[arachne] Re: USB on an old computer

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!

On Tue, 2008-07-29 at 21:20 -0400, ewalt@xxxxxxxx wrote: 
> Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!
> 
> Yes, it is possible to add a USB port on a card to some old computers.
> 
> Also, some middle period motherboards had "tag offs" that could accept
> a USB port.
> 
> You need to cultivate a good local custom computer maker and repair shop.
> 
> My local guy was going to add a USB port to my computer--but we wound up
> swapping out the motherboard for a newer one that already had one.
> 
> But, it is possible depending on what you have available in terms of
> slots.
> 
> Sam Ewalt
> 
> 
> Greg Mayman said:
> > Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!
> >
> > A friend asked me the other day: Is there a hardware device that would
> > connect to (say) the serial port of an old computer, and to a USB device
> > on the other side?
> >
> > It sounds feasible to me, but I've never heard of one.
> >
> > And it is unlikely that anyone would be making them commercially.
> >
> >     Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
> >     and remember what peace there may be in silence.
> >         "Desiderata", Max Ehrmann, copyright 1952.
> >
> >    ,-./\
> >   /     \ From Greg Mayman, in beautiful Adelaide, South Australia
> >   \_,-*_/   "Queen City of The South"  35d 01'44"S  138d 32'13"E
> >        v
> >
> >                   Arachne at FreeLists
> > -- Arachne, The Premier GPL Web Browser/Suite for DOS --
> >
> >
> 
>                   Arachne at FreeLists                  
> -- Arachne, The Premier GPL Web Browser/Suite for DOS --

Greg was asking about some kind of serial to usb converter, or 
vise-versa.

I have heard of such devices and I have even seen some recently for
sale, brand new, in some computer repair and supply shops.  In 
asking about how well they work the usual answer I get is that they 
work OK for some purposes and for some computers, but all of them 
work at very slow speeds if they work at all.  According to what 
they tell me, some of them work for "one way" communications between
devices and some of them work for "two way" communications.

I installed a three port USB card in a Dell Pentium desktop 200 Mhz
computer which originally came with Window$ 95 installed and with
48 MB of ram, and with no usb ports.  Before installing the USB card 
I upgraded the memory to 132 MB and I upgraded the operating system 
to Window$ 98 SE.  Although the BIOS apparently has no support for 
USB, the Window$ 98 SE OS does support usb.  Installation of the USB
card and the drivers that came supplied with it went very smoothly.
Works fine!

Sam Heywood      

                  Arachne at FreeLists                  
-- Arachne, The Premier GPL Web Browser/Suite for DOS --

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