NIC cards

[Will]

Getting my cable modem fitted on the 7th of July, free of charge due to poor telephone service.

I need to get a NIC card, and I need a piece of advice.
Do I want a 10Mps or a 100Mps Ethernet card? Any recommended makes? I am setting up a home network, but we never really transfer files anyway.

 

[Perplex]

Well, you'll need 2 NICs in one of your machines then unless you get an external cable-routing hub. The 'internal' NIC should be 100mbps really, so you can swap files/play games on your internal LAN at warp speed.

Can't go wrong with 3com if you can afford it. Also, the CableModem only runs at 10mbps HALF duplex, although apparantly some people (and I am sceptical about this) have it running at 100mbps FULL duplex. Eitherway, it matters not...you only have a 0.5mbps connection

 

[bids]

100 Mb Netgear 311 TX - works a treat on mine

 

[bids]

Cheap too - 'bout £20 'ish.

 

[Ch3tan]

Yeah I got one of three fo thoose cards.

I am getting some 3com ones though, well worth the cash.

Might as well get a nice shiny network card the best u can afford.

 

[Will]

Cheers people.

I'm buying an antique 486 or Pentium to serve the cm, but telewest have a set of min specs for machines (identical min specs to IE4.0 btw) so they will insist on wiring it to my 800.

I get paid b4 the install, so shiny 3Com 100Mps network cards coming up.

 

[Will]

About the CM speeds - I've heard that some ntl modems aren't capped. I've never heard of TW running above the advertised speeds (and I work for them!)

P.S. Don't flame me - it's just a job

 

[Perplex]

My NTL modem has always run at about 80 - 100k And that's supposed to be the 512 service

can't wait for the 1mbit, which will give me almost 2mbit speeds with any luck. Just wish that cable didn't have such inherintly gay upload speeds

 

[Will]

I know that the CM can support 100people on the 512k speed per cable node (about 250 people? depends on the company and the population of your area)
I never heard of them running so slow - what do NTL say about this?

 

[Perplex]

errr? slow? let me reitterate. I download at 100Kbs. that's 1MBIT speed. It should be at 50Kbs

 

[Will]

doh!

It's very generous of them to give you the extra bandwidth. Does anyone else out there have their CM running at a faster rate than they pay for? I'm just curious really.

 

[bids]

Mine's similar to Perp's, although 100 is the peak - normally get about 70-80

 

[Embattle]

Well loving my CM atm and I did have 2 FA310TX's but went for a Linksys 100TX coz I wanted WOL

 

[Mr_Horus]

Heh. I have a cheapo 10 quid NIC from my local and it works perfectly
And no, there are no uncapped Cable Modems doing the rounds. That is impossible under the EuroDOCSIS system. Go read it up if you want, i aint explaining it here.

 

[Perplex]

Yep, the DOCSIS standard makes all speed control head-end side, and not user (CM) side like the previous cable systems. Only way to get more speed is to pay for it, or make friends with someone at your local NTL franchise

 

[]SK[]

i heard you can bribe the ntl guy to up your connection to 1mbit

he sets it at the exchange down your road.

i never believe things like this but its worth a bash

 

[Perplex]

Nope, that's bollocks. It's not set "down the road"