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Wifi card for mother MSI

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First post, by CapitanOdessa

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Hello there! I want to see if I can get wifi working on my Windows 98 setup, so I can stop having headaches and burning CD's for drivers in this new old machine I bought. Since I can't take pictures, because I'd have to disarm the whole thing which was pretty hard to put into its case, I'll leave this illustrative image below:

auisQQK.png
NQR2BVZ.jpg
(This one is the mother I bought)

Ah, beautiful... Isn't it? Well, it looks pretty to me, but I'm not really sure what's good or not. The motherboard is an MSI-6163 with 2 ISA slots, one AGP and the rest PCI slots. It says 1996 in white characters below the model. I found this wifi card, which has drivers for Windows 98 apparently...

iHReeny.png

But I don't want to run into an scam. It is a Linksys model WMP54G. It obviously an used card, that's the best I can get. Should I buy it?

Also, what's the best card I could get with this AGP slot? I'm not sure whether it's 2x or 1x. Thanks in advance!

Reply 1 of 4, by dionb

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Do you have any more requirements than "it says WiFi on the sticker"?

That card is an 802.11g card, which can handle max 54Mbps link rates, which translates to about max 24Mbps real throughput with perfectly clean environment (it isn't) and good line-of sight (which you won't have connected to the back of a PC). Bigger issue could be lack of WPA2 support; if you want to keep your WiFi secure, you want at least WPA2. I'm not aware of Win98 WPA2 supporting chipsets/drivers.

Better approach IMHO for legacy systems is to use a Wireless (Client) Bridge, i.e. a router or access point working in reverse, connecting to the (modern) WiFi network with the bridge, and hooking up the old stuff to that via Ethernet. Most decently configurable routers and APs can work as bridge, so just take a relatively old WiFi-n device you probably have knocking around anyway.

Reply 2 of 4, by CapitanOdessa

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dionb wrote:

Do you have any more requirements than "it says WiFi on the sticker"?

That card is an 802.11g card, which can handle max 54Mbps link rates, which translates to about max 24Mbps real throughput with perfectly clean environment (it isn't) and good line-of sight (which you won't have connected to the back of a PC). Bigger issue could be lack of WPA2 support; if you want to keep your WiFi secure, you want at least WPA2. I'm not aware of Win98 WPA2 supporting chipsets/drivers.

Better approach IMHO for legacy systems is to use a Wireless (Client) Bridge, i.e. a router or access point working in reverse, connecting to the (modern) WiFi network with the bridge, and hooking up the old stuff to that via Ethernet. Most decently configurable routers and APs can work as bridge, so just take a relatively old WiFi-n device you probably have knocking around anyway.

Oh, that's a way better solution! Thanks!

Reply 3 of 4, by dr_st

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dionb wrote:

Bigger issue could be lack of WPA2 support; if you want to keep your WiFi secure, you want at least WPA2. I'm not aware of Win98 WPA2 supporting chipsets/drivers.

Ralink RT61

https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/ - Random content on hardware, software, games and toys

Reply 4 of 4, by dionb

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dr_st wrote:
dionb wrote:

Bigger issue could be lack of WPA2 support; if you want to keep your WiFi secure, you want at least WPA2. I'm not aware of Win98 WPA2 supporting chipsets/drivers.

Ralink RT61

Tnx, good link. Always liked those RaLinks, now have another reason to 😀

Edit:
Just did a scan on some well-known auction sites. The recommended PCI card with this chipset, Edimax EW-7128g, is pretty widely available. The mPCI card less so, but searching for RT2561 shows up lots of cheap hits. I ordered one even though I don't currently have a laptop with mPCI 😵 - however I do one day want to get a Compaq Armada E500 (for the third time...) as a nice portable retro Win98SE machine, and this card would be very useful when I do.

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