From: anonymous
> Speaking only for myself, I had an "old" Megahertz/3Com XJack
> NIC/modem (33.6/10BaseT) combo card in my TI laptop. I had a bugger
> of a time getting the modem part to work (I did, though, and it
> flew!) but the NIC side was a piece of cake. As a result, I
> recommend staying away from the combo cards. The model number was
> something like XJ336CCEM or so.
I had already heard of trouble with combo cards (I think it was in a
laptop group). In any case I have a built-in modem, so there would be
no point to the combo. But I appreciate the input. OTOH I have heard
enough ragging on 3COM recently (not to mention my own bad experience)
that I am inclined to avoid them.
From: Donald Becker <becker@cesdis1.gsfc.nasa.gov>
> The latest PCMCIA package 3.0.6-preliminary from hyper.stanford.edu
> has a driver that works with the 3CCFE575 -- the Cyclone series
> replacement of the Boomerang generation 3c575.
How can I tell which it is? The front of the card says 3C575-TX.
Does this mean I have a Boomerang? Or are the markings more subtle?
> The 3ccfe support is in my preliminary version of 0.99G, which is
> still having problems with reliably interacting with the MII
> registers on the 3c905B.
The driver I have been trying was 0.99 (no letters). I can certainly
update. But I have a feeling that would be pointless.
From: Jim Roland <jim@roland.net>
> While I do not have direct experience with linux under a laptop, I
> can suggest something that will run a plain-jane ne2000 driver.
> These NE2000 cards have been around for years, and Novell developed
> the standard for which these run. In DOS mode, only running
> NE2000.com/exe will operate such a card.
Searching for NE2000 on PC Connection gets no hits. Same for Novell
for NICs. There are a couple of Kingston cards that claim NE2000
compatibility. But are they?
10/100BaseT/2 bus width cost compat
10 100 T 2 8 16 32
KNE-PC2T X X ? 69.95 NE2000
KNE-PC2BT X X X ? 79.95 NE2000
> I have DLink DE220 series ISA cards running in my servers, and have
> had no network problems with them. I have NE2000 support compiled
> in (had to turn off the PnP on the card for the DE220-PT series) to
> the kernel, and it identifies it right away at boot up.
Searching for DE220 also had no hits. There were two DLink products,
but neither was a NIC.
>> 10/100BaseT/2 bus width cost compat
>> 10 100 T 2 8 16 32
>> PCLA8210B X X X X 59.95 82595TX
>> PCLA8220B X X X X X 69.95 82595TX
>> MBLA1600 X X X X 145.00
>> MBLA3200 X X X X 149.95
>> For the time being it looks like the PCLA8220B has the best fit to
>> my needs. Does anybody have experience with it? Does 82595TX
>> compatibility promise good things?
From: anonymous
> I don't know the part numbers, but from your chart it looks like
> that's a 10mb only card. Lose. Thanks for playing.
> You want the 100mbit Etherexpress Pro. Dual 10/100 would probably be
> ok. 10mb only, no, those things were junk and the drivers never did
> work right.
Unfortunately the other two don't claim any particular compatibility.
> Things may be a bit different with a pcmcia card, but on the other
> hand it was the obtuse design of the actual 10mb chip that made
> driver writing for those such a pain, and a 10mb pcmcia version
> might possibly use the same chip.
I hope you can see why I am feeling a bit gun-shy at this point.
Some people have talked about how well the Intel cards worked. But
what you are saying is that only certain Intel cards work well.
From: anonymous
> Sorry for asking this silly question, but ...
> Have you read the SUPPORTED.CARDS from the latest pcmcia package?
It should be a silly question, but I know that many people don't read
these things. Anyway, yes. I did, but not until after buying the
3c575. I know that was a mistake. But don't judge me too harshly.
This is my first PC. I've been a Unix user since the 80s. But I have
avoided Microscum based computers. And until fairly recently Linux
really didn't appear on my mental radar. Anyway I had to become
familiar with a whole mess of hardware and software all at once. At
times it has been hard to know what was important to read. So I took
the advice of an experienced user.
>From the SUPPORTED.CARDS (pcmcia-3.0.6)
> Fast Ethernet (10/100baseT) adapters:
> [3c575_cb driver: driver has performance problem]
> 3Com 3c575TX, 3CCFE575, 3CXFE575BT CardBus
And in fact this is what I remember reading. I figured I could deal
with performance problems. But that is not what I am seeing. It just
doesn't work at all with my card.
From: anonymous
> I use the Linksys 10/100 PCMCIA ethernet card and have had no
> problems with it. It is supported by Slackware's net.i kernel.
There are some possibilities here. The EC2T, for $69.95, claims to be
NE2000 *compliant* (whatever that means). Unfortunately it also says
PnP. I don't know how serious that is.
A lesson I am drawing from these many conversations is that "known to
work" doesn't imply trouble free. It just means that it works for
some people.
I assume that eventually there will be a driver for the 3c575. At
that point I can easily switch. In the mean time I am considering
buying a solid but unexciting card. 10MB is fine. Most of what I
need to talk to is 10MB. And nothing I have requires 100MB yet.
Since Cardbus is not really working reliably under Linux, I now know
to avoid that. Eventually it seems like the way to go since it is
much faster.
But a complicating factor is that I would like to be able to have the
Ethernet card installed at the same time as a SCSI card. That means
that if one of them is cardbus then both need to be. I don't know if
the cardbus problems mentioned here apply to SCSI cards or just
Ethernet cards. I certainly don't want to repeat my NIC blunder with
SCSI cards.
-- Allen C. Brown abrown@cv.hp.com or "Hey you!" - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-net" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu