PCMCIA Cards Hiding in Linksys Routers 

As some eagle-eyed viewers have pointed out, I didn't notice during filming that Windows connected to the internal adapter at the end there, and didn't realize it until after uploading. The wireless-g card does indeed work if you disable the built-in adapter, and the link light blinks as well!

Anyone remember PCMCIA standing for People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms.

For those not familiar with PCMCIA, PC Card and CardBus, the bus that's used for the original PC card is essentially an extension of the 16-bit ISA bus. CardBus upgrades that to basically be a 32-bit PCI bus and those cards have the golden strip with rivets near the connector end. ExpressCard succeeded PC Card and CardBus by switching over to PCI Express (also supports USB).

Oh man, this brings back bad memories of working for a university. The then president of the university wanted us to be the first campus in the US with the entire campus covered in WiFi. So he rushed to put in a bunch of A/B access points, even though we knew G was right around the corner. So I spent an entire winter break going around to every Cisco AP and swapping out the PC Cards for new G cards.

Just a little tip for any desoldering with solder wick for anyone who could use it, a little bit of extra flux will go a long way in pulling solder up into the wick

12:18 The screw for the hard drive cover is right next to that long black one.

5:47 nothing screams „Don‘t you dare and try to service me!“ louder than a soldered case 😤

Having a second computer to help diagnose and repair the other one was a game changer

I used to watch TV on my laptop with a PCMCIA TV tuner, back in the day...

Just like the OG access point from Apple. Man, I miss the early/mid 2000s Linksys time period.

I do testing and configuration for PCBA's for a living and I'm 99% sure those tabs on the first board were test points. From the looks of it, they most likely had a test bed that the card would slip into for automated testing. Oh, as for drivers, the install software is usually optional. Just go into properties for the device, click the update driver button, and point it to the folder containing the drivers. If it's an exe like the first card, try opening it with something like 7-zip. Often, especially back in the old days, these were just executable zip files. If so, extract it to a folder and there should be a sub-folder containing the drivers, just point it to that folder.

I had to laugh when you mention the game adapter in the documentation and immediately pull one out.

All of those Linksys routers have metal threaded UNDER the plastic. I’ve taken them off before. ;)

Was watching some unrelated videos and then found this recommended to me. I don't know if I'm the only one fascinated by wireless routers, but seeing a bunch of them on the thumbnail, instantly click on and watch it.

I miss these routers. So reliable, so versitile! I used to pick them up at thrift shops and use them all over to help friends and family fix their internet problems.

Had one of the WRT54G's taking pride of place on my desk when I was a kid. Looked so bold and industrial - if I remember, they were very reasonably priced, think my dad purchased ours from PC World (they used to have stand-alone stores in the UK, but are now part of Currys) for around £70, with the PC Card costing around £40. Remember using it with my dads Compaq Evo N600c laptop in the garden - was mind blowing to be able to use the internet outside, trouble was - in the sun, the laptop display was useless! The Linksys was connected to a 4mb broadband service.

I still have that exact Linksys 2.4GHz G wifi card laying around somewhere. It was my main tool for doing packet captures on unsecured networks in college. Fun times.

Technically speaking, it *should* be possible to get the card working under Linux. The OS on the Linksys router is based on Linux too. So there should be kernel drivers somewhere. If you really don't value your life, you could download the Linksys router firmware for the device somewhere, extract the Linux file system from it, see if there is a kernel module for the card somewhere and load it in your Ubuntu install.

I remember seeing one of these cards inside my router forever ago and thinking how I wanted to try the same thing! It's super satisfying seeing someone finally try it!

I did love the way these routers, hubs, and switches stacked.

PCMCIA cards were used quite a bit as a component in wireless devices because you could get the wireless card certified ONCE, and then use it as a drop-in module for whatever device needed WiFi connectivity. IIUC, changes to the design require recertification, so it makes tons of sense to only do this when the RF design actually needs to change, vs. incremental updates on every device that has a radio in it. It's the same reason many devices now use those little postage stamp PCBs with the drilled castellations along the edge. You just solder that little bugger to your main PCB, and voila, you shortcut the certification needed to sell your device with WiFi, BT, or cellular radios. The only time it makes sense to integrate the RF design is when 1) you're confident that you'll get the design right the first or second time (no changes and respins and recertifications); 2) you know you're going to make enough of them that the bespoke design certification costs are less than the cost of including larger, slightly more expensive pre-fabbed modules and the interfaces / assembly steps to integrate them. So, an iPhone will be fully integrated. Maybe also later revisions of a mature and essentially perfected router design sold by the truckload to chain computer stores. Everybody else will use a drop-in module.

