Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 23:33:01 +0000 (GMT) From: Cliff Rowley <dozprompt@onsea.com> To: Isaac Waldron <waldroni@lr.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Netgear FA310TX NIC Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9912302303520.7410-100000@merlin.onsea.com> In-Reply-To: <002601bf5307$36ef6b80$0bd985d0@camry>
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> Thanks for the advice, but I should have been more specific. The other > reason I want the hub (or small switch, if I can find the cash) is because I > have friends who want to play games on Windoze (I dual boot FreeBSD and > Windoze 98). That way, I can have some friends come over with their > machines and set up a game fest, perhaps using my FreeBSD box as a server > (there is a port for Quakeserver, a popular game). So, basically my > question is, how is the FA310TX as far as reliability and speed? Was it an > easy setup? Is it a reasonably fast card (as far as 100 mbps NIC's go)? > > Thanks again, > Isaac Waldron The FA310TX is not a bad card as cheap cards go, but I did recently have problems with one under FreeBSD. My connection between FreeBSD and Windows was mostly at 10baseT sort of speed, and at times it would have been quicker to span an archive across floppy disks and copy data manually, even though the cards and hub were all working at 100baseTX. This completely baffled me, as I expected the card to just work. But anyway, I took both of the FA310TX cards and the DS104 hub back to the shop, and exchanged them for couple of LinkSys LNE100TX boards, and a LinkSys Hub, and got them back home - tested them out - and *exactly* the same thing happened. I spent a good few days trying to work it out, and in the meantime took back the LinkSys kit, and bought two 3Com 3c905C-TX cards, and the original DS104 hub. Everything works perfectly now, but I have still not worked out the problem. I did buy an extra FA310TX so I could spend a few more days messing with it, but I havent yet had the time. After spending a lot of time talking to lots of different people about it (I add that noone seemed to be too bothered about it, which dissapoints me), the general concensus is that the drivers are young. Whether I am supposed to take this as "the work on the drivers has only just begun" or "the drivers have been around for a while, but they havent got very far" I dont know. On the other side of the coin, I do know people who have had no problems at all with either of those particular cards. My advice would be to go with a 3com or Intel card if you can afford it. If not, make sure you are able to return the card(s) if you cannot get them working. Sorry for the huge reply, I've been going mad not being near my trusty FreeBSD box over Christmas, and all of a sudden I have an urge to type lots :) Cliff - Happy new year ;) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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