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Re: [Sheflug] NICs
On Thu, Nov 16, 2000 at 12:05:38AM +0000, Sammy Redshaw wrote:
> I am looking to setup a small network in the home i will need to network
> 3 computers together i have seen in maplin linksys 10/100mbit erthnet
> card for 19.99 which come with linux support for them as i am new to
> this subject of networks i understand how they are 'supposed' to work
> but not the 'black art' of it i would like to know if i can get the nics
> and hub cheaper with linux support to fall back on.
If I were you, I'd hunt for really cheap cards that are NE2000
compatible (ISA type). They work great, and you can probably get 20 for
a tenner (as my experience goes. Unfortunately, all used up at the
moment). Whatever is you end up buying, make sure you know what chip's
doing the actual work (i.e., I have a cheap and nasty PCI card with some
flashy name on it, something like "PowerCard 2000", you get the idea,
but it is actually based on the RTL 8139 chip, which is supported by
Linux. Poorly, but supported).
If you have to go for PCI, it might be a good idea to go for an
RTL 8139 based card. The driver might be flakey in terms of Beowulf
performance, but is serving me well.
As for hubs, I am not aware of any having Linux support or
otherwise, but that's because I only use cheap crappy ones. Any should
be fine, unless of course you're setting up a rendering farm in your
bedroom (not a good idea, too noisy, but it does away with the need of
central heating!).
It might be useful to have a look at the Linux Documentation
Project. The Network Admin's Guide is/was quite good. The time duality
expressed in the previous sentence arises from the fact that I'm not
sure whether it has been updated of late. And of course, it's free :-)
And as someone also said in this thread, you're likely to get
good support in this list. I'm a satisfied customer :-)
Best luck
José
--
José L Gómez Dans PhD student
Tel: +44 114 222 5582 Radar & Communications Group
FAX; +44 870 132 2990 Department of Electronic Engineering
University of Sheffield UK
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