Those cables are for serial terminal communication with routers.

Ditto.

The reason routers and some old terminals have them is to simplify the cabling in network/server/comms room environments. One common standard of structured cabling and patching is easier to deal with than a mixture of different types.

I remember that in the old days when you bought a Sun server you used to get a bag of accessories with it, including one of their proprietary keyboards and a DE-9 to 8P8C (aka rj45) adapter to allow you to hook up your existing vt100/220/or cheap windows hyperterminal pc to it.

It's still just serial (usually plain old rs232), but running over cat5 twisted pairs.

A PCI ethernet card would make much more sense.

However, it is possible to connect two PCs via their serial ports using a null-modem cable, or via their parallel ports using a "Laplink" cable. Serial maxes out at 115,200 bps, and parallel is several times faster. The two PCs use PPP over the cable to establish TCP/IP communication. One such program that does this is Windows 9x Direct Cable Connection. If one of the PCs is acting as a router, this could allow the opposite side to connect to Ethernet or the Internet through it.

There were also parallel port Ethernet cards.

And there are devices today that plug into a serial port and allow you to telnet out to things over a network--possibly even wireless, or other devices that combine some of the functionality listed above into an embedded device rather than needing an entire PC on the other side.

Unfortunately, I don't have any free PCI slots. Otherwise I would have gladly gotten a network card. That's why I'm looking for an alternative.
It would have been nice to update windows:
http://windowsupdaterestored.com/

In that sitch I usually break out my parallel laplink cable and use Windows Internet Connection Sharing (9x/XP, maybe vista and 7) to share another machines LAN or Wifi connection.

Wiznet is supposed to do full ethernet to RS232 chips but they also do the halfassed ones mentioned above, so sorting out the capabilities of the adapter off vague part numbers etc is usually a PITA.

Got a spare isa slot?
Plenty of old ISA ethernet cards.
Can't go wrong with an old 3com, but a realtek will do if you have a floppy to get the drivers on.

Does anyone know where to get this device? It would solve my problem. I can not find.
USB Ethernet Adapter - F5U011
https://web.archive.org/web/20010606124328/ht … SBdownload.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20000302074734/ht … ter/F5U011.html

NarakuITA wrote on 2023-11-16, 20:53:

Does anyone know where to get this device? It would solve my problem. I can not find. USB Ethernet Adapter - F5U011 https://web. […]
Show full quote

Does anyone know where to get this device? It would solve my problem. I can not find.
USB Ethernet Adapter - F5U011
https://web.archive.org/web/20010606124328/ht … SBdownload.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20000302074734/ht … ter/F5U011.html

isnt that just a regular usb to ethernet adapter ?
And it seems like it is just usb 1 . wich limits it to max 12 MBit ...

@NarakuITA

Is this the system you have?

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ibm-pc … 71,-pc-350-6581

Duffman wrote on 2023-11-17, 00:36:

@NarakuITA

Is this the system you have?

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ibm-pc … 71,-pc-350-6581

@Duffman

No
This:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ibm-pc … type-6577,-6587

@NarakuITA

I see you've got a riser slot at SL1, so you could potentially get some PCI/ISA risers, but no information on the riser cards it accepts in the manual.

Might need to look into that.

Duffman wrote on 2023-11-24, 02:22:

@NarakuITA

I see you've got a riser slot at SL1, so you could potentially get some PCI/ISA risers, but no information on the riser cards it accepts in the manual.

Might need to look into that.

That'll be this puppy -> http://ps-2.kev009.com/pcpartnerinfo/ctstips/6172.htm

edit: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/144044585078?hash=ite … FUAAOSwlO9gpTit

I managed to find a working USB Ethernet Adapter F5U011.
Now my windows 95 is able to connect to the internet.
The only problem is that there is no way, and I have tried everything, to make it connect to the internet manually and not automatically. Currently, if I don't unplug the cable, the PC is always connected.
Then the famous icon does not appear, near the clock, which warns that you are connected to the internet.

Question, is there a browser that can allow me to surf, decently compatible with Windows 95?
Firewall and Antivirus?
A working mail manager? Outlook 2000 doesn't work.
(yes I know it is not good to surf the internet with windows 95)

Perhaps if you install a firewall it will give you a way to turn off the network by preventing any data from passing in or out, at least to the extent that the firewall isn't itself buggy and may have some way to get around it.

I have ZoneAlarm 2.6.362 installed, but when I tried locking it using the "Lock" or "Stop" buttons and then restarting, after a restart it came back up unlocked, so that won't help you. Perhaps if you find some other firewall it might have a way to start in some kind of locked state.

Another option might be to set up a router which doesn't allow traffic through without authentication, although that might be reasonably difficult. One option for that might be to configure 802.1x on the router and then install a corresponding client on the Windows 95 machine; I've never tried anything like this before so I'm not entirely sure that it would work, but https://www.serverbrain.org/implementing-2003 … enting-x-1.html says that Microsoft had a 802.1x client for Windows 95. Another option would be to set up the router so that it doesn't route from the port the Windows 95 machine is connected to to the Internet, but allows the Windows 95 machine to establish a VPN connection and allows routing between the VPN connection and the Internet.

OK, thanks a lot. I'll see what I can do.
EDIT:
ZoneAlarm works very well, there is the option that can block the entire internet automatically. Just set the minute you want the function to activate.