Topic: Can someone recom a great ethernet card? (Read 5244 times)

JMM · « **Reply #20 on:** March 03, 2004, 08:52:46 am »

A P/C guru recom that I get a Ethernet card for this POS Dell P3 since the Webstar unit used by the Mexican cable company has a connection for that as well as USB, currently I am on USB as that is the only hookup Dell has on this POS.

I know they are cheap, but is an ethernet card an ethernet card etc...? Or are they like video cards and such and their is quality and then there is trash?

I'm ready to at least have 20Kbs downloads as well as faster access time, this avg 10 Kbs is a bunch of BS!

762 · « **Reply #21 on:** March 03, 2004, 08:58:51 am »

USB typically gets about 10Mbps throughput. I seriously doubt that's your bottleneck.

JMM · « **Reply #22 on:** March 03, 2004, 09:50:12 am »

Strange, that's what the connection icon says as well. Any recommendations on how to find the bottleneck? Is it just the Mexican cable company or is the P/C? Is there a free tool that searches for this stuff?

762 · « **Reply #23 on:** March 03, 2004, 11:49:57 am »

What type of connection do you have?

JMM · « **Reply #24 on:** March 03, 2004, 01:14:45 pm »

Cable, the Mexicans use the Scientific Atlanta Webstar modems (remember when roadrunner had a CD to install and configure?).

The icon says local are connection 10.0 Mbps, even though Seth warned me I'll never get that speed, but darn, it can't just be this P3 Dell POS with 128 Mb RAM, I should be going faster on downloads than an avg 10-12Kbs, at home on roadrunner I avg 30 plus!

I was told ethernet is faster than USB. That is what I use on my Sony VAIO at home with roadrunner.

762 · « **Reply #25 on:** March 03, 2004, 01:34:37 pm »

Jack there is no way your USB is limiting you to 20 Kbps. Monkeys on typewriters can transmit faster.

Your download speed could be bottlenecked in a lot of different places, but any of them will be outside of your modem, up to and including the website you are downloading from.

Keep in mind that cable is a shared medium. If 10,000 Mexicans are downloading at the same time your throughput will be p00py.

JMM · « **Reply #26 on:** March 03, 2004, 01:45:23 pm »

I know, I guess it is the company, as I know Canadians and Americans are better wired than Chihuahua City

Thanks 762. I'll post more later, I have a cold and I'm on meds for that as well as for other things, and I have been laying down. I appreciate your help.

Barabbas · « **Reply #27 on:** March 03, 2004, 01:59:33 pm »

'Good' network cards work with everything. Bad ones are picky about the hubs/devices/networks that they will talk to. Other than that, performance really isn't an issue.... One 10/100 card is much like any other.

Here's a link to a very handy freeware utility that can help you troubleshoot your connection issues:

Net.Medic by Vital Signs

After the trial period expires, the best part (the bandwidth monitor) still works.

Blyre · « **Reply #28 on:** March 03, 2004, 06:20:36 pm »

I would recommend looking into 3Com, SMC, or Linksys. I'm not sure if US Robotics makes a network card but they are worth looking into as well.

Wallace

JMM · « **Reply #29 on:** March 03, 2004, 06:51:53 pm »

Thank you B, I suppose network is the cable company or is it the P/C I'm using? I'm not connected to a router or anything, it's just like in Austin, P/C to cable modem to cable company.

Good tool BTW, thanks a bunch! I'll have to print the help files later on when I'm feeling better.

IKV Nemesis D7L · « **Reply #30 on:** March 03, 2004, 06:52:08 pm »

Quote:

I would recommend looking into 3Com, SMC, or Linksys. I'm not sure if US Robotics makes a network card but they are worth looking into as well.

Wallace

3Com owns US Robotics. My experience with 3Com has not been good. My dual CPU motherboards came bundled with 3Com cards, cards that would work only if I had one CPU installed instead of 2. Seriously annoyed me.

Linksys makes a decent (cheap under $10 CDN) 10/100 card, I am using 3 of them.

JMM · « **Reply #31 on:** March 03, 2004, 08:09:16 pm »

Ethernet is a lot better than USB, I talked to P/C and Lan experts (Americans), and they told me USB is 10 Mbps, Ethernet is 100 Mbps.

Thanks for the advice Nem, I plan on using Linksys since I know they make quality stuff! Does Best buy sell them? My VA health records finally arrived in Austin, so I will be going back to my beloved Texas in late Mar or first of April, and I always fly out of El Paso, and they have Best Buy, and all those other great American companies!

762 · « **Reply #32 on:** March 03, 2004, 11:32:28 pm »

As a network admin I have had very good experience with 3Com. The 3C905 series were very low-maintenance full duplex 10/100 cards.

P.S. Jack, ethernet IS faster than USB - but even 10 Mbps is 1000 times faster than the download speed you said you were getting.

762 · « **Reply #34 on:** March 04, 2004, 08:57:22 am »

Agree 100%. Linksys should actually be called LinkPOS.

JMM · « **Reply #35 on:** March 04, 2004, 09:16:23 am »

OK guys, I give in, I'll see what they have at Office Depot today and avoid LinkPOS, even though I was impressed with their routers.

762, I know you know your stuff my friend, and you have helped me a BUNCH, but I'm desperate to find out why I'm not getting good download speeds, so I'm willing to risk a few bucks on an ethernet card and driver disk to see if that helps. I have a month left here before returning to Texas, so I want higher speeds my man, crap, I'm paying the same here as in austin for a cable modem ($40), so I expect high download speeds as well as service. Here they quit at 5 in the afternoon

, in Austin? TWC has 24/7 service!

762 · « **Reply #36 on:** March 04, 2004, 10:56:00 am »

Good luck Jack, let us know how you make out.

JMM · « **Reply #37 on:** March 04, 2004, 07:32:55 pm »

Linksys LNE100TX ver 5.1

It was either that or a POS brand I never heard of. So here I am with 100 Mbs instead of 10 Mbs, and it's still slow going. Vicky's nephew said it has to be the cable company here as their equipment is years behind us. That could very well be true. It could also be all the frigging cyber cafes C.C. has, who knows? I'd love to tell them to quit hogging up bandwidth that I pay for! My last hope is more RAM before I fly out of E.P. to Austin and see what happens after he installs it.Not too bad a product, perhaps if I ever get the guts to build my own, I'll just use this one, though I saw on Best Buy's homepage they have 10/100/1000 Kbs ethernet cards! WOW! That would probably rock on my roadrunner and Sony P4.

Well, no OP or anything for almost a month, you guys and gals are stuck with me on the forums until then, hehehehehehe.

We all have personal preferences when it comes to motherboards, P/C brands, Intel vs Pentium, etc... I got what I could trust even though they had the el cheapos at 5-10 dollars a piece with a floppy disk. The Linksys came with a CD and everything, and was only 6 dollars more than Office Depot in the U.S. $30 vs $24.99, though the 15 percent tax rate sucks. I'm also sick of people bothering me in the parking lot of Home Depot, they want to help carry whatever you have in your cart, even if you are perfectly capable of doing it yourself, so today I had everything downloaded and this guy walks up and tries to grab my cart to take it back to the "corral" of carts (yet they still expect a tip!). I shot off with my cart and put it in the corral and he was just glaring at me, I told him "Welcome to America!"

My greatest disappointment of the day besides wasting money (which I detest), was Home Depot did not have the long UV lamps for sale like they did last week. Seems noone was buying any so they shipped them back to the U.S.

Oh well, my babies (rosebushes) will just have to wait for longer days as mirrors would look tacky on the corner of the fences, even though the fences are very artistic and steel. I'm very disappointed that they did not put primer on the metal fence before painting it.

I guess a little rust on a white fence means nothing to them, but it does to me.

JMM · « **Reply #39 on:** March 05, 2004, 12:52:03 am »

And a phrase back at ya "Strive to do it right the first time!" Hehehehehehehe, all in jest my friend.

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Topic: Can someone recom a great ethernet card? (Read 5244 times)