I'm looking for a very cheap wireless card for a laptop

[javeryh]

Any recommendations?  I have a bunch of T23 IBM Thinkpads that I want to make wireless.  The IT people at work were throwing away computers so I carried 5 laptops from Manhattan to my house.  They filled TWO construction dumpsters and had some left over so I took what I could carry.  What a waste - all perfectly working desktops and laptops plus a few hundred 15" LCDs.  Unreal.

[Epyx]

MAN...that is friggin unbelievable and sad   Glad you got some salvage at least though!

Couldn't they donate it to schools or recycle depots for charity? That is what I do with our company's old computers.   Im seeing dozens of bartop possibilities with all those 15" screen hehe.

As for the wireless you can go cardbus or USB. Price wise they are about the same (under $40).

I would go for the USB option as you could put it in any computer (arcade cab etc) at home for wireless internet and wouldn't be just limited to the laptop.

[javeryh]

$40!  Man, I was hoping to spend like $10 since these are just some extra internet computers for around the house!  LOL.

From what I understood it actually cost my company more to donate the computers instead of just trashing them.  They would have had to pay guys to wipe the computers due to the highly confidential nature of our work.  Cheap ---daisies---.

[romshark]

Wait - so instead of wiping the drives, they throw the computers away? With the sensitive data still intact / recoverable?
Yeah, real secure.

Stuff in the corporate world always seem to remind me of Dilbert in one way or another.

EDIT - found a USB wifi dongle at Walmart.com for $20.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5142102

Not sure of the quality, though. And it's online store only.

[SavannahLion]

Wait - so instead of wiping the drives, they throw the computers away? With the sensitive data still intact / recoverable?
Yeah, real secure.

Stuff in the corporate world always seem to remind me of Dilbert in one way or another.

Depends on who gets the dumpster afterwards. We have recyclers here in the city that will give you a certificate of guaranteed destruction, including your hard drives. So it's still cheaper than wiping the data and donating them. Afterall, the OP never specifically said these computers were on their way to the dump just that they were getting trashed.

I've encountered all sorts of ---That which is odiferous and causeth plants to grow--- like this. Home Depot would rather destroy a $5,000+ riding lawnmower because it's missing a simple service panel than order a new one from the manufacture or sell it at a reduced price. The logic? They were required by contract from the manufacturer to do so.

At Hewlett Packard, they crushed hundreds (thousands?) of "obsolete" industrial grade printers because a new model was developed. Absolutely nothing was wrong. There was still software support and ink being made for them, they just couldn't be sold. Rather than remove the serial numbers and donate them to needy local schools, they destroyed them. Their logic? HP didn't want to give free support to someone who didn't pay for them.

At Radio Shack, I was always forced to dump electronics at every inventory. Sometimes it would be too old to sell. Other times they would be missing parts. Some are unclaimed by customers (when rat shack used to offer a repair service). Some were non-functional (fuse type repair). The logic was that Rat Shack wasn't in the "used" electronics business like Hfe.

[Epyx]

Depends on who gets the dumpster afterwards. We have recyclers here in the city that will give you a certificate of guaranteed destruction, including your hard drives.

Yep, same here where we are, and those are the ones I use.

40!  Man, I was hoping to spend like $10 since these are just some extra internet computers for around the house!  LOL.

Here is one for $10

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1272635&CatId=2698

[severdhed]

i just did a quick googling of that model number, shows up as a Pentium III class computer.  I'd be hesitant to use a USB wireless adapter, becasue that unit probably does not have usb 2.0.  i have had problems with usb 1.1 and usb wireless adapters.  I could be wrong, but i dont think you can get anything above wireless B working without USB 2.0.

[Ken Layton]

This card by LinkSys is frequently on sale at MCM Electronics for around $10 to $12:

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/CISCO-SYSTEMS-WPC54GR-/58-12640

[javeryh]

i just did a quick googling of that model number, shows up as a Pentium III class computer.  I'd be hesitant to use a USB wireless adapter, becasue that unit probably does not have usb 2.0.  i have had problems with usb 1.1 and usb wireless adapters.  I could be wrong, but i dont think you can get anything above wireless B working without USB 2.0.

It is a Pentium III computer... how do I tell if it is USB 2.0?  If not I guess I should go with the card, right?

This card by LinkSys is frequently on sale at MCM Electronics for around $10 to $12:

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/CISCO-SYSTEMS-WPC54GR-/58-12640

Thanks!  This is what I had in mind - I'll have to keep an eye for for a price drop.