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Date:      Tue, 26 Jun 2001 02:14:40 -0700
From:      "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com>
To:        "Ronnie Clark" <RClark@swst.com>, "'Freebsd-Questions (E-mail)" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   RE: ISA NIC card
Message-ID:  <000f01c0fe20$6e1ee160$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com>
In-Reply-To: <EE037FA03845D41190F400508B2D851105413D3C@SWS_EXCG6>

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The most reliable ISA nic is either a 3c503, SMC8013, or
a NE2000.  Of those the SMC8013 is the best and perfectly
able to source or sink up to 10Mbt bandwidth on a 10BaseT
network on a 486/66 without being noticed by the system.
In fact I have a production router in service today that
runs on a 486/66 with a grand total of _FIVE_ 8013's in it
and I can pass a megabit of data from one interface to
another when the router is normally operating, routing
traffic on the other interfaces.  (haven't tried it with
that same megabit run out of all 5 interfaces at once, though)

A number of NE2000 clones that
work too.  (reliable because the driver is optimized)

If you put in an Intel EtherExpress16 then throw it out,
the FreeBSD driver for that card has been broken for a long
time, and it never really worked right to start with.  I've
a selection of EtherExpress16's and 3com 3c507's (the 507's use
the same driver) and every once in a few years I get the urge
to plug them in and see if anyone has fixed anything in the driver.
So far no one has.  But SMC8013's only cost a few bucks on
Ebay so there's not even incentive to bother writing a PR on
the EE16/3c507 driver now.

Ted Mittelstaedt                      tedm@toybox.placo.com
Author of:          The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide
Book website:         http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com


>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
>[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Ronnie Clark
>Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 7:55 AM
>To: 'Freebsd-Questions (E-mail)
>Subject: ISA NIC card
>
>
>Hello all:
>
>  I am trying to setup a old 486 box to be an internal web / name 
>server for
>the house, and to start teaching UNIX to my 5 year old son. The thing is
>that it is an ISA system only. Anybody know if a good ISA NIC that works
>(read: detected by) FreeBSD 4.2 during setup? I tried an Intel ISA 
>card over
>the weekend, but no luck, even after recompiling the kernel and adding in
>the lines Intel NICs. Any help is greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks'
>Ronnie C.
>
>
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