# NIC Recommendations?

## Robert

Can anyone suggest a reliable 10/100 NIC in the under $50.00 range? Many people seem to praise the Intel and 3Com boards, so I am leaning in that direction. Any suggestions or experience on a specific model would be appreciated.

--

Robert Brown

----------

## kormoc

DeletedLast edited by kormoc on Mon Dec 24, 2018 9:07 am; edited 1 time in total

----------

## klieber

I use the Linksys 10/100 NIC in all my systems (tulip driver).  Works great -- never had a problem.  Cheap, too.  (<$20)

--kurt

----------

## dechah

When I was last in the US, I picked up a couple of AOpen AON-325 cards, they are great, never give me a problem and cost about US$11.

I highly recommend them

 *Robert wrote:*   

> Can anyone suggest a reliable 10/100 NIC in the under $50.00 range? Many people seem to praise the Intel and 3Com boards, so I am leaning in that direction. Any suggestions or experience on a specific model would be appreciated.
> 
> --
> 
> Robert Brown

 

----------

## mb

i got an 3com Cyclone 3c982, no problems, good drivers and FAST !  :Cool: 

#mb

----------

## jtmace

oh man, if youre looking for 'bang for you buck' nic you gotta get a Realtek 8139..   I buy mine brand new for 10 dollars..  I've never once had a problem with one..  theyre so simple that the have practically no unnessicary points of failure..

----------

## chatwood2

Yeah, cards that use a realtek 8139 chip are normally very fast and very inexpensive.  But beware of everchanging hardware.  I recently purchase a few Archtek Smartlink cards (highly rated on http://lhd.datapower.com/), and they suposedly used a realtek 8139.  When they arrived I saw that the chip had been changed to a davicom (linux driver "dmfe").  The dmfe driver is very new and not fast at all, so the cards were useless to me.

Same thing happened with a D-Link 530TX+ I recently bought (was realtek, now the chip is DL10038C).   The new chip is sorta realtek, sorta not, and the driver kills itself during big file transfers.  So, this card is useless to me too.

The point is make sure what you receive in the mail is actually what you want.  A recent card I have gotten that I think will work is an Encore ENL832-TX+ (it does in fact use the realtek 8139).

 - Chris

----------

## pjp

I'm using an SMC. Never had a problem.  Was free for me, no idea what they cost.

Browse the options under 'make menuconfig' and pick one that is supported  :Wink: 

----------

## Robert

Thanks all, 

    I actually had problems with the linksys LNE100TX, but hey.. I cant complain for a $10.00 card ;). I also have a Realtec 8139 which I have had no reliability issues with, but read somewhere that it is slower than the average 10/100 NIC.

In any case, I see several nics on the market that are much more pricy than the popular $10-$25 cards. Since I am in the market for a few new NICs after having redone the home LAN here, I figured I would see if I could find out if the more expensive cards (assumed to be of better quality) have any real performance or pratical advantages. 

Well turns out most people seem to be using the cheapies ;)... as I have pretty much always done here. Although this time I think I will go for the 3Com 905CX-TXNM which appears to be well supported in Linux/BSD and is available at Newegg for about $40.00 including shiping.  Thanks everyone, I do appreicate the feedback.

Oh.... and did I forget mention that Gentoo Rocks? ;)

--

Robert Brown

----------

## Sivar

If you want a proven, reliable, definitely compatible card with excellent drivers for most OSes, I'd go with an Intel Pro/100+ or a 3Com. Finding one for under $50 is not difficult on the internet (possibly half that)

----------

## mksoft

You can't go wrong with Intel EtherExpress pro/100.

On the cheaper front, tulip based cards (I use kingston 110TX, but they stopped the production of NICs) are great as well.

----------

## mellofone

 *mksoft wrote:*   

> You can't go wrong with Intel EtherExpress pro/100.
> 
> On the cheaper front, tulip based cards (I use kingston 110TX, but they stopped the production of NICs) are great as well.

 

Agreed. I have used the EtherExpress Pro 100 server and desktop adapters in everything from Win95 to linux and have had no problems yet.

----------

## Mimamau

yes, intel cards are ok.

sometimes i have heard about 3com nics which get broken after a few months, specially when they are used with linux and WOL, can anyone validate this?

----------

## abhishek

Under 50? I'd never pay more then 10. Right now i have a linksys and a a rhine(integrated on board). They both worj with no problems.

----------

## delta407

$10 NICs work fine, but I've found they often have performance problems. Intel NICs are great (one of the best of the bunch), but tend to be a little expensive.

My personal favorite, in terms of price, performance, packaging, and... everything is the D-Link DFE-530TX+. You can usually find it for $20; it's a good NIC. I've handled over a hundred of these with no issues, and good speed too.

----------

## PimpNasty

I purchased a few 3com 3c905B off of EBay about a year back... they can be had for around $15 and have never failed me.  Nice speed too.  I would stay away from the "cheaper" NICs because they usually cause higher processor utilization and sometimes cant handle a load.

----------

## fsck_ms

I have a 3com 3C905C-TX card. Yeah, it cost me about $50, but it's been very reliable. I also get somewhat lower pings on my network with it. For cheap cards, I have some network everywhere (linksys subsidiary) nc100s. They cost me about $15 at some office store, and they work pretty well, being tulip cards. I even got it to work in my pci powermac, although it seems to only work every other time I boot the machine.

----------

