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High Speed Internet on XP


justacruzr2

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I'm thinking about (finally) getting high speed internet.  I know I will need a wi-fi router and a usb wi-fi stick.  I will also need XP compatible software for both.

Here's my questions:

1) Is that all I will need?

2) Since I have a multiboot computer with 98 and Millenium on the other 2 drives is it realistic to be able to find software compatible for them too or will I have to disconnect the wi-fi stick every time I boot into them?

If you're wondering why this late in the game it's because I finally paid off my mortgage and now have a lot more available cash.

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The wi-fi USB adapters I have which work with XP are the NETGEAR AC1200 USB 3.0 WiFi Adapter (A6210), the ASUS Dual-band Wireless-AC1300 USB 3.0 Wi-Fi Adapter, and (most recently) a Panda Ultra WiFi (b/g/n) 150Mbps Wireless-N 2.4GHz USB Adapter which I bought because it's one of the few wireless adapters that also works with OpenBSD right out of the box, something I needed for an OpenBSD machine I'd been trying to set up.

The ASUS adapter connects to the 5ghz band on my router just fine, and I believe the Netgear one would as well if I were using that at the moment but I've got it plugged into a different machine right now. The Panda one, though, is strictly for the 2.5ghz band. Be wary of that, since most wireless devices use that band, if you live in a suburb or urban area you're likely going to deal with network congestion on the 2.5ghz band.

Also, I can't quite remember at the moment but I think in order to get the ASUS adapter working on my machine, I had to install Realtek's chipset drivers rather than ASUS' own. You'll want to locate the Realtek RTL8812AU Chipset drivers for it, if you go for that.

I don't have a Windows 98 or Me machine with me at the moment, so I can't say whether or not these adapters would work for you on those OSes. However, you do have a third option if you can't do ethernet or wifi: powerline adapters. If you can't run an ethernet cable directly to the router, you can plug a pair of these into the wall sockets (one near your computer, one near the router) and then run ethernet cables to them instead. They'll transmit networking signals through the power lines in your house.

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On 12/18/2021 at 3:21 AM, TrevMUN said:

The wi-fi USB adapters I have which work with XP are the NETGEAR AC1200 USB 3.0 WiFi Adapter (A6210), the ASUS Dual-band Wireless-AC1300 USB 3.0 Wi-Fi Adapter, and (most recently) a Panda Ultra WiFi (b/g/n) 150Mbps Wireless-N 2.4GHz USB Adapter which I bought because it's one of the few wireless adapters that also works with OpenBSD right out of the box, something I needed for an OpenBSD machine I'd been trying to set up.

The ASUS adapter connects to the 5ghz band on my router just fine, and I believe the Netgear one would as well if I were using that at the moment but I've got it plugged into a different machine right now. The Panda one, though, is strictly for the 2.5ghz band. Be wary of that, since most wireless devices use that band, if you live in a suburb or urban area you're likely going to deal with network congestion on the 2.5ghz band.

Also, I can't quite remember at the moment but I think in order to get the ASUS adapter working on my machine, I had to install Realtek's chipset drivers rather than ASUS' own. You'll want to locate the Realtek RTL8812AU Chipset drivers for it, if you go for that.

I don't have a Windows 98 or Me machine with me at the moment, so I can't say whether or not these adapters would work for you on those OSes. However, you do have a third option if you can't do ethernet or wifi: powerline adapters. If you can't run an ethernet cable directly to the router, you can plug a pair of these into the wall sockets (one near your computer, one near the router) and then run ethernet cables to them instead. They'll transmit networking signals through the power lines in your house.

Thanks for the advice.  As for the 98SE/ME drives I probably will have to unplug it before I boot over.  It's what I'm doing now with a Maxtor external usb drive.  It's a pain in the butt since many times I forget and the 9x series OS's never handled unknown devices very well and just lock up at boot.

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On 12/18/2021 at 1:16 AM, justacruzr2 said:

Don't have an extra PCI slot.  Also most of the Ethernet cards  I've seen are PCIe.  No PCIe slot in my computer.

here is USB dongle I can confirm to work on XP https://www.tp-link.com/en/home-networking/usb-hub-and-converter/ue300/.

It is realtek based and cheapest gigabit USB dongle in market where I live

Also you could look around for PCI nic from something like Craigslist or whatever. I was able get few of them for free.

Edited by Mr.Scienceman2000
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