It's amusing how common this was. Many years ago I took apart some old generic looking white AP that had two Orinoco Gold PCMCIA Wifi cards with external antennas in it.

The person who designed the linksys router box/mold deserves an award. 👍

I don't know why but the way they all stack (just like the switches and print servers as well) is SO satisfying.

Those!!! PCI adapters to add PCCARDs inside desktop PCs were also a thing. The early Linux drivers were hell, I still have recurring nightmares trying to get prism or worse, ndiswrapper to work ☠️

Seeing old Ubuntu brought back so many memories. I never had a CD burner back then and USB drives were still out of my reach (grew up poor as) and I used to have the install CDs shipped to my house from them for free all the time. They came with stickers and different versions (desktop, server) IIRC. That's not far off form the version of Ubuntu we used to use when I volunteered for a non-profit that donated off-lease and donated computers to needy kids circa 2010ish. I used to hack together the most jank shit and install Ubuntu on it. I daily Debian on my notebook and for all of my server hosting now, but I still have some love for the Ubuntu project and the push it gave me into Linux waters.

This brought me back to high school when I was really getting into networking and I had laptops that didn't have any wireless networking and using these cards to get them online. I might have to dig through my boxes of junk in the attic to see if I still have a couple of these Linksys PC cards!

seems like almost a crime to have a linksys router without DD-WRT on it, let alone a dozen, lol.

The plastic boots over the antennas on the newer Linksys routers is actually removable, exposing the same physical metal base on the antennas.

It was a strange choice for Mircosoft to go with the "DVDR and sharpie" aesthetic in the mid-2000s, but that's how I remember getting several of my totally legit Windows releases back in the day, too.

Thanks for the nostalgic flashback, first time i seen a pcmcia was at my cousins pad when i was in elementary school

All these old model numbers that you brought up, brought back a great deal of nostalgia and memories

That T60 is such a cool machine. All the blinkinlights and a fantastic keyboard.

OMGosh. i had I.T. flashbacks. *beats head against desk* i feel better now.

I've got a pair of WRT54Gs that I still use -- one covers the dead zone in my bedroom, and I keep one in the travel bag for house calls to friends/family. Damn things are bulletproof!

When my Dad was with IBM as a distributed systems engineer I acquired soooo many of these and other server parts. He was constantly bringing home either brand new stuff or high tier hardware that was being replaced with brand new stuff. Needless to say when I finally got into IT and computers, I had a field day when I learned what it all did. lol

You are awesome, especially that you remember all of this stuff. Back in the day I was operating at the very top of my envelope trying to get hooked into a community WiFi project, before everybody's printers, phones, microwaves, and TVs had it. Had a laptop in the attic with PCMCIA slot and the card with the beefiest 802.11b output available in US, I think I remember 200mW. It was hooked by very expensive antenna cable to a ~15dBi panel antenna, on the g.f.'s roof. Got a decent connection to a community WiFi server across San Francisco Bay, 10+ miles away! Then ran the Ethernet down through the wall to where the computers (Amiga and a MacMini) were. I was stylin'!! Soon enough the interference got too bad for either that or the boat owners group WiFi that was 3 miles away. Ended up on DSL 😞

Dude! I can't tell you how excited I am over this video. It's not for no reason, just that I experimented with so much hardware during this era. There was so much more elegance in design. Like yeah, nah it's all the same chipset running everything. THE INTERNET :)

Ahhhh.... memories of building 12 PCs from installation design options to configuration. I'm buzzing. Gee thanks man, it's kind of joyful being invited along your installation... fascinated me. 🙃 Love the expertise in the commentary. Cheers from Sydney, AU.

Great video, brings back many a ton of great memories of trying to figure out wireless back in the early days. This was the experience trying to get WiFi working back then, as well.

I didn't know some these Linksys products had a PCMCIA card inside of them. Interesting. I own several of the Linksys WRT54G wireless routers and I guess its weird but I never want to toss them out. All of mine still work perfectly, and I recently found one of the 54G routers that was new and still in its shrink wrap. They are terribly slow compared to todays wireless routers, but I use two of them to run several of my RGB led wireless devices with no problems.

This largely comes down to the complexities of the FCC approval process - there is a distinction between devices that intentionally transmit (like a WiFi card) and devices that just incidentally generate RF noise. There is also the issue that in principle the FCC require system-level testing - which is a bit of a problem when you have a transmitter on a user-replaceable plug-in card. The approach that the FCC took was called "modular approval" - you had to test the plug-in bit for detailed compliance with the FCC rules, but then didn't have to repeat that testing on the system level and could just test for the elements of Part 15 compliance that concerned incidental interference. If you were making a bunch of products using the same board, the savings on reduced testing could cover the extra hardware costs over the anticipated production run. This became less attractive as the expected production runs got larger and the NREs (like compliance testing) could be spread over more production units.

