Netgear FA311 - Any good?

[Dundain]

Is this networking card any good? A friend of mine has recommended Netgear cards to me and it does look fairly enticing. Considering that the card sells for only $13 at newegg.com!!

 

[bevo]

This NIC will not work with any motherboard that uses the amd 760 chipset.

 

[Damaged]

Lots of problems reported by Linux users with that card as well. I wish they would've kept the FA-310. That was a good little card. I bought two of them before they stopped making them though.

 

[Dundain]

hmm...ok, maybe I WONT get that one then Guess there's a reason for the price! So is the FA310 alot better? I know it comes with 2 more LEDs on it, but whats the difference otherwise? (Besides having to buy it at a different place <sighs>)

 

[Workin']

I'd probably look for a different card. My FA311 will only work in 1 of the 5 PC's I tried it in. Well, I guess I'm lucky that it at least works in 1 and I only paid five bucks for it!

 

[acexg1]

I'm running a FA311 on my KK266 with Win98SE fine, but I've never tried it on another computer. Got it from newegg, too.

 

[Damaged]

Well, the 310 is based on the DEC 21x4x chipset (aka Tulip). It's just been around for awhile and seems to work in just about any system. I own four of them so I like them.

The 311/312s are newer and seem to be a bit finicky.

Quick search on pricewatch and it looks like some places still haven inventory. For ~$20.00 I'd say a good deal. I paid $17.00 each for the last two I purchased.

 

[purplehayes]

My opinion on Netgear cards is if they get just a little to much juice to them, they go out. We had a little thunderstorm here the other day and down go the FA310TX cards while the rest of the non-Netgear computer NIC's still remain in good condition. This is the second time this has happened to me. Other than they, I don't have any problems with the FA311 other than it not working in Linux.

PH

 

[Looney]

FA311 doesn't work with dialpad either.

 

[chaotic]

My FA311's both work -- on 98, 2kPro, and after a little work, in Linux. (one is in a Compaq, the other in a Packard H3ll)

 

[Quickfingerz]

intel pro 100+ is the best NIC for the money right now.

 

[Dundain]

I would get an Intel 100 if it was offered at either of the places I buy from (newegg.com or mwave.com). It is offered at mwave but its just an OEM version, and its like $40 so no thank you. I'd rather get a retail package of a Linksys with drivers for everything for only $20

 

[guaraguao]

POS.

get a linksys, or a realtek clone, like the linskeys.

 

[Damaged]

RealTek?! Ack! Not. Buggy at best. Linksys. They're fine, again, bastardized DEC chipset though.

 

[ScreaminSoulman]

I have two FA311, one in a Abit KT7E and another in a Abit BH6. I run Debian GNU/Linux on them both with absolutely no problems. The cards also seem to work well in BeOS and Win2000 (although Win2000 identifies the cards as a FA312).

Best of all, they were $5 each!

 

[ccalvert]

ScreaminSoulman, if you search for &quot;FA311&quot; on this page, you will find mentioned that a small number of FA311 cards were programed with incorrect identification information. That might explain why your card is being detected as a FA312. A utility is provided to reprogram the card with the correct information.

Then again, I supose there is the theory of not messing with it if it already works.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Yeah, I got one of those &quot;mis-programmed&quot; cards. It pissed me off at first cause I couldn't get the damn thing to work with the provided drivers. Went to the website and found out why.:Q

The FA311 will also work with the FA312 drivers you just don't get the new features of the FA312.