Enthernet to phone port? HELP!

[RPC]

:'(I am going to try and make this as short as possible.

My boss is wanting me to hook up this old IBM computer with windows 95 to print something on a certain printer from the internet.

I got it all hooked up, turned on, and working except I ran into the Ethernet cable and it is to big for the port in the back of this ancient thing. so my question is this.

Can I use this http://www.ebay.com/itm/RJ45-Plug-t...S_Phone_Cords_Jacks_Plugs&hash=item3a8c8c76ed

To connect the Ethernet cable into the phone port in the back of this computer, and will it give me internet on the computer?

 

[cubby1223]

looking for the wrong product.

try:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3Ccom-3C905...US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item258a6cd803

 

[artemicion]

No, AFAIK, you can't convert an Ethernet RJ45 line to a Telephone RJ11 line because RJ11 has fewer pinouts. The converter you linked is used to convert the other way, RJ11 signal through RJ45 cable (i.e., so you can run a telephone signal through an ethernet cable).

Also, if this ancient computer has an RJ11 jack, it's probably a phone modem, not an ethernet adapter. If this computer has a USB port, you might be able to find a USB ethernet adapter that'll work with it. Otherwise, your only option is to connect a printer directly to the computer.

 

[Harvey]

There is no description of what device at your link is supposed to do, and the conditions of sale don't include any guarantee that it does anything.

I'm not sure about the networking capabilities of a Win 95 machine, and a Windows 95 machine may be so old that it doesn't have a PCI slot. If so, a plug-in PCI to USB adapater is out.

Three suggestions:

1. E-mail the file to an address in your office, and download it to another machine capable of printing it.

2. Copy the file to a floppy disk, and transfer it to another machine in the office with a floppy drive that can access the office printer. If no machine in the office has a floppy drive and printer access, buy and install an internal floppy drive or an external floppy drive with a USB output, and use it to read the disk with the file.

3. If the hard drive in the Win 95 machine is PATA, remove the drive, and temporarily connect it as a slave to a newer machine that can copy and print the document.

Finally, suggest to your boss that the Win 95 machine may have some value as a museum piece. If not, recycle it responsibly. Best Buy accepts old electronics for recycling at no charge.

Good luck.

 

[jimpz]

Artemicion is probably correct, also bas=ck in the win 95 days, there were cards that took an Ethernet in to the computer & would give you a phone connection out. Before hi speed in offices you could run rone & Ethernet over the same 4 pr wire.

Also lans/networks (especially for home) were not in much use (dial up only, which is why an old machine would only have a modem.
Harvey's final suggestion is very good.

 

[RPC]

ok let me ask this ... do the make a printer this day in age that takes perforated paper. that is all I need. I need things from the web onto perforated paper. If I can finder a newer up to date printer that can do perforated paper that I can hook to the new windows7 computer I am golden.???

 

[Harvey]

If you already have a printer that can use continuous feed perforated paper, it probably connects to a large printer port (Centronix) connector on the old computer. If so, you can connect it to a newer machine through a PCI adapter card like this:

Here's a list of such cards on Newegg. If you need one faster, or if you just want to buy from local vendor, you may find one in stock at Best Buy, Staples, Office Depot, Fry's Electronics, etc.

Depending on the printer, the driver may already exist in newer versions of Windows, such as XP, Win 7, etc. If not, you may have to find a driver for it, as well. You can search Google for the make and model, the word, "driver," and the version of Windows you'll be using.

 

[Ketchup]

ok let me ask this ... do the make a printer this day in age that takes perforated paper. that is all I need. I need things from the web onto perforated paper. If I can finder a newer up to date printer that can do perforated paper that I can hook to the new windows7 computer I am golden.???

To answer this question, yes, you can. Unfortunately, demand has kept the price way above what they probably should be. Here is one, and it does have a usb port.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16828107161

If you already have the printer, Harvey's suggestion would work. If you want to use it on the new computer, something like this may work as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812156005

 

[RPC]

To answer this question, yes, you can. Unfortunately, demand has kept the price way above what they probably should be. Here is one, and it does have a usb port.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16828107161




And this printer is for perforated paper and has a USB correct... He just wants to buy a new printer and that money wasn't a concern do to the fact of needing the perforated paper, he just wanted to buy a new printer

 

[RPC]

and can I use that printer for windows7?

