Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

Ethernet card

I just got a new computer with a 3Com 10/100 Ethernet card. I'm new to Ethernet, been stuck with "phoneline networking" and need to know something:

I have another computer that needs an ethernet card. Does it matter whether I get a really cheap one, or does it pay to get a more expensive one? Any suggestions on good ones? Thanks.

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-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
-Dan Quayle

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

As long as you use a "name brand" card you should be ok. I've used 3Com, Linksys, and Netlink cards and all have worked well. The one and only "generic" card I tried was nothing but trouble.

At work, we use 3Com exclusively. Here at home, everything is Linksys, which is typically less expensive than 3Com.

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God bless America, my home sweet home...

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 708

I think I paid $10.00 at BestBuy for my PCI EtherNet card. So far, it has been fine.

I paid $79.99 for my 4Port LinkSYS Router/Switch and it has been awesome. I love this thing and highly recommend it.

With my current setup, I have two PC's constantly connected. One runs WIN95 and one runs WIN98. I also connect my work ThinkPad up. It has WIN2000 and built-in EtherNet.

So far, everything has ran without a hitch.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 366

quote:

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Originally posted by GSR13
I think I paid $10.00 at BestBuy for my PCI EtherNet card. So far, it has been fine.

I paid $79.99 for my 4Port LinkSYS Router/Switch and it has been awesome. I love this thing and highly recommend it.

With my current setup, I have two PC's constantly connected. One runs WIN95 and one runs WIN98. I also connect my work ThinkPad up. It has WIN2000 and built-in EtherNet.

So far, everything has ran without a hitch.

---

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

2 more questions:

1. Mark- What are some "generic" brands?

2. I'm only hooking up 2 computers, and still have dial-up (wah!). Do I need a hub, or router, or anything like that?

Thanks.

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-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
-Dan Quayle

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

quote:

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Originally posted by ernieba1
Do I need a hub, or router, or anything like that?

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God bless America, my home sweet home...

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

So, IF I got a hub, what would I do with it? Just have it around in case another computer showed up? If thats the case, I'd simply wait till another computer shows up :-). Also, we'll probably get the house wired by some computer person (I can't think of a better term), but until we get one, we'll just have cord lying across the floor. Are there any differences between cords? Better brands? OR am I being rediculous and they're all the same? Thanks alot.

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-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
-Dan Quayle

Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 3034

quote:

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Originally posted by ernieba1
[...] until we get one, we'll just have cord lying across the floor. Are there any differences between cords? Better brands? OR am I being rediculous and they're all the same? Thanks alot.

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

HUH?

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-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
-Dan Quayle

Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 3034

quote:

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Originally posted by ernieba1
HUH?

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Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

Ethernet Cable is Cat-5. You can get a spool of it (1000 Feet) at Home Depot for about $60. Get a crimper and some ends and for about $80 you have enough cable to last you quite a while. You can just buy cables yourself, but they tend to add up real quickly.

A cross-over cable is a Cat-5 cable with one of the ends reversed. It 'sort-of' acts as a hub between two machines.

You may want to get a hub when you get a cable modem or DSL. Many of the 'modems' are actually routers that you can then just plug into the hub and have all of your machines connected without the need of internet-sharing software. (Note that some Cable modems are routers, but don't allow a netowork behind it...you may need to get your router in that case).

Here's a quick tutorial on wiring ethernet:

http://www.johnscloset.net/wiring/

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

Wow, great info, good link. I would've gotten all the wrong wiring stuff if it wasn't for you. Thanks.

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-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
-Dan Quayle

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Atlantic Rim
Posts: 570

Arrrgh!

Damn it, Damn it, Damn it. I wanted to be the one to teach Ernie about crossover cable.

I've installed a couple dozen ethernet cards over the past five years, from brand names to no names. Never had a problem with any of them (though I do recommend keeping the driver disk someplace safe...in the event you need to re-install Windows and it doesn't recognize the driver for your network card you are in deep doo-doo; no internet). Sub-$15 cards generally don't include wake on LAN capability. Since no one except maybe Toby has ever used wake on LAN, save a couple bucks and get a regular old 10/100 card.

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: San Diego, California
Posts: 441

My network at my home (parents' house) is just two computers. I have a hub upstairs next to one computer with a cable running from that computer to it. Then another which runs from downstairs from the other computer and up into the room with the hub. Works quite well. My parents dont' have DSL or Cable yet so a router isn't needed but when they do finally get broadband i'll just have to switch out the hub for a router hub.

Now at my apartment at school it's a little more complicated. I live with 4 other guys so we have 5 computers running on the network with a cable connection to share. We have the cable modem going into the router hub and from the router hub we have 3 computers plugged directly into it with a 50 foot cat5 running across the apartment into a hub that connects the other two computers. Works perfectly.

This weekend i'll be adding a wireless access point to the whole mix so i can go online with my prism from anywhere.

Our router is 3com, cable modem is motorola, my NIC is 3com, another is Linksys, 2 more are generic, and the final is whatever brand comes in G4's, with the WAP being Linksys. With all the different OS's (2 XP, 1 Win98SE, 1 Win98, 1 Mac OS X) and brands you'd think there'd be some issues between all these devices but so far there aren't.

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