> 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.
The biggest vendor in the market is always going to have more complaints.
The older 3Com products are very solid and reliable. Problems recently have
stemmed from updating products without changing their product numbers.
> 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?
You have the original 3c575. That card will work with any version of the
3c575 driver, if David Hind's CardBus controller code works properly with
your laptop.
> > 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.
I'll explain the 3Com problem:
The 3c905B is a whole new design, with a 3c905 mode that was only
tested for backwards-compatibility with their Windows driver. Worse, there
are actually three different fab lines supplying chips for 3c905B boards,
with each providing their own on-chip transceiver design. One of the quirks
is the on-chip MII interface on one chip type responds to all MII addresses,
so the driver sees multiple transceivers.
> 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.
There is no NE2000 standard: Novell used something similar to the minimal parts
count example 8390 design from the NatSemi databook. The NE2000 design is
a low performance with at least one serious flaw: it's very easy to hang the
machine by reading registers at the wrong time.
> 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.
It actually *is* a NE2000-style card. That means it's slow.
Donald Becker becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov
USRA-CESDIS, Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences.
Code 930.5, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. 20771
301-286-0882 http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/people/becker/whoiam.html
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