 

[Ketchup]

According to OKI, yes.

http://my.okidata.com/pp-ML186.nsf?opendatabase

Summary: This printer driver is resident to Windows 7 operating system which implies the driver is included in Windows 7.

To install the driver,
connect the printer to your Windows 7 computer
Windows 7 will automatically detected and install the appropriate driver

 

[Harvey]

Your boss should question whether a perf fed printout is really required, or if he'd be better served, both physically and financially, by migrating from the program currently using it to a newer program that would allow formatting the material to fit the spacing of a single sheet printout.

If he needs the original Win 95 program, and there is no suitable, newer program, you MAY be able to run it under 32 bit versions of XP or Win 7. It is far less likely that it will run under a 64 bit version.

 

[Virgorising]

2. Copy the file to a floppy disk, and transfer it to another machine in the office with a floppy drive that can access the office printer. If no machine in the office has a floppy drive and printer access, buy and install an internal floppy drive or an external floppy drive with a USB output, and use it to read the disk with the file.

I was about to post similarly when I saw this. While I have no real sense of this old computer, or how big this file would be, even very old ones mostly had optical drives along with floppy drives. But I also thought ethernet preceded USB in PC development. But if the old optical drive is CD ROM chances are it may not read burned CDs.

I am also curious re this printer. What is so special about this printer and why can't it be hooked up to a newer system?

 

[Steltek]

Your boss should question whether a perf fed printout is really required, or if he'd be better served, both physically and financially, by migrating from the program currently using it to a newer program that would allow formatting the material to fit the spacing of a single sheet printout.

If he needs the original Win 95 program, and there is no suitable, newer program, you MAY be able to run it under 32 bit versions of XP or Win 7. It is far less likely that it will run under a 64 bit version.

Either that, or install a Windows 95 virtual machine in VMware Player or Virtualbox and then run the software from there. That is, assuming that he still has the installation media for the software.

Too bad it isn't Win98 -- if it was, you could install a PDF printer utility to allow printing the file to PDF, then transfer the resulting PDF file to another computer to print via Acrobat Reader. I don't recall any PDF printer utilities that ran under Win95 off the top of my head.

 

[Ketchup]

Either that, or install a Windows 95 virtual machine in VMware Player or Virtualbox and then run the software from there. That is, assuming that he still has the installation media for the software.

This is what I was thinking as well. Suggest he think longer-term on a solution for this.

 

[Virgorising]

Can you give us the model number of this old IBM PC?

 

[Steltek]

This is what I was thinking as well. Suggest he think longer-term on a solution for this.

I've not tried it before, but it ought to be possible to virtualize the existing Win95 installation using something like VMware Converter. The only challenge might be getting the virtualized image off the old machine to the virtual machine. If the Win95 installed on the machine was one of the OEM versions that had USB support, it might not be that bad. Otherwise, he'd need a PATA to SATA adapter of some sort to copy the virtualized image over to a new system.

But, in any event, it ought to be doable.

 

[Harvey]

Otherwise, he'd need a PATA to SATA adapter of some sort to copy the virtualized image over to a new system.

That would be any current motherboard with both SATA and PATA connections. Just connect the old drive to the new board as a slave.

The only problem would be that a Win 95 machine could be old enough to predate PATA and require an older drive protocol.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The only problem would be that a Win 95 machine could be old enough to predate PATA and require an older drive protocol.

Unlikely. Unless it's running a SCSI card for the HDD.

 

[code65536]

No, AFAIK, you can't convert an Ethernet RJ45 line to a Telephone RJ11 line because RJ11 has fewer pinouts.

Technically not true. RJ11 can have either 2 or 4 wires. RJ45 has 8, but only 4 are used for 10/100, making it possible to jury-rig a run over a RJ11 cable (I tried this once for the sheer fun of it, though I don't recommend it for any real deployments) or two distinct 10/100 links over a single Cat5 cable. GbE uses all 8.