel Port Ethernet adapters, but not wireless. One might also try getting an ISA PCMCIA adapter and then using a PCMCIA Wireless card.
 
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If your reason for not wanting to run an ethernet line to your 486 is because it is some way from a network port/switch, you could try using a couple of powerline adaptors and use your mains circuitry as network cable. It means an ethernet cable from the adjacent powerline adaptor, but that would only be a short distance. I currently use such a system very successfully.
 
For what its worth what I do is plug the ethernet cable into my Linux laptop and setup IP forwarding.

I suggest you avoid powerline adapters though.
 
Stone said:
Wouldn't that require a USB port on the 486?
Click to expand...

Stone,

if you are referring to my link, then no. It needs USB for power (which can be easily supplied through an adapter/wall wart). In bridge mode you just hook up the RJ45 across with power from wall wart and good to go.
 
Shadow Lord said:
You could also try something like this. Same thing but infinitely cheaper! :)
Click to expand...

I don't know about infinitely cheaper. I bought two ASUS WL-330N units for $36 each (after rebate) at the beginning of the year, and ASUS includes the needed power-supply in addition to the USB and ethernet cables. :) The product in the eBay listing looks pretty comparable otherwise.
 
Cloudschatze said:
I don't know about infinitely cheaper. I bought two ASUS WL-330N units for $36 each (after rebate) at the beginning of the year, and ASUS includes the needed power-supply in addition to the USB and ethernet cables. :) The product in the eBay listing looks pretty comparable otherwise.
Click to expand...

So you spent $72 (was S&H included in that price as well) after rebate (which is always a crap shoot)? The eBay product comes with USB and RJ45 cable but no wall wart for $25.88 for two. So yes not infinitely cheaper but quite a bit of saving even with added cost of wall warts.
 
To answer the OP:

Get an ISA to PCMCIA card. They exist and they aren't terribly uncommon.
Get a Lucent WaveLAN or Orinoco Gold PCMCIA wireless card.
Setup home wireless to support 802.11b and WEP encryption. Yeah it's a compromized encryption but it's better than none at all.

You're done.

Failing that because you want to use your existing network card, get one of the Linksys Wireless Gaming Adapters and follow their respective instructions (there's an 802.11b and 802.11g version)
 
I once used a Cisco Aironet PCMCIA card in a 486 T2130CT. Had to downgrade my router security to WEP for compatibility.

It did work, was strange to have Dos and Win3.1 connecting to a wireless network.
 
modem7 said:
Early "wireless" is not the same as WiFi.
Click to expand...

True there's lots of proprietary wireless cards out there, but there are also a lot of Cisco 340/350 ISA cards out there, those are all 802.11b compliant, though I do not recall if their dos packet drivers support any kind of encryption, even if they did its likely only old school WEP.
External bridge connected to 10Base-T NIC of some kind is probably best bet like Shadow Lord and Mike suggested, most those external bridges will be 802.11g or 802.11n with WPA2 so you don't have to bog down and un-secure your network to get them working.
 
NeXT said:
An ISA to PCMCIA card. They exist and they aren't terribly uncommon.
Get a Lucent WaveLAN or Orinoco Gold PCMCIA wireless card.
Setup home wireless to support 802.11b and WEP encryption. Yeah it's a compromized encryption but it's better than none at all.
Click to expand...

I've use that method and the WEP is indeed a problem. You have to go into your router and change the settings for when you want to use the 486 and then go and change it back when you're finished. A little inelegant and/or cumbersome. Security is not a big issue in my situation but in a dense city environment, I think it would be. My solution is simply add another wireless router to your lan and set it up for this specific purpose. I've got it set up to only allow one client at a time and to only allow the one MAC address. That's probably hackable, but would be unlikely to be compromised in reality.

That said, the simpler solution is probably to use a bridge. Someone mentioned game adapters and that is probably a great idea, though I've never looked at one. Linksys used to sell the WET11 which should be getting cheap by now since they're getting old. Of course there's always the idea of using a laptop with linux and connecting the DOS box with a serial cable. I've detailed that approach in previous posts.
 
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