Opinion for a good cheap net card ..

[cjolley]

Hey Jammrock,
I will be getting a cable modem soon.
Would the network side of the modem hook up to that rig and let me connect both of our computers to one cable modem?
thanks
chuck


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Oh, No! no sig yet!

[cswan]

You want to keep away from some RealTek cards, despite the suggestions of many on here. The ones in question, I believe, are the ones based on the 8019/8029 chipset. These cards are really nothing more than an old NE2000 chipset glued onto a PCI interface. I don't think linux supports them at all (the 8129 is a different matter), so you should steer clear of them. They are always listed as being dirt cheap. Addtron and one other manufacturer uses this chipset on their boards...so beware.

I'll have to also recommend 3COM if you are using Win9x or WinNT primarily. They're pricey, that' for sure, but they give good performance under all OSes.

If you are primarily using linux, save yourself some money and get anything that has a DEC Tulip chipset on it. They're cheap, and the drivers for the DEC Tulip are the most dynamic of any PCI network cards for linux (just go into the kernel networking config, and you'll see quite a few options in there that work solely on the TULIP chipset cards.) They're the only cheap network cards that I'll even consider purchasing.

[Ron]

The AOpen AL320TX (10/100 PCI) has drivers for virtually all major PC NOS, see here http://www.aopen.com.tw/tech/downloa...k/aln320tx.htm
Cost here $25 (Canada). I've been using them at home now for several months, no problems.

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Ron. BH6 etc.

[arbymo]

ok guys .. now i'm really confused ..
at a time i was decided to get the 3com's but i found out they'll cost me a real fortune (3-4 times the price of some other cards) and i don't have the money .. so when i setteled to get the Real tek cswan tells me to stay away .. cswan wat do u have against'em ? i checked out some linux resources on the net and even the real tek site .. and it sounds that many of their chips r supported through a specific driver or more commenly the ne2000 driver.
for the linksys cards : do they work under linux ? r they ne2000 compt. ?
cswan : wat cards use the dec tulip chip ? it's not easy to find anything here in egypt
ron .. thanx man .. but i didn't find AOpen cards neither
so for now .. my choices r limited to realtek, link sys, and mybee some DEC OEM cards ..
thanx guys ..it's a late reply i know .. but i sepnt lot of time lookin around


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Giga Byte 6BXE, celeron300A@450, 128 Ram
G200 8M SD, driver 5.13, Bios 1.6

[Holerith]

3Com make good cards, but as others have indicated, they are probably the most expensive on the market.

Intel make good cards and a not too bad price.

One firm I just finished a contract for uses SMC exclusively and the second exclusively Dlink. Both work well and are inexpensive.

I havae also had good experiences with the Netgear 10/100 card from Bay Networks and the price is excellent.


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Dean
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PDP-11, Dec-writer & ZD-11 Terminal Unit, RSTS-OS