NIC Advice...

[Sol]

I am having DSL installed this week (well they have me scheduled this week). I need an NIC card. My OS is win2k and I am not really sure what would be my best bet. Any ideas??? thanks

[Mr_Q]

3com and intel are the best in NIC market.

[Sol]

Thanks for the information. are the Lynksys any good?

[mpitts]

Originally posted by Sol:
Thanks for the information. are the Lynksys any good?

I have had good experiences with Linksys NIC's. 3Com and Intel have the best names in NIC's, but I have found that just about any PCI NIC will suffice.




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"Everyone knows the best bands are affiliated with Satan."

[Endwaith]

Originally posted by Sol:
Thanks for the information. are the Lynksys any good?

All the machines on my LAN use linksys cards. When I host LAN parties it seems that most of the people that come also use linksys cards. They are reliable, fast and cheap (about 20 bucks for one, as opposed to 50 bucks for a 3com).

I havn't had any problems with linksys and i highly reccomend it.

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Insert Funny/Witty Signature here -> _________________

[Sol]

Thanks for the information.

[ben]

I use linksys and netgear. Both are good cards. Don't blow too much money on a 3com, its not worth it.

[slick]

I use an Intel and would highly recomend it.. i use to have a linksys.. but its on my floor there..and thats where it will stay..for some reason it would keep droping my bindings.. so i broke down and got a Intel and just love it.. sense now i don't have to wory about keeping track of driver disk.. when i have to do my monthly reformating. haha oh well Maybe my linksys is just a bad apple. http://www.sharkyforums.com/ubb/tongue.gif

[zero~abYss]

Just figured I would throw in my opinion...

I use Linksys as well, love 'em.. as one poster noted, they are cheap in comparision to other big names. I bought a Linksys HUB-2NICS-&Cable for $80, spent another $80 on the 1-port Linksys Router. Seems like a solid technology: I have been running network for more than a year and have not had a single problem. (well -- NIC related, hehe)

[Mr_Q]

Hey,i don't have anything against linksys,they produce good stuff,especially routers are great,but I entered in some compatibility issues with other devices in some older systems,wich never happend 2 me when i was using 3com or intel NICs.I don't hesitate recomending linksys eather,but I will allways prefere 3com or intel NICs.

[Sol]

Thanks once again for the information. http://www.sharkyforums.com/ubb/smile.gif

[FX]

Originally posted by Sol:
I am having DSL installed this week (well they have me scheduled this week). I need an NIC card. My OS is win2k and I am not really sure what would be my best bet. Any ideas??? thanks

Well actualy I can really help here as I work for DSL provider, and deal with about 6000 dsl lines... from what we have found 3COM makes NICS that are all around most compatible.. followed closely by Intel.. I would NOT recommend a Linksys thou... they seem to have the oddest and most problems of all the cards.. expecially if you are using a bridge for dsl as the bridge has to work directly with your NIC as appossed to thru a hub. All sorts of problems from guys DSL line dropping everytime they open an ftp connection to just plain dropping the link at random times. For the small price of a NIC card these days there is really no reason to (In my eyes) to go with anything other than 3com. I think you will find that no matter who you talk to they will say 3com is tops (no to mention all their cards are lifetime warranty) You should be able to pick up a top of the line 3c905X 10/100 NIC for about 40$ and when you put that next to the price of the dsl line or how much you use the net I am sure you will agree it is a small price to pay for something you will never have to worry about for a LONG LONG time..

[squidbag]

One thing worth noting is that if you plan on ever running Linux or a BSD, investing in a *NON* PnP NIC card will save you some aggravation..

I will not buy any PnP *anything* if I can help it.

[slick]

well if linux is the case just make sure that the nic. Will be tear 1 that way you know for sure it will work.

[BobTheSlob]

what does PnP mean? My modem description has PnP in it..

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DOWN WITH ACRONYMS!!! TYPE OUT THE WORDS!!!

