I have a Thinkpad 600E that is running Windows 2000 and is currently being used as an always on server so people can access my drives 24/7 and so I can download files without having to leave my big laptop on.
The Thinkpad has 2 PCMCIA ports. In the very bottom one I have a D-Link Wireless-G Card. I can get that to run no problem on the laptop. In the 2nd port I want to install my Gigabit ethernet card, so I can use a crossover cable between the 2 laptops to retrieve my downloaded files.
For the most part the D-Link wifi card is pretty flat. The Part that sticks out bulges a little bit, but it's not as bad as the old linksys I had that prevented any use of the top port. I can get the gigabit ethernet card in, it's a tight squeeze but I can feel it lock into the port when I push it in.
The problem is that once I install the gigabit ethernet card, the wireless card stops working, and I have to eject both cards and then reinsert only the wireless card to get it working again. Can I run 2 Network Adapters in the PCMCIA slots, or is it only restricted to 1?
-
-
I think that Windows can only handle one of the two network adapters at a time.
It might be possible to achieve what you want if you tinker around with a loopback network adapter, but I doubt it.
Have you thought about trying to configure one card with your current installation & the other with a Windows Virtual Machine? That might be possible...
You should worry about heat though. Each PCMCIA card generates a lot of heat. You may wind up melting both cards. -
When you say the wireless card stops working, exactly what happens? Does the device get disabled? What does the device manager show?
-
The card doesn't get disabled, but at the same time I loose my connection to the wireless and the internet. It might be that Windows is trying a connection through the gigabit instead of the wireless card.
The only problem with trying 1 on Windows 2000 and the other card on a Virtual PC is that even if the gigabit card is not installed on Windows 2000, it will automatically disable the wireless when plugged in. -
Windows will only use one connection at a time, unless you bridge the connections and use one for incoming traffic (internet) and one for outgoing traffic (between machines). Here's a diagram of bridging XP connections - it should be fairly close to W2K.
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/wxpbrdge.html -
Huh, that's weird. I just reinsertted the D-Link gigabit with the wifi card, and the wifi didn't quit on me. Now both work without having to enable bridging....
-
Many times is just a question of a good contact with the connector, I have seen this 1,000 times. So, you just need to play a little bit with the card as oyu insert it and that should do it.
Dual PCMCIA Wireless and Gigabit Cards
Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by mattbieg892, Jul 13, 2008.