Are there major differences in NIC cards?

[2336]

Folks, I'm looking real hard at leaving the dial-up world and going to Roadrunner cable. What recommendations would you folks make as far as NIC cards for a home PC setup? Are there any major differences, and what qualities/specifications should I look for? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.


RGR

 

[ajskydiver]

(Hey, first double post--now I know how it happens)

 

[ajskydiver]

Road runner will supply a NIC with the install...did you need more than one?

They're coming out this Weds. for me...even though I have several 3COM cards laying around...I'm gonna take whatever NIC they want to give me.


Oh, to answer your question...not all NICs are the same BUT most would do find for a home user. However, I've got a Netgear FA310TX that was cheap and works...but my 3COM 3905C has better throughput when transferring hundreds of MB from one computer to another (using crossover or hub).

 

[2336]

Thanks! You're right - I'm probably better off using the card that the Roadrunner folks install,
anyway!

 

[Supergax]

Actually, it all depends, some of the RoadRunner nics are a piece of crap, and I wouldn't let their people open up my computer. I had them give me the nic they were going to put in, which was an F=ma, someone who I've never heard of, which is why the nic which was used for a while in another machine bombed out after a month.

 

[JMF]

Your are bette off using a 3Com NIC - since they help the standards with 99% of the CAble companies!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``
you get what you ..................

 

[Supergax]

Actually, as long as a NIC supports 10-baseT any nic should work. There is nothing special about 3com nics like a special protocol or something, and as I said before, not ALL cable companies depending on where you live give out 3com nics, they gave me a piece of crap.

 

[SnoopCat]

avoid Realtek Cards, some @home give u them, they're crappy

 

[Russ]

SnoopCat,

Really? I've used dozens of Realtek chipset cards. They work just fine.

Russ, NCNE

 

[ajskydiver]

I said RR would supply a NIC...I didn't mean let them install it!

 

[Bleep]

SnoopCat:
Please give some facts and figures for your statement as to the quality of realtek NICS. You must have some basis for making this statement.
Bleep

 

[Mday]

uh, well stay away from ISA. they suck. that is, it's a bitch.

for the most part, not really unless you need a very versatile NIC. for regular networks, nothing fancy is required.

 

[Quickfingerz]

everything's been standardized

the only difference now is latency, throughput, and CPU usage.

Even the worst NIC don't use much CPU, latency is insignificant, and for throughput 5-10% faster isn't worth an extra $50 just for a card.

 

[crazychicken]

Main difference is 10 baseT or 10/100. 100 is better but if your hub is 10 baseT, it doens't matter what you get.

 

[blstriker]

ISA doesn't suck that much. I have a bunch of 3com etherlink III that are isa circa 1992-95 and they run great. don't use much cp and are just as fast as their pci couterparts at 10mps.

 

[spidey07]

There is a big difference in NICs. Mainly drivers and interrupt/CPU handling.

Driver support is paramount when you have umpteen dozen OSs to support.
Interrupt/CPU utilization is worth the extra $40 you pay for a good NIC.
I've seen numerous cheap NICS (read netgear/realtek) not handle 10/100 autonegotiation properly and lock switch ports due to speed/duplex mismatches.

I'll use my age old anology - You wouldn't spend $20 on a winmodem to do 56k would you? Now why on earth would you whine about a NIC that costs $50 and is expected to clock/decode at 100 MEGABITS/SEC full duplex none the less?

spend the money, you'll be happy. intel pro100.
(if it is any consideration I've been working with ethernet since 1989)

 

[blstriker]

Dude it pains me to see you put netgear and realtek in the same category!

 

[spidey07]

Yeah, I know. I used to love sypoptics/bay gear but they've been slipping past couple of years.

edit-whoops, forgot that synoptics/bay didn't do nics.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I have three card recommendations...

1. Netgear Manufactured by Nortel Networks...formerly Bay Networks. These cards are cheap, fast and the best in the market in my opinion.
2. Kingston Consisting of a Realtek Chipset, these cards have a high compatibility rate with Win 98 and 2000. They are also pretty reliable, but not as reliable as Netgear.
3. 3Com They have made a name for themselves. The best series of cards they produced though were the Etherlink III series. Even though they are only 10Meg cards, they are just so versatile that I still run them in 4 of my systems (linux, NT and Win95 machines). They also have some good cards in the 905 series as well if you are looking for some speedy cards.

I would always recommend Netgear first because of availability and price. They can be found at any Circuit city.

 

[blstriker]

Yup, those Etherlink 3's are workhorses. I have several of them in various machines. The best part is that they're compabitble with practically every OS out there.