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Date:      Wed, 7 Nov 2001 14:04:24 -0600
From:      David Kelly <dkelly@hiwaay.net>
To:        "Paul A. Howes" <pahowes@fair-ware.com>
Cc:        stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: What NIC to choose ?
Message-ID:  <20011107140424.A27536@grumpy.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <001001c166ba$af90fef0$0200a8c0@beast>; from pahowes@fair-ware.com on Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 07:00:53AM -0500
References:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0111051255440.64922-100000@ren.sasknow.com> <001001c166ba$af90fef0$0200a8c0@beast>

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On Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 07:00:53AM -0500, Paul A. Howes wrote:
> Marcel-
> 
> Intel cards are the best supported in FreeBSD, but I found that in
> general, they are not worth the high price they usually command.

Depends. Bought pulls a while back at a "computer show" 3 for $8. Found
more at the Dayton Hamvention last year for $2 to $5 each. Not currently
but recently Computer Geeks http://www.compgeeks.com/ has had them for
$9 each. Bought 4 from compgeeks (when the price was $20) and one has a
bad media interface.  Still waiting on a replacement for that one.

As to "not worth the high price", that too depends. If a card costs $50
and never has one hiccup of a problem then the price isn't all that bad.
Even if your labor cost was only $10/hr.

> Windows XP has built in drivers for this card, but earlier versions do
> not; use the supplied floppy in that instance.

(above is actually talking about a non-Intel NIC)
When dealing with MS products, IMHO is perfectly fine for the NIC not to
work with the base installation as you'd get infected with the nasty
stuff on port 80 quicker than you could download the patches to close
the hole. So while you have to have the fix on local media you might as
well have the proper drivers for your NIC also.

It just so happens NT4 doesn't support the Intel NIC right out of the
box either.

-- 
David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@hiwaay.net
=====================================================================
The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its
capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system.

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