USB->ethernet cable and laptop with USB but not ethernet

ilkhan

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Sep 23, 2002
Messages
13,790
So I work at radioshack and this older lady came in earlier today with a question of a usb-ethernet cable. Now, knowing that they are very different standards I said that such a cable without a bulgy adaptor would be impossible. But, supposedly she had gotten one here (radioshack, not this store specifically)

Am I thinking correctly? We carry a usb network card, but nothing with just a cable.

-------

So then we went into why she needed this and she says shes got a laptop and frequenty goes to hotels (sales agent of some kind or retired, she was older) and has no way to connect. I got "why not just use the ethernet *port*" and she goes "dont have one". And I go "any laptop new enough to have a USB port should have an ethernet port" and she goes "well its about 10 years old and only has one USB port" and I go "well 10 years is marginal for USB anyway, but it should still have an ethernet port"

So am I right on that? I would expect any sort of laptop to have *some* sort of networking capability. I know anything made in the 21st century is going to have modem/ethernet, and likely 802.11x, but before?

I asked if she gets a chance to bring in the old cable (if she finds it), and/or the laptop so I can look at something that old, but Im trying to verify my knowledge. Doubts suck.
 
I had a Thinkpad T21 (I think that is what it was) that had USB and no etherent, so that is not an uncommon situation.

And any USB -> ethernet would need more than just a cable.. but she may have had one that was fairly small, as the chips can be tiny, and I suppose someone could build one into a slightly oversized RJ45 plug.

==>Lazn
 
USB started showing up on computers in 97 if I remember right. If she had bought just a cable in the past maybe she had a pccard ethernet adapter and bought a replacement dongle? Other then that yea the ethernet to usb needs more then just a cable. Yea a laptop that old would prob not have built in ethernet. The only started putting it in as a standard with like the late model pentium 3 notebooks if I remember right.
 
Back
Top