Can a network card degrade internet speed?

[Vich]

I have some generic no name ethernet card and i was wondering if i would get faster speeds (or the same) if i got a 3com ethernet card which is about $40.

So if i get a leading brand ethernet card will my ping to gateway lessen? To gateway i ping 10-13.
And in general will internet downloads be quicker?
Any comments?

 

[oblivion2888]

no, cable modems or dsl cannot strain a NIC......on the other hand.....if you were transferring a large 1 gig file between two comps at 100 mbps, then NIC quality could matter

 

[Scope]

Look at it this way you can get a linksys, netgear or dlink 10/100 card from onvia for $22-26[Can] so this isn't really an issue. To answer your question most isp's won't outperform a 10baset nic but for a home network and transfering big files an 10/100 card makes a huge difference. As for the card being generic or branded that usually has to do with hardware in/compatibility and not it's performance. Almost all 10/100 nic's I've used are all within 5% of each other.
Scope!

 

[randomlinh]

but they do take a beating on your boot up time.. grr.

 

[diablonhn]

yup yup, windows networking takes forever