Connecting Vodafone 3G card to USB

Has anyone got any ideas as to how I could connect a Vodafone 3G card
to a regular desktop computer running XP Pro which has a surfeit of USB
sockets but no PCMCIA adaptor?

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This is an answer from Austria, so I don't know if this works for UK. We
have either Option or Merlin devices here, both are 3.3V with PCMCIA Type
II.

1. PCMCIA-to-USB adaptors which look like a box (size of a small USB
harddisk) to be placed outside the PC
2. PCI slots with integrated PCMCIA slots located at the back of the PC
3. special slots that fit into a 3.5" drive slot offering frontside PCMCIA
slot (connected either via PCI or USB)

With the Mobile Connect Cards the PCMCIA slot should offer 32 bit. There are
some cheap adaptors which only can handle 16 bit and usually don't work in
this case. Also make sure that the adaptor is compatible with your OS (most
require Win XP or need some extra driver otherwise).

I have experienced this: the internal adapter (2.) was the most stable
solution until now. However it takes away some of the reception qualitiy
since it is very close to the PC's metal case. You maybe want to try this
solution if you have sufficient field strength (at least 40% - maybe you can
borrow a notebook to test this first). Most USB adaptors (1.) work fine but
some of them have a nasty configuration process. Until now I wasn't able to
find a proper working drive slot, mostly software issues ending in a BSOD.
With all 3 variants sometimes there are conflicts with the system's internal
ports so you possibly need to reassign COM-ports manually to any free
COM-number - watch Device Manager for yellow exlamation marks.

My favourite PCI thingy is an EDNET 98539 which is about 35 Euros - this
would be 24 GBP currently. EDNET is a low-price company, actually, but the
98539 does a good job IMO - it supports Types I, II and III and both 3.3V
and 5V as well.
If anybody else has a well-working solution please let me know as I'm always
interested in a product update

rgds
tom



"Jeremy Pope" <[email protected]> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:[email protected]...
> Has anyone got any ideas as to how I could connect a Vodafone 3G card
> to a regular desktop computer running XP Pro which has a surfeit of USB
> sockets but no PCMCIA adaptor?
>

Jeremy Pope wrote:
> Has anyone got any ideas as to how I could connect a Vodafone 3G card
> to a regular desktop computer running XP Pro which has a surfeit of USB
> sockets but no PCMCIA adaptor?

I have used a PCI card - which provides a pc-card socket. Maplin sold
it to me - they have it in the wireless section of their catalogue.

It worked a treat after modifying the 3G card slightly* - the Mobile
Connect software installed and the card was detected as if in a laptop
pc-card slot. DUN connections worked fine.

* - the Vodafone 3G card (both types I use) will not slide into this
card correctly without shaving a small piece of plastic on the 3G card.
Nothing too drastic but the PCI card seems to be slightly adrift on
the pc-card's physical specification.