plain-vanilla ethernet; do brands matter?

[THUFIR HAWAT]

On 6/8/05, Michael A. Peters <mpeters at mac.com> wrote:
...
> I have yet to run across anything that is 10/100 that is a PCI card that
> doesn't just work - but if you want to be sure, Linksys cards (afaik)
> always work.

if it's 10/100 PCI it should just work, but linksys is better, ok.

then below, it doesn't work automatically.  onboard means integrated
with the main board?

> Sometimes onboard ethernet doesn't always work - IE the onboard nic on
> my nforce2 board (it works now, thanks to reverse engineering) but if
> you get a Linksys 10/100 NIC it will cost you maybe $10.00 in the U.S.
> (are you in the US??) and is very easy to install yourself - you don't
> need to pay a labor fee to have it installed (where I use to work, as a
> hardware tech, we'd charge $45.00 for that - it took us maybe 5 minutes
> to put the card in, then just booting to make sure the card was
> seen/install drivers - not really worth the expense imho)
> 
> 
> 


you echo my preconceptions in all regards but one.  here in canada,
the smc card, for example is twenty including install.  I'm
mechanically, err, challenged?, so I'll bite the bullet on the
inflated labor fees ;)

I'll check it out tomorrow, but I might pay the five or ten canadian
more for the linksys card because it's "better," or at least has that
reputation, which you emphasized.  however, I failed to mention that
cost is definitely a factor, too, even though this is really peanuts
because I'm, err, counting peanuts.

-Thufir