You have to plug the non-part-of-the-laptop PCMCIA card, just like you have to plug the non-part-of-the-laptop USB adapter. Not much big of a difference.
Or where you'd needed an adapter dongle that connected to the PCMCIA card.
I know there was a laptop or at least a concept of it with something similar to the (parent) XJACK connector, but have never seen it in real life. Would love to see them in ultrabooks.
Am I the only one who still remembers PCMCIA cards (thinner than most slim laptops) with Ethernet ports?
Here, an example from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:XJACK_network_card_extend...