Need more details, is there a model number for the card? Does it have any jumpers? Better yet, post a picture of the card.
If the UMC chip is a UM9003, then it is NE2000 compatible but the IO port and IRQ configuration must match the driver's. How did Windows 95 install the driver, is it from "search for new hardware" or was the driver manually selected?

Does the router support 10Mb connections?

You may need to get a 10/100 switch to act as a go-between.

cyclone3d wrote on 2023-03-07, 00:49:

Does the router support 10Mb connections?

You may need to get a 10/100 switch to act as a go-between.

+1 +1 +1 🤣 My main Giga router is "10/100/1000" but hates 10Mb so I get older 10/100 switches to make the connections from my old gear to the main router.

First thing to do is set it to DHCP. If the card picks up an IP address off your router then you know the basics are working. If not good chance the card is using incorrect drivers, resources, router doesn't support 10mb, or a number of other issues but at least we know it's not windows networking at fault.
Part 2 of getting this to work will no doubt be the windows networking and security side of things but we need to know basic networking is up and running first.

First and foremost, make sure the card is properly configured.
If there are jumpers on the card - check them all, otherwise use the proper configuration software.

There's plenty of config problems possible, eg.:
- address and/or IRQ conflict with other device
- it's possible that Windows incorrectly detected the IRQ
- the card may be set to the BNC port, while your're using RJ45

not being able to ping on the same subnet/mask is layer 2. you can eliminate the entirety of the windows networking stack (layer 3) from the troubleshooting for now and concentrate on the physical hardware and drivers as others have suggested.

jtchip wrote on 2023-03-07, 00:32:

Need more details, is there a model number for the card? Does it have any jumpers? Better yet, post a picture of the card.
If the UMC chip is a UM9003, then it is NE2000 compatible but the IO port and IRQ configuration must match the driver's. How did Windows 95 install the driver, is it from "search for new hardware" or was the driver manually selected?

Thank you for helping

here is a picture of the card

https://freeimage.host/i/HWP3KqQ

sorry the pic quality is not the best
It is a UMC 9003AF chip
I dont think I am having issues with IRQ channels (it is set to 12) or addresses (set to 300 - all jumpers at the top off) as I have very little hardware installed

I have not done anything to install is, when I installed windows 95 I selected "network card" in the install options and it installed it

Thank you for the help 😀

cyclone3d wrote on 2023-03-07, 00:49:

Does the router support 10Mb connections?

You may need to get a 10/100 switch to act as a go-between.

I have no idea 😜
have a look at the picture

I would say it is 10 mbs but does it make any difference the speed?

Grzyb wrote on 2023-03-07, 12:36:

First and foremost, make sure the card is properly configured. If there are jumpers on the card - check them all, otherwise use […]
Show full quote

First and foremost, make sure the card is properly configured.
If there are jumpers on the card - check them all, otherwise use the proper configuration software.

There's plenty of config problems possible, eg.:
- address and/or IRQ conflict with other device
- it's possible that Windows incorrectly detected the IRQ
- the card may be set to the BNC port, while your're using RJ45

have a look at the picture
https://freeimage.host/i/HWP3KqQ

there are only jumpers for IRQ witch is 13 but I dont think it is conflicting with anything
the "Address" is set to 300 and the other jumpers is just for the room startup address in the uper memory

there is also a mysterious jumper JP1 with positions A and B that could be as people suggested to switch from BNC to RJ45 but I tryed them both with same result

thank you

It is set to port 300 and IRQ 12. It is not IRQ 13, because this is for the FPU (builtin coprocessor).
Does your 486 have a PS/2 mouse? Then it is in conflict with it.

Disruptor wrote on 2023-03-07, 18:46:

It is set to port 300 and IRQ 12. It is not IRQ 13, because this is for the FPU (builtin coprocessor).
Does your 486 have a PS/2 mouse? Then it is in conflict with it.

Yes it is IRQ 12
No, it is COM port mouse 😀

And I dont have much hardware installed that requires IRQ ... no sound card

thank you for your input

Did you make sure you got the right cable? You need either straight through or crossover, I forget which. Modern cards don't usually care and reconfigure themselves to use either, old ones can't do that. See what you're currently using and try the other type.

Nunoalex wrote on 2023-03-07, 17:58:

It is a UMC 9003AF chip
I dont think I am having issues with IRQ channels (it is set to 12) or addresses (set to 300 - all jumpers at the top off) as I have very little hardware installed

I used to have a card with a UM9003F but with an additional AUI output. The typeface on the silkscreen looks the same so it could well be the same manufacturer. That just worked without issues as an NE2000 in DOS or Windows 98. It has the same individually selectable IRQ jumpers, a set of jumpers marked ROM, MEM, and I/O and with all off it sets it to port 300h, like yours.

The mysterious jumper on mine is marked JP3 but I never figured out its function. Instead, mine also had a 4x8 block of jumpers selectable between TP, AUI, and BNC, which I don't see on yours so I'm hoping yours simply autoselects.

Nunoalex wrote on 2023-03-07, 17:58:

I have not done anything to install is, when I installed windows 95 I selected "network card" in the install options and it installed it

I guess that means you installed Windows 95 with the network card installed? That's the same as "search for new hardware".

Is it a PnP or PCI system? If so, you need to mark IRQ 12 as "reserved for ISA" in the BIOS setup otherwise you could get an IRQ conflict even if you don't have a PS/2 mouse (my Slot-1 440BX system will assign IRQ 12 to a PCI device if a PS/2 mouse is not plugged in). Otherwise, try IRQ 5, assuming you don't have another device using it, usually this is for LPT2 or a sound card but you say you don't have one. This is an 8-bit IRQ in case there are issues with 16-bit IRQs on your system.

Nunoalex wrote on 2023-03-07, 18:01:

I would say it is 10 mbs but does it make any difference the speed?

@cyclone3d was referring to the router or switch that the network card is plugged into, trying switching to another one, if you have one. I haven't had issues with 10Mbps network devices on my Gigabit or 100Mbps routers or switches but perhaps some may be quite fussy.

When you ping another device, does the light on the network card blink? Does the activity light on the port on the router/switch blink?

The cable suggestion is a good one, you need a straight-through cable to connect to a switch, or a crossover to connect to another computer.

I'd recommend to use either IRQ 11 or IRQ 10 and perhaps port 280.

Ok everyone - PROBLEM SOLVED

Network card is working and I can connect to my home network and transfer files (I will check the internet after)

So to make a summary of things in case someone runs into similar issues ... yes it was good old IRQ misconfiguration

- My ISA network card of unknown brand is not plug and play and the IRQ is set by jumpers on the board (jumper was set to IRQ 12)
- When installing windows 95 it did manage to install some generic drivers to NE2000 compatible card and they are working fine
- What I didn't realize was that windows did configure the card with another assigned IRQ (in this case 3, probably is the default for network cards) and that made the card ,of course unresponsive when windows was trying to reach it
- The way I fixed it was when into "system" -> device manager -> network adapter-> properties -> resources and uncheck the "use automatic settings" and then set the correct IRQ manually (to 12 in my case)

after a reboot it was working like a charm!

Thank you everyone here that helped

As I said...

Grzyb wrote on 2023-03-07, 12:36:

- it's possible that Windows incorrectly detected the IRQ

I'm not sure if Windows even attempts detection, or just assumes the default setting.
IRQ 3 is indeed the default for NE2000, and the original variant doesn't even support high IRQ channels, only 2, 3, 4, 5.