Windows NT and USB on an Old Dell Laptop

R

regough

Need some ideas. . .

Here's the situation

I have an Old Dell Laptop that I would like to setup strictly for Email and some limited web surfing using ADSL.

My problem is that apparently NT does not support USB ports which is how I connect to ADSL with my newer laptop(which runs XP.)

Before you suggest replacing the NT software with XP, I'm not sure the old laptop has the horses to run XP. Of course, I could upgrade the old laptop but it doesn't take very long in this day and age where that cost/benefit equation doesn't work and its better to just get a stripped down new laptop.

Are there any add-on's or extensions to NT that will get it to work with ADSL?

Just wondering, Bob.
 
Does the ADSL modem have a network/ethernet port? If so, use that to connect to the ADSL modem.

Alternatively, you can purchase a hub/router and connect the ADSL modem to it. Then, you can simply connect an ethernet card from the laptop to the hub/router. You'll need some network expertise to get this configuration going though.

-eLindy
 
Quote from TGregg:

So I assume that your old laptop has a USB port? Perhaps the manufacturer has a USB NT Driver. . .
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You are correct - it does have a USB socket and I could not locate an NT driver for USB @ Dell (at least, not yet, anyhow)
 
Quote from regough:

Need some ideas. . .

Here's the situation

I have an Old Dell Laptop that I would like to setup strictly for Email and some limited web surfing using ADSL.

My problem is that apparently NT does not support USB ports which is how I connect to ADSL with my newer laptop(which runs XP.)

Before you suggest replacing the NT software with XP, I'm not sure the old laptop has the horses to run XP. Of course, I could upgrade the old laptop but it doesn't take very long in this day and age where that cost/benefit equation doesn't work and its better to just get a stripped down new laptop.

Are there any add-on's or extensions to NT that will get it to work with ADSL?

Just wondering, Bob.
More...


For email and web surfing using a browser you can upgrade to windows 2000 and probably be ok: I have successfully run the workstation version on old machines with only 32 megabytes of ram on an old p200 processor and with at least 150 megabytes of paging file space. This congifuration takes forever to boot with 32 megs but once its up and running and you have the browser launched it will probably be ok for email and surfing. If your machine has 48 megabytes much better, and with 64 things should be good enough for these uses .....
 
There are a couple places that sell USB drivers for Windows NT - don't know if they're compatible with what you want to hook up, but run a Google on "USB Windows NT" and check them out.

But it's like all other software - if you continue to use a version that's two complete product cycles old, consider yourself lucky if any of the latest stuff is supported.
 
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