Whats the BEST NIC out there for a decent price?

[lockjock]

I'm looking for one to setup with my new cable modem.....

[HAL9000]

Startech 10/100. Dirt cheap, easy install in Win95/98/ME/NT/2000 and Linux, lifetime guarantee. I've sold hundreds of them and never had one come back.

[Statica]

Pretty much any cheap NIC should be fine cos cable modems use 10BT for home connxns. Now if you were to go to the 100mbps range, you are going to have either your CPU getting loaded up, or collisions (if u are running a network) or simple lockups. Again NICs/Controller chips/ICs etc are flaky for different OS as well. For example any Realtek(A/B/C) NIC has been pretty good for me on the NIXs but dies out periodically on Win2K and I havent been able to figure it out.

In my experience, I stay away from DAVICOM/VIA controller NICs, gum stuck to the bottom of my left shoe has been worth more than those...

[HAL9000]

Originally posted by Statica For example any Realtek(A/B/C) NIC has been pretty good for me on the NIXs but dies out periodically on Win2K and I havent been able to figure it out.

Really??? That's the chipset that the Startech uses and I never had a problem installing and running under 2K. Gonna have to let me know when you get to the bottom of that one.

[Xayd]

From my experiences 3COMs are the best, if you can find a cheap 10mbps 3COM go for it, look for a 905x.

Xayd

[Statica]

Originally posted by HAL9000 Really??? That's the chipset that the Startech uses and I never had a problem installing and running under 2K. Gonna have to let me know when you get to the bottom of that one.

Hey Hal, there are a LOT of mfgers who use implementations of the controller chipsets. And it isnt necessary that all of them perform the same. I havent tried startech as yet. However what speed/mode have you tested the realtek at?
Incidentally some implementations of Realtek's 100 full duplex gave problems with various Linux kernels as well.

Also have you tried measuring CPU load during various speed transfers.

Of course the 3COM is a very reliable one, XayD where do you get yours cheap? From my searches I get very expensive quotes on the 3coms.

[glc]

We've been through all the cheapies - our current favorite is the Kingston KNE111. For mission critical corporate installs, we still go with 3Com 3C905's - but they definitely are pricey.

For a cable modem, anything will work because it's gonna be running at 10mbs half duplex anyway. The best 10baseT card out there is the 3Com 3C900 if you can find one cheap, but just about any 10/100 cheapo should do the job just fine as long as it has decent drivers. You could even throw an old ISA 10baseT nic in out of somebody's trash can - we are running our DSL at the office with a D-Link DE-220 that I stripped out of a junk machine just fine.

[lockjock]

hmm... how is a 3COM Etherlink XL PCI TPO Network adapter PCI 10 Mbps for $18 ? What kind of nic would AT&T install? For that matter, what kind of cable modem would AT&T install and should i buy my own?

[DrZaius]

This network card roundup has some good info and comparisons. The Netgear and Linksys cards perform real well, but I'll still stick to my SMC cards (havn't had a problem yet).

[HAL9000]

Originally posted by Statica Hey Hal, there are a LOT of mfgers who use implementations of the controller chipsets. And it isnt necessary that all of them perform the same. I havent tried startech as yet. However what speed/mode have you tested the realtek at? Incidentally some implementations of Realtek's 100 full duplex gave problems with various Linux kernels as well. Also have you tried measuring CPU load during various speed transfers.

Well, got my opportunity to see just how fast the transfers would go. Copied a 647Mb ISO image from my one computer, through my Linksys router, to my second machine (both with Startech cards). It finished the transfer in 1 hour, 20 minutes, 19 seconds. This equates to a transfer rate of 8.06Mb/s. Pretty respectable I think. I forgot to check CPU load... it would have been at 100% anyway since both machines are running distributed.net clients.

OK... Totally ignore this post. I was totally out of whack that day... to many exhaust fumes from a leaky catalytic converter or something. REALISTIC numbers posted below AFTER I did the test again.

Thanks for pointing that out wedor!

[glc]

That 3Com for $18 is a 3C900. SOLID card. AT&T will install whatever they have kicking around in the installer's truck - I have seen all kinds of stuff - 3Coms, Farallons, Kingstons, D-Links, you name it. Same with the modem - whatever they have kicking around - Motorola, RCA, 3Com, Toshiba, Best Data, whatever. I prefer to rent the modem for $10 a month because a new modem costs $200 to buy, and if your rented modem craps out, they will bring you out another one. They also will support their modem a bit better (less poorly?) than a customer provided modem.

[lockjock]

Ok, the reason i was thinking of getting my own cable modem is beacause i wanted an internal one and i didn't know if they would provide one of those and the cable modem i'm thinking of buying costs $164.32.

[glc]

I don't recommend internal cable modems or USB cable modems - ethernet modems are the best way to go because you can later plug it into a sharing router. All an internal is going to do is eat a slot and an IRQ, and USB networking is still pretty flaky.

[Statica]

I'd second that, what compelling reason would one have to use an internal cable modem. All you can is perhaps save on desk space clutter, but u clutter up your insides, you have another component drawing power, another component emitting heat, you have a pretty nasty unpliable cable running into your computer (hello lightning!), you have to turn your neck in impossible ways if your ISP asked you to check for block synch lights....

[wedor]

I don't know about that transfer speed HAL, I just tried transfering a 1.2 gig file between two systems at my house, both running UD, and it took under 7 minutes, minimal CPU usage. I'm using NetGear 312's.

[HAL9000]

Whoooah... you're right wedor... what the heck was I smoking that day.... Gimme a few minutes here... gonna try this again and see what happens... I didn't convert to seconds, so that time was minutes and your right... that sucks! Let you know in a few.

[HAL9000]

OK... this is a bit more like it. Not sure what the heck was slowing my network so badly that day, but when I did my calculations, I got similar results to what was on the website review that Dr.Zaius posted, when in reality, I didn't convert from minutes to seconds, so doing that, the above that I posted was in reality, really bad. I never thought anything of it as I rarely transfer large files like that. So here is something more realistic.

I made an ISO of my WinME CD totalling 573Mb and transfered it over with the distributed client to see if that's what was slowing me down, then without so I could see with system monitor what my CPU usage was. Well, the distributed client slowed it down by 1 second. Total time was 2 minutes, 51 seconds, which if I do my math right today is 171 seconds. 573Mb / 171 seconds = 3.35Mb/s with a peak processor usage of 8%, for the most part bounced between 5-6%. Faster than the comparison test, but not by much.

So it's considerably slower than the theoretical 12.5Mb/s max of a 10/100 card, but when these things always work reliably for me and set up without hassle, all for $9.00CDN (my cost), I'm not going to complain.

[AlwaysUp]

I have 4 10mbps 3Com Nics, 3 out of functioning LAN when we went WAN. 1 is new in Box. If you pay for the shipping, I'll send you one. I'd just like someone to get use from em. I am at work or I'd supply you with the model....but my mem ain't as sharp as .....no, it's never been too good.