4. Memory And Connectivity With PCMCIA And PC Cards, Continued

There's two different ways of connecting the standard RJ11/RJ45 plugs to such a small card. One approach is the so-called "dangle".

The dangle cable is connected to the PCMCIA card with a very flat proprietary plug. The other end of this cable (dangle) carries the usual LAN or Modem connectors. While the dangle-solution ensures a small size of the PCMCIA-card, it carries the risk that the small and fragile dangle-connectors on the PCMCIA-card get damaged if the cables are pulled forcefully - something that typically happens when somebody stumbles over the cables.

To tackle this problem some PC Card vendors have created the so-called 'Realport' cards.

These cards are all of the huge Type III size, occupying two card slots of Type II or Type I cards. You can directly plug your LAN/ Modem/ISDN cable in this card, but you are scarifying one Type II card slot of your notebook. Most notebooks only come with two Type II slots, making a RealPort card the one-and-only PCMCIA-card that can be used at the same time.