I have a Dell Inspiron 1300. After doing some observation, I found out that there is no WiFi card in the machine. If I want the computer to be of use to me, its got to have Internet connection. Which leads me to my point of posting: what card do I get and how do I install it once received. There is one requirement: the card must be found on Amazon.

look up your hardware specs on google research it first. I'd go to ebay they seem less expensive than amazon but check both to be sure. you'd want to try and get a card that has all of the bands if possible.

I use the pcmcia slot when in your shoes.

For wireless N. I bought one of these. But they are as hard to find as hens teeth.

https://www.amazon.com/SMC-Networks-.../dp/B000MD96DM

This one uses a broadcom chip but I have enabled broadcom wifi chips in the past and this one is no exception to the rule.

Edit: I might be mistaken and it may come with a Atheros chip. Which means it will work out of the box in Mint Linux. Plug and Play.

Citation



https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...&condition=all


https://wiki.debian.org/rt2800pci

Describes the Belkin card below


https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5D801...ireless+pcmcia

ThinkPenguin carries PCI and USB wireless adapters guaranteed to work with Linux. I purchased one of their USB adapters once; it worked out of the box.

1 members found this post helpful.

Your PC probably has a full-height or half-height mini PCI-E slot. If the slot is about 2 inches high and about 1 inch wide, it's a full-height. The card is behind one of the panels that unscrew. I like Intel cards the best, because they always work.

However, laptop makers whitelist the usable wireless cards in the BIOS, so you have to be tricky to get any old card to work. I boot the machine into the bios setup program and hot swap the card. You must be quite careful with the coax connectors. If you don't have them lined up straight, you can break them. Then the card is wrecked.

Did you actually look to see if the card is missing? Anyway, if you use the boot to the bios setup and hot swap method, after the card is installed you quit without saving. The machine should boot up and the card should work after that.

If you attempt to install a card that is not whitelisted, in a powered-off machine, it probably will not power up! That's because system integrators must pass FCC regulations with certain wireless cards and not others. Because of antenna gain the card must be matched to the antenna system.

If users could install any card they want the FCC thinkds it would be chaos on the wireless band. Probably not, but it could be.

You want to see is you can get the latest wireless protocols, or at least wireless N.

Hi...

If you don't mind me asking, how did you ascertain this? If you would, please open a terminal and run a diagnostic script using these commands...

Then post the results (or a link to them) in your next reply. Thanks!

Regards...

roadgeek01,

If your Dell 1300 actually has no wifi card, as opposed to a non-functioning Broadcom one, then I suggest that you stop and pause for thought for a moment.

You are trying to find the password for this donated machine on your other post:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ng-4175596733/

My advice would be to think very carefully before spending a single penny on this ancient laptop.

1 members found this post helpful.

Do you mean that the "Mini PCI" card is *gone*? (&antenna connection just laying loose?)
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/...-1300x/manuals
Here's one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/231888901190 (may not be worth spending even $10 tho)
Fry's used to have USB 'dongle' ones for about $10 (free with rebate)
Let's try: lspci which might even work where you are doing # password ...!

The device cannot and will not connect to the Internet. I tried connecting a Ethernet cable from my router but this did not work. I will probably make my decision when I re-install Linux on the laptop.

Hi...

Please supply the information I requested. If you're not able to connect to the internet using an ethernet cable either, then it's quite possible something else is going on. Copy the results to a thumb drive and transfer the information to another computer (to be able to post and provide a link to the results.)

Regards...

Make sure etherent and wifi is turned on in bios.

When I installed the pcmcia card I mentioned. I turned off the internal wifi g card in my laptop using my bios settings. I wanted wireless N on that laptop and did not want to tear it all apart to do that.

Like @rokytnji stated

From what I've looked up that thing doesn't even support wifi or have anything to do with PCIe slot even.
specs25Bucks - eBay
Belkin F5D8073 N Wireless ExpressCard Adapter 802.11N Card

That is just one option. Meaning, brand you could go with for your slot.

here is another one:

Belkin N MIMO Wireless Express Notebook/Laptop Card High Speed 300Mbps F5D8073
US $6.32

I got me an ExpressCard add-on that supports 3 extra USB Ports. So again. I'd as even rokytnji stated. Put that ExpressCard Slot to good use.

Be sure to get all of your ducks in a roll before you go off shooting in the dark.

Belkin is a popular brand so Look up Linux Belkin wifi drivers for whatever Linux Distro you're going to be dealing with to be sure of compatibility first. That goes for any hardware you're going to be adding. Just for piece of mind.

(and do not forget to look in your BIOS to see what you can do with your system via the BIOS)

PS BE sure you get the right Slot size as ExpressCard comes in more than one size.

If you look at DELL's support page for your 1300 --- under Modem/Communications - you'll see that even they are using your Express card slot for wifi internet access.


Support for Inspiron 1300

Hi,

You sure your Dell 1300 does not have a wireless set? I found specs for the Dell Inspiron 1300; You might want to do a 'lspci -vv' to see what you do have or browse over to Dell.com and use the service tag to show hardware specs.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!