Re: pcmcia nics
> On Thu, 19 Jul 2001 10:52, Dan Cox wrote:
> > Any recommendations on a pcmcia nic?
A helpful soul replied:
> [... after explaining the difference between PC Card and Cardbus ...]
>
> For a PC Card device I suggest buying a second hand 10baseT card, more people
> want to sell than want to buy such cards and they are really cheap.
> Otherwise get a Card Bus 100baseT card.
However, if you travel between different hub sites which have 10/ or 100/
services, then having the "10/100" card even in a poor li'l ol' "PC Card" slot
will allow you to connect at all, when you're on the 100/ hubs. There really
are places that cannot or will not speak 10/ .
It's the little things in life... just like a well configured wireless card
is useless if there's no wireless connection around.
> In terms of brands of cards, every card I have tried has worked, but it makes
> sense to take your laptop to the store to test out a card before buying it.
I have had excellent luck with stores such as CompUSA and even Fry's, when
bringing my machine to do so. For this I have some recommendations:
1. do your homework first -- know which cards you are considering.
(no problem, you're doing it now.)
2. be completely willing to just plain buy the card then and there if you
are happy with its support. You might want to bring a friend whose
laptop is already wired up, and cross connect with him.
The point is you are going to be hogging an aisle, depending on store
policy you are hogging a sales rep, and they don't want you to walk
off with the merchandise. If they are actually *helpful* by letting
you fuss like this, they deserve your business. So tell them so.
This is from experience after I had to return two cards for support being
weird or flaky. That was an earlier age and it was a FreeBSD box, but the
salesmen are the same now as then. I told them "I'm buying a card *today*
and I'm not buying any card that I will need to *return* again." No problem!
> When comparing cards, any card that is not NE-2000 compatible should be equal
> to any other (NE-2000 means slow).
Actually, I suggest hitting http://www.google.com/linux (no slash on the end!)
with buzzword sets
flaky <a given card's model number> 2001 thread
This should get you some good reading on the kinds of problems people have with
a given card ... the word "thread" should get it almost all from mailing list
archives from this year, so you can tell by the followups if it's all just
config, or serious chiming in from other Linux'ers that they are suffering too.
> I like the Xircom RealPort cards as they are physically stronger and unlikely
> to break. Apart from Xircom (which are expensive) I suggest getting the
> cheapest non-NE2000 card available.
I have had pleasant experience with both D-Link and Netgear cards. They go
the long haul when I use my little beastie as a desktop replacement.
* Heather Stern * star@ many places...
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