Let's get this straight right away. This is not being done as an experiment in lowend computing, but out of necessity. At this time, aside from sleeping at my in-laws (an experience that I liken to having open wounds and swimming in a tank with great whites, by the way), I'm living out of my car. I do not have regular access to the internet. My two primary Macs, both G3's, are packed, and my iBook "Tang" doesn't have an Airport card yet. However, I do have my trusty old PowerBook 5300c "Morgana". This is very much a basic unit, 16 MB RAM, 100mHz, factory standard.
I tried out an Enterasys RoamAbout card in her sometime back and found that it worked well in our home network. As luck would have it, both Morgana and the WiFi card were packed together in my car.
Thanks to the System 7 Today site, I discovered that Internet Explorer 5 is the perhaps the best choice for a browser under 7.6.1, and is still fairly modern (six years out of date, but many pages still load). Considering the low memory overhead of Syste 7.6.1, the combination seemed like one that would work out in the real world.
For my real world experiments (err... usage), I chose a library in Broward County and a nearby McDonalds (oh, what I go through for the cause). Performance? It is a ten year old laptop with low memory (and I might add a cranky keyboard). Still, I am posting this from that McDonalds in Deerfield Beach in between job hunting. The speed might seem glacial at times, but it is comparable to dial-up of recent years. Overall, not a bad experience. And besides, as I mentioned already, it is really the only choice I have right now.
Peace,
Rob
I've got two of these old birds -- a 5300cs and a 5300ce. Old? yes. Slow? very. Capable? you bet.
If you don't need the sheer number-crunching power needs of digital audio and video, this machine will still be quite adequate for email, word processing, and basic Internet.
And did I mention ... geek-babe magnet?
When it's all you've got, it's fast enough. Trust me, I've lived without a land line for for a while before. Mandatory internet access from anywhere but "home" is not so fun.
The 5300 does attract attention, especially in this day and age when people carry around the computer equivalent of flat-screen TV's; it's small and cute, so a coworker once told me.
Now, my eMate is another geek-babe magnet, and may be my next attempt at lowend wifi.
Peace,
Rob
One of my friends actually got an emate running on wifi, although you can only do text based browsing.
http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/669/getting-your-emate-wireless
Markie is pretty cool.
I've been seaching for one of those for years, but everyone has a c and cs.