[df]

pretty much all the _cheap_ pci 10/100mbps cards around have a realtek rtl8* chipset.

avoid these if you can. more expensive cards like the 3com and intel are good. (i have a 3com 905b myself. most other ppl i know have intel 10/100 pro-b whatevers).

but for good price/performance, at work we use all dlink-530tx's. good card. good chipset. supported very well on win2k, freebsd+linux etc.

good card for its price.

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Stuart 'Dark Fiber' George [ FreeBSD 4.1 / BeOS 4.5.2 / Win2K ]
Write Your Own Operating System [FAQ] (http://www.mega-tokyo.com/os)

[Just]

Originally posted by BobTheSlob:
what does PnP mean? My modem description has PnP in it..



PnP = Plug 'n' Play
simply stick whatever hardware it is with PnP on it and windows will reconize it.

BTW, is D-link a product of Linksys? I think i read that on a box somewere, not sure tho.




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"When your computer fails on you..........SMASH IT GOOD". ~Justin~

[tmjf_sifu]

i have used linksys etherfast 10/100's in my home lan units and i have been very happy. i also use a linksys hub. the total cost for all was $100 and i have never had a problem. in fact, all the problems i had before i switched to linksys disappeared after i did so. i am not sure why there is so much worrying aboutPnP and Linux compatibility unless individuals have had specific problems. it says right on the box that they are linux tested and 100% cable/dsl compatible. the only problem with these cards and linux is that not all linux drivers may be supplied with the accompanying disk. linksys is a great value and they work very, very well.



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"i told her i wanted to show her my palm pilot and she slapped me."

[Chotta]

Originally posted by df:
pretty much all the _cheap_ pci 10/100mbps cards around have a realtek rtl8* chipset.

avoid these if you can. more expensive cards like the 3com and intel are good. (i have a 3com 905b myself. most other ppl i know have intel 10/100 pro-b whatevers).


I got a D-Link 538tx I(based on that realtek whatever) and it runs great.
but for good price/performance, at work we use all dlink-530tx's. good card. good chipset. supported very well on win2k, freebsd+linux etc.

good card for its price.

[sww]

One more thing. I use Linksys cards myself, but I have read (though unfortunately I cannot remember where, it may have been 3com website) that 3com NICs are less processor intensive. You may look around for a review of NICs to see if this is still true.

[Kakarot]

At times some brands of NICs and Network products do tick me off. Products based on the Realtek 8*** series can act strange at times. I have had experience with Allied Telesyn AT-2500ACPI cards, PCI 10/100 based on Rtl 8139 chips and for some reason refused to work on ANY of my machines. I have switched to Planet ENW-9503 PCI 10/100 also based on the 8139 but worked flawlessly. (BTW those 2 cards cost only $ 16.00 each. Cheap eh?)
Many people tell me that it is best to stick with one brand of network gear to ensure everything works, but my setup has been running for 2 years NON-STOP and keeps on going. Here are what I have:
3Com HomeConnect 8-Port 10Mbps Hub. Surecom 10Mbps 2-port Internet Gateway (with 2x Zoom 56Kbps modems connected to it). 1x 3Com 3C905-TX in my machine. 3x Planet 10/100 on the others, and a 3Com Etherlink III (3C589D) PCMCIA card in my laptop.
I perfer 3Com stuff. And I know I should upgrade to 100Mbps Hub and Internet Gateway soon, as 10Mbps just not cutting it at peak network activities.

[KJC]

PnP=Plug and Play... it was made so that it will be 'easy to set up and install' ... and, in reality, it is the opposite for Linux users. http://www.sharkyforums.com/ubb/wink.gif

[Tomcotexas]

Originally posted by KJC:
PnP=Plug and Play... it was made so that it will be 'easy to set up and install' ... and, in reality, it is the opposite for Linux users. http://www.sharkyforums.com/ubb/wink.gif

Also known as "Plug and Pray" in the early days, and sometime still today. I strongly rcommend 3Com NICs, have had excellent results with them. Have also used SMC 10/100 nic and hubs in small networks, and very good results. Linux recoginizes teh nic.

