[lug] NIC fact/fiction

[Brian Jarrett]

I've never heard of this phenomenon and I disconnect cables from NICs all
the time on our networks.  The machine itself won't harm the NIC if a cable
is not plugged in.  

My guess is that someone observed the effect of having a NIC burned out
without understanding the true cause of the problem.  They probably
disconnected the cable and then found that the NIC didn't work, but a power
surge or something else could've caused it.  The only other thing that
_might_ be a possibility is if, when disconnecting the cable, someone caused
ESD damage to the NIC by grounding out to it.

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: matthew.w.mcillece at lmco.com [mailto:matthew.w.mcillece at lmco.com]
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2000 9:00 AM
To: clue-tech at clue.denver.co.us; lug at lug.boulder.co.us
Subject: [lug] NIC fact/fiction


Has anyone ever heard of a network card "burning out" from being
disconnected from the ethernet for an extended period?  It seems silly to me
because I had my network card powered up in my box for months before I had
anything to connect it to and it still works fine.  But I heard second hand
that if you disconnect the ethernet cable while the machine is powered up
that it will burn out the network card.

_______________________________________________
Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
Mailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lug