NIC Advice...

Quote:

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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

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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]

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 https://www.sharkyforums.com/images/.../2005/06/6.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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I'm unique, just like everyone else!