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Uh, this question is going to come out *really* braindead, but here goes: does a cable exist that has an ethernet jack on one end, and a phone jack on the other? Or is there some sort of adapter that would allow one end of an ethernet cable to plug into an older laptop that has a phone jack but not an ethernet port?
(It's this whole thing with my old laptop and The Boy's DSL modem and cables, etc. My old laptop only has a port/jack/whatever it's called [hey, it's late and I'm having trouble with words] for a phone line, but the cable that comes out of the DSL modem is an ethernet cable.)
Am I wishing for something that isn't real?
And if it IS real, can you please link to an example of such a product, because my google search terms are yielding weird shit.
Do you have serial ports on the old laptop? I've seen ethernet/serial adaptors.
Do you have serial ports on the old laptop?
Uh. Kind of?
There's a port that looks like a serial port, except it has 3 rows of holes instead of 2.
I'm suddenly feeling very, VERY much like a help desk nightmare.
Steph, make and model of the elderly laptop?
Is 1200 a viable model number? There's a "1200" on the keyboard.
(I haven't used that thing in a LONG time, and I also can't grok how The Boy has his tangle of DSL ---> modem ---> wireless router ---> his desktop CPU set up.)
For instance, would this cable work: [link] ?
Does it have a PCMCIA slot? (1200 is a valid model family number)
Steph, the short answer is that no, you cannot plug an ethernet cable into the modem on a laptop. Two very different purposes and different electronics behind those ports. The cables that you linked to are Cat5 Crossover cables which have the larger RJ45 connections on each end. Even if you made a cable that went from RJ45 to RJ11 (modular phone connector) you wouldn't be able to use the modem port to connect to the DSL.
The port that you are seeing that looks like a serial port but with three rows of cables is the VGA port for an external monitor.
Your best bet is to get a USB Ethernet adapter for the machine.