As I recall, there were adapters made for situations like this. They allowed you to extend the reach of the PCMCIA card's pins to be inserted into the slot itself. It looks like you have a Type 4 PCMCIA card slot. Meaning, you can insert two Type 1 or Type 2 cards in a stacked arrangement. You could also stack a Type 1 with a Type 3 PCMCIA card, use just a single Type 1-4 PCMCIA card in the expansion slot. The Type refers to the thickness of the card, with one being the slimmest. You may still be able to find USB-to-PCMCIA adapters for use with those USB 2 ports.

I bought a Linksys pcmcia card for a Compaq Aero Notebook years ago. I have since recycled that notebook, but still have the card taking up space in my clutter box. For the day, I was pleased with how both worked. The notebook was monochrome with 9 or 11 inch screen. I was able to use the card later in a Dell laptop.

You stated that the inclusion of the driver CD really makes you really appreciate USB, implying no external drivers needed, just plug stuff in. However, I remember when external drivers were needed for many USB peripherals from 1997 to 2008 ish. It was years before Windows and especially Linux had enough drivers in library or easily fetched online through broadband connections before plug and play was as you describe.

13:20 Absolutely felt ya. Especially with the "one family laptop" only things, and literally no other devices. I remember going crazy when we got our first second laptop of the family cuz the older one had issues and was finally slowing down, then I started my journey of installing the OS on own and was like "nooo way! I got it actually done, so cool, so smart!" XD

Thanks brings back memories as i look at a couple old laptops on a shelf.

oh man... so many flashbacks trying to get this era of wifi (PCMCIA and early usb dongles) working in linux. At one point, I remember saying "eff this" and ran a 100ft cable that followed me around the house.

I had one of these cards and it almost never worked when I needed it. There was a song and dance of rebooting, taking the card out and reseating it.

That software was way more Win98/2k/pre-SP XP, when there wasn't a good built-in SSID manager yet. I'm amazed it worked at all in Win7.

This brought back so, so, so, so many memories. Thank you.

Man, that was a nice trip down memory lane, thank you for that. Linksys routers modded with DD-WRT, Windows XP and Ubuntu in coffee colors, getting traumatized by fighting with wireless drivers. Those were the days 😀

Oh man! This brings up so many memories. A few notes: a) scanning won't work with that old of a firmware. That's normal. b) Prism 1 is super old, and I don't remember ever seeing any of those, but the IDs (0x0156, 0x002) seem to be the same with the later-gen hardware, so perhaps it'll work with newer firmware? (see below) c) There were *multiple* drivers for Prism: hermes/orinoco, hostap, and linux-wlan-ng. I don't think linux-wlan-ng was ever merged, and I think it did not use the (then) standard tooling, iwconfig, but a custom one. orinoco was the default. hostap was the more experimental one, but eventually became by far the most mature one, with its code later on getting promoted to be the kernel's 802.11 subsystem (the very same one we use today!). The drivers may conflict with each other, i.e. you need to "rmmod" one (and all of its sub-modules), to "modprobe" the other one (see below). d) the firmware that you'd typically see in a store-bought PCMCIA card was supporting "infrastructure" and adhoc mode in hardware; Linux implemented AP mode by implementing most parts of 802.11 in software (the HostAP project). I don't remember how these access points implemented it, but It's possible they had special firmware. The hardware actually had multiple slots for firmware (primary, station etc), and there was also a "bootloader" firmware that only allowed for further flashing - it's also possible that's what you have. The most important point is that you can flash the firmware in RAM, instead of in the non-volatile space, which should allow non-destructive tests. In these old Debian/Ubuntu distros, try installing the package "hostap-utils" (and take note of the maintainer's name ;), run "hostap_diag eth0", and then "prism2_srec --help". The package will also drop a /etc/modprobe.d snippet that blacklists the orinoco driver, so that the hostap driver is able to drive the card instead (needs a reboot). junsun.net/linux/intersil-prism/ has some good notes. junsun.net/linux/intersil-prism/IDtable.html seems to suggest hardware 8002 (which I think is what you have) is supported. BTW, I'd recommend next time instead of cutting the test pads, to try separating the Thinkpad's motherboard from its case. There were also PCMCIA extenders at the time, well as PCMCIA->PCI cards you could buy, but not sure how easy they are to find these days. But perhaps I'm getting too sentimental with these museum pieces ;)

If you ere a customer of AT&T Home Internet, you may have purchased or leased a 2Wire modem. They also sold a Wireless-b external box. In the earlier versions, they did the same thing as Linksys and put a B card inside the box to make things cheaper. The cards were Oronico (sp?) cards :D

I remember being able to remember this acronym when I was like 14 and just starting to work on PCs. I was always so confused as to why the acronym for these things was so long and never had a clue what it stood for.

