A good Network Card?

[Stormblade]

Hey all,

What network card would you recommend for my home based LAN here. Not looking to spend a ton of money here but I want a good one. I have linksys and they've done fine and I also have an Adaptec one and that one works ok as well.

Also related I'm planning on upgrading my Hub. Any thoughts on a good one?

 

[j@cko]

I have a DLink 530TX.. it works good...

 

[Howard]

jack

Do you have Bell HSE?

 

[Stang46]

I have a LinkSys LNE100TX. I bought it at BestBuy for like 15 bucks and so far I it has been running fine...

 

[j@cko]

yes i do.. why?

 

[Erasmus-X]

I'll put in a vote for the Netgear FA310TX. It's nice, cheap NIC that gets the job very nicely for about $20. I know that this should probably be the in the Hot Deals forum, but Krex is selling OEM 3Com 905B 10/100 NICs (arguably one of the NICs made for workstation use) for $39 if you would prefer that instead. I use the 3Com in my main machine (came with a Dell system) and a Netgear FA310TX in the other machine and the network runs wonderfully.

 

[Stormblade]

DOH. Mad a boo boo in my original post. I meant I have a couple of 3Com's not Adaptec NICs.

If all else fails I can get another one of those pretty cheap.

 

[A2KLAU]

My whole home Lan network is Netgear. Netgear PCMCIA Card Duel Speed card, for the laptop. For the main computer it is a PCI Duel speed card, and finally the Hub is a 4 socket Netgear DS104, also duel speed. This is my setup and it is VERY reliable. For your situation if you ahve just two comps and two 3Com Nics, then a standard Cat5 Crossover cable is all you need to link the two computers together. If you have more than 2 computers, i.e 3 or more, then you will need a Hub. I got a hub just incase I need it for future expansion.

Hope this is what you are after! Good Luck,

Albert.

 

[Stormblade]

I definately need a hub. I already have one but am planning on upgrading to get better performance. I have 3 computers soon to be 4. I have a linux box as my proxy/firewall and two workstations. The Linux box has two LinkSys network cards in it. It wouldn't recognize any of my 3coms and I got tired of bothering.

I have 3Coms in my other two. I believe dual speeds. However, my hub is I think only a 10 and I'm thinking to upgrade the hub to a dual speed as well as getting one with more ports as I will have another machine on the network. I may even end up trying out one of the wireless hub setups but I think those are hella expensive.

So for now it's a dual speed hub with enough ports to handle all my computers and perhaps some expanding room and some RJ45 cable strung all over the damn place.

 

[FAQ]

DLink 530TX
I like it

 

[Muckshifter]

Netgear ... nice and cheap for 2 machine setup ... have 3com now ... nice & fast

 

[Ausm]

The Dlink 530TX cheap and works good

Ausm

 

[RossMAN]

The best NIC whether you have a small or large budget is without a doubt the Netgear FA310TX for $16.49 shipping is only $5.16

 

[Stormblade]

Thanks for all the replies. Looks like it's between Dlink, Netgear and 3Com. Hmm. Maybe I should start a poll or something. See which gives the best in terms of speed and reliability not to mention compatibility.

 

[Noriaki]

I use Linksys in most of my PCs and what not, they have all the features of the expensive NICs and don't have stupid systray Icons like 3com!

I love my LNE100TX it's been great to me for years.

I also really like Intel NICs, but they are alot more expensive.

 

[spamboy]

I have bought three Netgear products and two of them didn't work right. I've also bought three SOHOware NICs and all have worked flawlessly. I used a 3Com NIC once that I really liked, as well.