Dell laptop : gadgets

This is an overview of the 'gadgets' I use with my serie of Latitude PC's. The parts covered here are:

Dell laptop : NIC

Xircom 10/100 LAN Card

To the right you see my Xircom 10/100 LAN card. It's the best buy I ever made. The card is twice as thick as a normal PCMCIA card so you need to mount it in the lower slot. This is a small price to pay for a NIC that is known by all operating systems.

There is also a bigger version of this Xircom (same colours and same formfactor) which also has a modemport inside:

If you look around, you will spot some. If you can lay your hands on one for a good price: don't hesitate too long.


Dell laptop : WLAN

TP-Link TL-WN510G Wireless LAN card

If ever you want to have a nice, affordable, flexible and (above all) well supported wireless LAN card for your computer (running ANY operating system) get some of these. They have an Atheros chipset inside. As far as I know, ALL TP-Link products use Atheros parts.

I have two of these cards. I bought them in a local shop for €15 a piece. With Linux you need the MadWifi driver kit on a kernel bigger than 2.4.22. That's just about ANY Linux of the last 5 years.


TP-Link TL-WN510G Wireless LAN card

I really love this card. It works reliably. It's fast. It can be tuned and tweaked. And it was affordable.

I sometimes have my doubt aboutchinese equipment. But not in this case. TP Link are one of the finest companies I have come around in the last decade. See also http://athome.nl/fruttenboel/various/fonera.html where I explain why I kicked out the Fonera, to make place for the TP Link WA501G access point.

I got my card from http://www.komplett.nl but I'm sure there's a Komplett in your country as well. Or something similar. On Ebay, the TP Link products are very popular as well for good prices. Always buy new TP Link products. A used item will be prices at 75% of the new one so why take the risk for a few euro's?


Dell laptop : Cardreader

PCMCIA multi card reader

I don't have the reader on the right, but something similar. Mine was cheaper. Still, it's a simple memory card reader that fits a PCMCIA slot. I bought it on Ebay.

As far as I remember, my card can process

With the accompanying adaptor I can also read small form factor SD cards and such. For other cards I have the 10 in 1 card reader that is connected to Beryllium via USB.


Dell laptop : Magnetic USB hub

Aten UH-284 Magnetic USB hub

Most of my Latitudes have just one USB port. At the time these machines were developped, USB still was an acronym for "Useless Serial Bus" so why put 6 of these ports on the chassis? One useless item is more than enough.

But the times have been achanging. USB is the most renowned bus at the moment. It has made both the serial and the parallel connectors redundant. So now you may need to connect two or more USB devices to your machine.

This is where the Aten UH284 comes to the rescue. It is a slimline USB hub with magnetic feet. It comes with a short (20 cm) USB cable to connect to the PC. On the long side are three closely spaced USB connectors and there's a 4th one on the far end for a bulky USB component such as a USB stick.
Aten call this a USB hub. I call it a USB router. It's more than a hub. It accepts usb 2.0 high speed components on one end and talks to the Latitudes at USB 1.1 speed. Thta's more than what a hub does.

Bought this one at Komplett, but Aten make a well available range of products. This adapter comes in several colours.


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