You were a trooper on this adventure. You stuck with it longer than most of us before we spent money on a discrete dinosaur card. Kudos!

The last shot I would have in my tech magic to make that pcmcia card work would be to find a distro old enough that ndiswrapper works (late 4.x kernel tree I think?? - fuzzy recollection) and try both the earliest linksys and prism driver for windows 32 bit driver packages. Older Slackware was amazeballs with ndiswrapper back in the day.

WinXP was installing on PATA with no extra actions, but installing it on SATA required disk drivers at the install time.

Love the tear down and thanks for the explanation as you moved through each step!

This was a great video. I enjoyed watching it all. A fantastic throwback!

That is a lot of Linksys equipment lol, hmm the "Tower of Power," but for Linksys 😉

Amazing to see how over built the early consumer routers were. Poor Linksys. Like so many other awesome under dogs, taken over and gutted.

nice seeing someone still playing around with pcmcia cards and win7/xp i still got some of these kinda cool cards myself, just for memorability

wow, this brings me back. I Worked on so many of those t60s back in the day

YES!! It's Friday night, which for the nerds like me means, it's clabretro time.

20:09 btw I wouldn’t recommend operating any radio transmitter without the antennae attached. I don‘t know if it is as problematic for modern low-power devices but I remember you can actually grill your transmitter stage by powering it on without an antenna or at least a dummy load. But I guess for the power used in a WiFi card that might actually be overly cautious

I remember thinking it was so cool the way those cases were built to stack. I had an old Wireless B router back in the day with a matching WiFi amplifier that stacked together. (yes, they did used to make those) I really wanted to complete the collection with the matching wired switch. But.. I was still a student, low on cash. Then it all became obsolete so fast!

I worked so many years with one PCMCIA with early 2G connection to make maintenance nightshifts..... fun work days...

I've got a Netgear Router with a cable modem integrated, something an ISP like comcast would give you. I cracked it open and there was a mini PCI-E Wifi card inside. Didn't know linksys was doing it since the beginning!

Hey, there's a pretty good chance that the 802.11b card will function if you force install the NDIS drivers from the disk in device manager. The Linksys provided installers tend to fail like this a lot. Had a similar problem with a card of the era.

I used to collect PCMCIA cards like other kids had baseball or garbage pal kids cards. I had dialup modem cards that were so delicate when you plugged in the phone line. I remember going from win 3.11 to 95 ! ( i was 14). Around the same time i scored an external 9600 baud modem (cya later 2400 ! ). Im glad your channel popped up for me this morning. Thank you

The first APs I ever deployed were the Enterasys Roamabout that used PCMCIA cards as the radios. There was even a mezzanine expansion unit to allow you to slot a second card.

As for the falling out of those feet, the material does indeed shrink but they also lose their elasticity, which caused by a property of the material that also lends it the grippy sticky surface. So as it loses that property, it shrinks and loses elasticity and grip, no longer sticking to the inside of the hole. I've made replacements for these before with a 3D printer, making the grid on the bottom by sticking some chicken wire to the print bed that was thin enough to pass under the nozzle.

People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms.

I used a lot of these pcmcia cards back in the day, as I used a lot of laptops from the mid-90s to the early 2000s. It was the only way to upgrade the functionality of most laptops at the time. They made network cards, sound cards, TV Tuner cards, modems. All kinds of weird stuff. Thanks for reminding me why USB is so much better.

Thanks for a interesting video ! Brings back some old memories.

I remember I always wanted a pcmcia card slot for my PC.

It's definitely interesting to see what that PC card does inside a computer, but I think it might be even more interesting to figure out what else could be put inside the router and how it could be repurposed. Obviously a lot of those older routers ran Linux and could be hackable, so it might be interesting to make it do something that would actually be currently interesting. Mike, for example, it could be some sort of IOT-type device. It seems to me there's a lot more that could be done with some of these old devices that might still have some practical application today then has really been explored in depth in the hacking community. I'd be interested to see examples of how devices like that could be put to good use, and the various obstacles involved in doing that.

This brought back a lot of memories. I started as a computer tech in 1987, so I went through quite a lot of changes in the industry. I never got much into Linux though. I mostly worked on DOS then different versions of Windows. A one point I even worked on an old machine (not a regular PC) that was running Windows 1.0. I worked on a few Apple PCs, but I did not even do that very much.

