Making an OLD laptop Wi-Fi capable???

My galfriend has a Toshiba Tecra 8000 Model #PAT80AU laptop.
As near as I can figure, it is of pre-1999 manufacture, maybe aproaching '95.
It has:
400 Mhz PII
256 MB RAM
10GB HDD
USB Port
PC Card Slot [fax modem]
Expansion Port for a Docking Station / Port Replicator
Win 2KPro - It probably came with Win98. I'll be upgrading it to WinXP.

The specs state:
"High performance PCI system bus supports external PCI docking capability"

She would like to be able to take it to work and connect to a public wi-fi access hub located in the area.

As near as I can figure, this can only be done by adding a "Toshiba Desk Station V Plus" docking station to get an externally accessable internal PCI slot.

Question:
Can it be made WiFi capable?
What are the options?

Thx for any advice on this.

 

Hi solo_voyager,
You should be able to get a notebook adapter card to fit into one of the expansion slots on the left side.
I did the same thing this summer with a Sony Vaio PCG-F340 from around 98 or 99 using a Linksys WPC54G ver.3 (This is a Type II card)
I did load XP Pro also. I'm sure there are other options but this worked fine for me.
Here's some info on your computer.

EXPANSION SLOTS LOCATION
Two Stacked PC Card Slot Yes: Left side (CardBus) -- Slot supports two Type II or one Type III PC Card.

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/...BV_EngineID=cccjaddlliekmghcgfkceghdgngdgnj.0

 

Thx LBMEST.
We'll look into a wifi PC card for it. I didn't realize it would accept 2 cards.

She has a fax modem card that, when installed, does leave room for a second card.

After looking at the "similar threads" below, I think I'll stay with Win2k. It hinted at that WinXP may be too resource hungry for this little old processor. I've just updated it from SP2 to SP4.

A new battery and a wifi card and she's set to go.

Thx again

PS
This old laptop had a bunch of small low-profile apps on it that I went through and removed. Many of them were not listed in "Add/Remove". I assume most of them were obsolete. I had never heard of them. That type of app may be a good idea for this old clunker.

QUESTION: Can anyone suggest a good place to find old obsolete or abandoned apps that are now public domain?

 

You will probably get better performance with W2K. Just now with Task Manager and Firefox and avast running the CPU usage stayed in the 35 to 40% range until avast finished dl it's update. It's about 5 to 7% with just the 2 apps now.
You should post in Sotware or look through MGs homepage for the specific apps you want. There are tons of lite resource apps, just depends on what you want to do.
Good Luck.