[lug] NIC Speed

[Ferdinand Schmid]

"J. Wayde Allen" wrote:
<snip> 
> A few days ago I stopped by CompUSA to see what they had for network
> cards.  If I remember correctly they were selling Linksys, Compaq,
> Siemens, and 3com NIC's.  I hadn't looked into this lately and was a bit
> surprised at the price range from $15 to $100.  It wasn't at all clear to
> me what the advantages or disadvantages were between the ends of this
> scale either.  Anyone know for sure?
> 
> I was intrigued by the clearance sale on the Siemens cards since the box
> said it supported Linux, unlike all of the other products.  Anyone have
> experience with these?
> 
<snip>
I have used D-Link cards over the years along with 3Com and others. 
Most of the 3Com card's can't handle duplex mode.  D-Link has changed
the chipset over the years without a significant change in the model
number from ViaRhine over RTL-8139 to sundance (linux module names). 
They always worked - although the old ViaRhine moduels occasionally left
strange syslog messages behind.  But to date I never had failures or
downtime due to those cards.  A few months ago I started buying the
Intel EtherPRO cards at around $20..$30 apiece.  I don't see significant
throughput differences but the Intel cards can netboot.  With a good
switch they all perform their 8MB/s (+/-1MB/s).  I think for card
testing the switch/hub should be replaced with a crossover cable to
eliminate its potential impact.  The new D-Link cards also minimize CPU
impact.

Ferdinand

-- 
Ferdinand Schmid
Architectural Energy Corporation
Celebrating 20 Years of Improving Building Energy Performance
http://www.archenergy.com