I have no clue how I found this video, but I'm so glad I did.

USB was no different than PCMICA, when it came to drivers. Many USB devices would tell you to use the install CD first. There were a few reasons for this. The manufacturers knew Windows did not have the device driver or there was a newer driver on the disc that hadnt gone through WHQL certification. If you installed the software on the disc, it came with newer device drivers or it checked the internet for newer software. Of course the disc also contained relevant software to use the device.

Oh man, some throw backs here. I used to sell those WRT54 routers and wireless G PCMCIA cards at Best Buy during college. Also my first job after college, we were still using those ThinkPad T60s. They were super easy to take apart and swap parts.

i had to replace my WRT-54G last year. i really enjoy tech that waves the finger at planned obsolescence.

This is the most random video on my feed but highly entertaining. It reminds me of when I was messing with Ubuntu back in the day when this was a new card. Pretty sure I even had an old pcmcia Wireless B card just like this

At one time or another I had a stack of these cards. I even had one that was for dial up. Even used it a couple times. The modem one required you to pop out a little thing that allowed you to put a phone cord in it.

i remember being given a faulty router to recap in the early 2000's and finding a pcmcia card in it! probably still have it up in the loft somewhere, it seemed like a great way of them just re using their existing tech, i bet thats why those first routers were so reliable

T60, that thing was great! I‘ve seen such issues with more current Rockchip based SBCs when I got the overlay wrong or when I burned out the IO on another trying to save it via uart0. I have kept my WRT54, thrown the Ubiquity out as I haven’t been too happy with them (I expect DD-WRT, no ☁️, no extra apps..). Another very enjoyable ~ half hour, thank you very much!

I love these black n' blue boxes! Some had mini-PCI cards too (The WRT51AB and WRT55AG iirc). It'd be hilarious to upgrade one to 802.11n through OpenWRT shenanigans. You'll find the antennas are the same on the newer ones, the plastic piece is a cosmetic shroud that clips to the knurled metal shield of the RP-TNC and slides off, away from the body of the router. They might have even been included on the older one and someone pulled them off during its life at some point idk.

i had that same series laptop. had a T62P and loved it. i would love to get another one

haha! I did the reverse thing a few years back! I had a WRT350N (very expensive at the time) that had its wifi card die and I opened it up, found the PCMCIA card in there, figured that they used their PCMCIA card that were selling at the time, bought one, popped it in and it didn't work at all. As I remember, it was a very different chipset.

Ohh this takes me back! The first laptop I ever owned was the same model! ❤ I still have a soft spot for ThinkPad!

thats wild the card was mounted basically like a table top on that heat block. I had so so many wrt54gs when I was a kid, they were everywhere and I had unix knowledge. Eventually running ddwrt on these things, or tomato . Some of the guys I work with current have some ddwrts running in their labs.. They will obviously enjoy this content!

wow! talk about going to memory lane for me....I started tinkering with and building machines in the mid 90's....probably around 95 or so and used to frequent those computer shops like what your Dad had (shown in the previous video of yours I just watched) .... but I would do these kind of things all night and day getting things to work...haha very cool! and since then, I have never bought an off the shelf pc ready to roll....I have built every one to this day.....love this stuff! thanks for this, so cool!

The T60 was such a fantastic laptop. I got one issued from work in 2011 until I quickly got upgraded to a T61. Mine was running XP and then got upgraded to Win7 around 2012

Totally forgot about those Linksys wireless G PCMCIA cards!! That’s for reminding me how old I’m getting :)

We always called PCMCIA “picky-micky” cards. I couldn’t even estimate how many Linksys WRT54’s & derivatives I’ve used & worked on. I still have a new one in box sitting around. Ah memories 😊

Down to earth presentation and experimentation with hardware? Got my sub

Back in the early 2000s, one of my clients was a dentist who was an early digital X-Ray adopter. The x-ray sensor he owned ($8k+ each!) were PCMCIA (they're all USB now). He originally used a laptop he carried around to each room, but he wanted a desktop PC and a big (well, big at the time), 23" monitor in each of his 5 operatories. I had to find a manufacturer that made a PCI card with a hot swappable PCMCIA slot for each PC, so they could just plug the X-ray sensor into whichever room's PC they needed it.

Great video. Really enjoyed this. Can thank the RU-vid algo for discovering your channel.

I worked for the RR and used a T-60 to program control systems in RCI locomotives and used a Linksys card to conned to the access point at the yard. That T-60 was tough as nails...