Wireless router

[CURIOSITY]

I am thinkig of upgrading my win98 computer to XP. At the same time
to install a wireless router in order to use a Dell lap top- win Vista; which has wireless on/off switch/faciities, (from another room.)

The win 98 computer came with a built in modem but now connected to Tiscali ISP , hence the modem is now obsolete.Tiscali has provided me with a router now

Reading various articles in the web pages, it seems necessary to install a Network Interface Card (NIC)inside the win 98 computer for the router to work

Please advice if I should remove the obsolete modem in win 98 computer and install the NIC.
Which model of NIC should I go for and other steps I should consider. I am grateful for your invaluable advice. Thanks

 

[Igorian]

What's the spec. of the 98 machine?

 

[Estrella]

XP will almost definitely run like a dog , that's if it runs at all , hence Igorians question.

Any Win 98 compatible NIC is fine , assuming of course you have a free PCI slot. Personally always preferred the ones with an Intel chipset.

The modem can be binned.

 

[CURIOSITY]

Many thanks Igorian and BoxCleva,
The specs. for my win98 computer is
Processor type Pentium III
Pro.speed 700MHz
System memory 640Mb
Crive 60Gb
Drive 160Gb
Graphic card 32Mb Nvidia
Sound card Creative Lab

 

[Estrella]

XP isnt going to run very well on that set up. OK for a bit of web surfing / email etc , but I wouldn't expect it to do much else.

 

[CURIOSITY]

Thanks BoxClave
Sorry to hear my computer would not do much except
emails and browsing the internet.
What upgrading will bring it up to scratch?

 

[Estrella]

What upgrading will bring it up to scratch?

Effectively you are looking at pretty much a new system really. However you can re use the case and the hard drives and optical drives. But really you want a new CPU , Mobo , RAM and PSU and graphics card unless you use an onboard one.

 

[TonyWarrington]

I agree that XP wont be that great on this system - but it might run better than you think.

I believe that the minimum specs (which you should always aim to exceed by a good margin ) for XP are:
Intel Pentium/Celeron family, AMD K6/Athlon/Duron 300 megahertz (MHz) or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233-MHz minimum required;
128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended
1.5 Gigabyte (GB) of available hard disk space
Super VGA (800 × 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor.

There are a few tweaks you can apply to XP to help performance e.g. change settings in System Properties for Performance.

What applications are you intending to run on your new system?

 

[Estrella]

Trust me the spec you have just aint gonna cut it!

Forget the minimum specs they have almost no relevance. They do not take into account some must have applications , i.e. AV / Firewall to name but two. And both use their fair share of your system resources.

 

[TonyWarrington]

Trust me the spec you have just aint gonna cut it!

Have to disagree on this - although it does depend on what is meant by "aint gonna cut it".

I recently retired a PC of a lower spec than the one mentioned here:
Pentium III 700MHz, 384MB RAM, 2 x 40GB HDD (Windows XP and 2000) 32MB Nvidia Geforce.

Running AVG 8, Zone Alarm Pro. No problems with Office suite, Photoshop, Autocad. Games such as Combat flight sim, Quake etc. - unless you tried to run concurrently .

It really does depend on what the OP wants to run and if there is a need to run certain applications concurrently. It certainly would not cut it for high end graphics apps or recent games, but as it is an old system using Windows 98 I suspect that the OP does not have particularly high expectations

 

[Estrella]

Running AVG 8, Zone Alarm Pro. No problems with Office suite, Photoshop, Autocad

I would rather french kiss Gordon Brown than try and run Autocad on that setup, or Photoshop for that matter.

I guess we just have different standards

 

[TonyWarrington]

I guess we just have different standards

Suprisingly Autocad(11 or 12 I think) with AEC performed quite well.
Photoshop CS little slow to load and struggled with large files and not happy with multiple images.

French kiss Gordon Brown - you are correct we do have different standards

 

[Softus]

Please advice if I should remove the obsolete modem in win 98 computer and install the NIC.

No.

Instead of battling with this old machine, you should buy something like a minimum spec Dell Vostro for around £200, which will have a NIC and XP pre-installed (avoid Vista like the pox-ridden vermin scuttling out of your toilet pan that it truly is).

Your alternative is to spend nearly half of that on an XP license and a NIC, and still end up with something that will make your children disown you.

 

[Estrella]

nstead of battling with this old machine, you should buy something like a minimum spec Dell Vostro for around £200, which will have a NIC and XP pre-installed (avoid Vista like the pox-ridden vermin scuttling out of your toilet pan that it truly is).

Your alternative is to spend nearly half of that on an XP license and a NIC, and still end up with something that will make your children disown you.

Yup, I'm in agreement. Take it outside and put it out of its misery

 

[CURIOSITY]

Thanks BoxCleva, Softus and TonyWarrington,
I have been scratching my head and on balance I have decided to install the XP and went ahead with some help locally. The reasons are,
I had bought this software about two yeas ago and it was lying around as I was happy with my win98 as I only did some letter writing, internet browsing and a few DVD burning now and then. In the past I had used Autocad but not extensively, related to some music script writing.
The crunch came only when I wanted to use the Router which was compatible only with win XP, as my daughter had bought a computer and she needed to go online for some educational needs.
So far I came across with an annoying problem with the printer. I have to start the 'Printing spool' everytime I off the comp. and restart, together with installing the McAfee anti virus software.
Please advise me on the best way to over come these problems.
Thanks everyone for their invaluable comments.