[Devils Advocate]

I use 2 3com Etherlink III 3C509B NICs in my current setup and I must say they work very nicely. I never needed to worry about them being recognized by any OS or being compatible. They always did their thing without me having to worry about them.

[Aleaxander]

I bought the 3Com EtherLink 10/100 Mbps PCI Network Interface Card (Model No. 3c905c-tx-m) and it not only did not work on my system (Duron 700 with Asus A7V motherboard), but then caused my original 3Com card to stop working correctly. With the new 3Com card, I could not even access the internet through my Linksys 4 port router using DHCP. When I returned the original 3Com card to the system, I could at least access the net, but I could no longer browse newsgroups, and the internet games I play seemed to slow down...
I tried many times to get the new card to work, and then many times to restore the original card back to proper working condition, but to no avail.
The one thing I noticed that changed in Network Neighborhood (Win 98 SE, did I mention that?) is that the TCP/IP protocol no longer says the name of my ethernet card (regardless of the new one or old one). It used to say something like, "TCP/IP Bound to 3COM 3C905" (or something like that), and now it just lists TCP/IP. I don't know if this is telling as to what is wrong, but if anyone has any idea, I'd appreciate the help in trouble shooting this.
I bout a 3Com card because I was very happy with my original one. It felt like a work-horse, and never had any problems. I bought a new one because I wanted to use the Wake On Lan feature of the motherboard so I could have my computer on all the time, but keep it basically off unless I accessed my ftp site. I'm not saying that 3Com cards are bad, but this has been very frustrating, and a search of their site has resulted in no leads on how to fix this problem. I tried to call their customer support, only to recieve a message that I should call between 8 and 6 (it was about 2pm on Sat, so I guess they mean weekdays). Unfortunately, I am in the video game business and don't usually make it home anywhere near 6pm...

Oh yeah, so even though I was extremely happy with 3Com before, this problem with the new card has blown my mind! I just wanted it to install and work like the original card with Wake On Lan abilities, but now my system feels crippled. I should probably start a new thread for this huh? : )

-Aleaxander

[df]

Originally posted by Aleaxander:
I bought the 3Com EtherLink 10/100 Mbps PCI Network Interface Card (Model No. 3c905c-tx-m) and it not only did not work on my system (Duron 700 with Asus A7V motherboard), but then caused my original 3Com card to stop working correctly

the 905A revision was know to be bad and a lot of 905C's also turned out to be very finicky devices. from all acounts around the net the 905B's have been the best of the three revisions.

but in saying that, a lot of people are quite happy with their 905C version.


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Stuart 'Dark Fiber' George [ FreeBSD 4.1 / BeOS 4.5.2 / Win2K ]
Write Your Own Operating System [FAQ] (http://www.mega-tokyo.com/os)

[nevian]

I've installed literally dozens of NICs at home and at work, and I have found without exception that the best cards are Intel Pro/100 (whatever revision/type).

3Com cards were great! Awesome! Wonderful!
and then.....they made PCI cards. I have yet to find *ANY* 3Com 3c905x that works in any PC at 100/full duplex. Most of them fail at 10/full too. 3Com card intercompatabilities abound...avoid them like a big pile of gold-plated dogcrap.

Linksys is kind of the opposite. They went from ISA cards that did not work to PCI cards that mostly work. Mostly isn't good enough for me, but your mileage may vary...

D-Link makes cheap cards that work right. This is a good thing, but the weird boot delay that installing the drivers causes (3-4 extra seconds) is not good.

Netgear makes mid-range cards that are fine unless you use 3com hubs. Get a D-Link instead: they are cheaper.

Did I miss any?? Oh yeah. DEC cards. If you find any old ones and think of using them in that ISA slot, forget it. They have this weird problem with not being able to bind to TCP/IP...that protocol that noone needs http://www.sharkyforums.com/ubb/wink.gif

If you have money, go with the Intel server NICS. If you are poor, go with D-Link NICS.
If you can't decide, try the newer Netgear stuff out.

Hope this helps!

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