It replaced a 2011 MacBook pro running Ubuntu to host my website at https://www.dharwadkar.com. It is running blazing fast.

Curious to hear your thoughts

Modern ethernet supports Auto MDI-X, which manages that automagically for you.

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable

I would say since it has mpci it’s easy enough to patch the bios and run a newer WiFi chip inside so you’re not locked into this but this is a great workout for older pcs.

Alternatively, many usb WiFi dongles do have windows xp support but yeah with the new standards def something else. It’s a cool workaround!

There's also other ways.

Like USB tethering. Plug the computer into the Android phone with a regular USB cable that is already kicking around. No ethernet adapter required; the phone behaves as a network adapter in and of itself. The computer keeps the phone charged. This worked at least as far back as the OG Motorola Droid, in 2009. (Drivers may be a fun thing to get working depending on the OS, but that's just a software problem.)

Or: Other hardware that is already laying around. That the old home network router that has been hosting generations of spiders for over a decade, in a dusty cardboard box at the back of a closet next to the favorite pair of shoes that are simply too nice to ever get worn? There's a good chance that it's hackable and able to run custom firmware. Stuff a period-correct copy of OpenWRT or DD-WRT or Tomato or [something] into it, and turn it into a wifi client bridge so your old Ethernet stuff can chat on the wifi network. (I've had the big, color HP laser printer at the shop connected this way with a hacked Linksys WRT54G for very nearly two decades so far. Part of me says I should upgrade that box one of these years, but it still works fine and I find this amusing.)

Or: Rube Goldberg minimalism. The Raspberry Pi Zero W that is in the drawer next to the extra key for the Ford that got sold a decade ago (and the spiders; there's always spiders): It runs Linux just fine. It talks wifi. It can talk RNDIS to a USB-connected Windows computer. It can therefore become a wifi-to-usb bridge, wherein the computer doesn't even know that it's talking to a wifi network. Drivers for this are built-ins as far back as XP and are downloadable for windows 9x. (The PC provides the power for the Zero W over the same cable that the data flows over.)

There's lots of ways that many/most of us computer-types can get this done without spending a dime, or ever waiting for a delivery. :)