VOGONS


First post, by stalk3r

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Could someone recommend a type or model (must be ISA) that is the most "hassle free" in terms of compatibility, and ease of installation in DOS / WfW311? Thanks!

Reply 1 of 20, by HandOfFate

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I've had good experiences with both the 3com Etherlink III and Realtek RTL8019AS in MS-DOS, Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.11 WfW. Realtek still hosts all the drivers for their old cards themselves.

Am486 DX4 120MHz, no L2, 16MB, Tseng ET4000/W32 1MB VLB, ESS ES1869 /// 5x86 133MHz, 256kb L2, 64MB, S3 Virge/DX 4MB PCI, SB16 + Yucatan FX, PicoGUS /// Pentium III 1GHz, 512MB, Asus V7700 64MB AGP, SB Live!

Reply 2 of 20, by stalk3r

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HandOfFate wrote on 2020-08-21, 12:46:

I've had good experiences with both the 3com Etherlink III and Realtek RTL8019AS in MS-DOS, Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.11 WfW. Realtek still hosts all the drivers for their old cards themselves.

Cool, thanks!

Reply 3 of 20, by GigAHerZ

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Completely hassle-free: 3C509B cards.

Absolutely no excitement, no learning of anything and rock solid stability. The most boring cards ever. 😜

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - And i intend to get every last bit out of it even after loading every damn driver!

Reply 5 of 20, by creepingnet

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Linksys Etherfast pnp isa cards. I pretty much slap the drivers on and they just work. It also helps I have the original diskettes as I bought 3 shrink-wrapped 7 years ago and have used 2 so far.

I just put a SMC Ether EZ (8416 chip) in my NEC Versa dock last weekend....similar story. Its only issue is special to me using WiFi and Ethernet on a pair of 1994 era 486 laptops

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Reply 7 of 20, by keropi

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I use RTL8019 cards: maybe not the fastest but:
- easily located DOS packet driver
- NDIS/3 wfw3.11 driver meaning there is no need to preload anything in DOS to get networking going
- works in either 8bit or 16bit slots

I am sure there are also other cards with the same advantages but RTL8019 cards are so easily available I got a bunch and have to worry about only 1 driver for all my builds

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Reply 8 of 20, by computerguy08

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The Etherlink III is the most hassle free NIC for Wfw 3.11. It comes with built-in drivers for Windows.

The RTL8019AS is also a good choice, the drivers are easy to find and install.

These are the ones that I use mostly in ISA-only systems.

Reply 9 of 20, by mpe

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Look for "NE2000 compatible" card which most cheap ISA cards were back in early 90s.

NE2000 was a "Sound Blaster like" standard in networking in those days and such a card typically needs no special drivers (unlike many premium cards).

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Reply 11 of 20, by matze79

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mpe wrote on 2020-08-22, 14:22:

Look for "NE2000 compatible" card which most cheap ISA cards were back in early 90s.

NE2000 was a "Sound Blaster like" standard in networking in those days and such a card typically needs no special drivers (unlike many premium cards).

but often is a tool needed to configure the cards io resources, be sure to take one that can be fully jumpered.

Best is get a 3Com or a Intel EtherPro ISA Card.

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Reply 12 of 20, by jakethompson1

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stalk3r wrote on 2020-08-22, 20:44:

Thank you guys for all your inputs. I have just ordered a 3Com Etherlink III.

Nice, that's one of the highest end ISA ethernet cards, I think.
If you're using WfW 3.11, be aware there that MS released a patched EtherLink III driver at some point that you can find on a mirror site. I'm not exactly sure what it fixes.

Someone mentioned NE2000, and this may apply to the EtherLink III too, but I noticed with my NE2000, when WfW 3.11 prompts for the card's IRQ it's preset to 3, deceptively looking like it autodetected it. It does not (mine is set to 10), and even if it did, that's a bad choice since it conflicts with COM2:. So be super sure of your settings before you let WfW do anything with it.

Reply 13 of 20, by stalk3r

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jakethompson1 wrote on 2020-08-23, 01:17:
Nice, that's one of the highest end ISA ethernet cards, I think. If you're using WfW 3.11, be aware there that MS released a pat […]
Show full quote
stalk3r wrote on 2020-08-22, 20:44:

Thank you guys for all your inputs. I have just ordered a 3Com Etherlink III.

Nice, that's one of the highest end ISA ethernet cards, I think.
If you're using WfW 3.11, be aware there that MS released a patched EtherLink III driver at some point that you can find on a mirror site. I'm not exactly sure what it fixes.

Someone mentioned NE2000, and this may apply to the EtherLink III too, but I noticed with my NE2000, when WfW 3.11 prompts for the card's IRQ it's preset to 3, deceptively looking like it autodetected it. It does not (mine is set to 10), and even if it did, that's a bad choice since it conflicts with COM2:. So be super sure of your settings before you let WfW do anything with it.

The one I ordered does not seem to have a single jumper on it; so the configuration is done via software I guess?

q3oyeIM.jpg

Reply 14 of 20, by HandOfFate

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Yes, that's right. I think I used these driver disks (this site, Metropoli, is a nice resources of drivers in general)

Am486 DX4 120MHz, no L2, 16MB, Tseng ET4000/W32 1MB VLB, ESS ES1869 /// 5x86 133MHz, 256kb L2, 64MB, S3 Virge/DX 4MB PCI, SB16 + Yucatan FX, PicoGUS /// Pentium III 1GHz, 512MB, Asus V7700 64MB AGP, SB Live!

Reply 15 of 20, by GigAHerZ

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@stalk3r, good choice! You have all the connections, you could wish for, also present.

Yes, configuration is done through utility in EtherLink III diskettes. (Full set was 2 floppies, i think) Those things are widely available around the net. 😀

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - And i intend to get every last bit out of it even after loading every damn driver!

Reply 16 of 20, by stalk3r

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GigAHerZ wrote on 2020-08-25, 06:49:

@stalk3r, good choice! You have all the connections, you could wish for, also present.

Yes, configuration is done through utility in EtherLink III diskettes. (Full set was 2 floppies, i think) Those things are widely available around the net. 😀

Thanks. I am planning to put it into my Compaq Portable 386 and do some retro web browsing 😀 (though not sure how the plasma CGA display will cope with it).

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Reply 17 of 20, by InbetweenDays

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I'll second that.
3Com Etherlink III has been my "go-to" card since I first started using them 25 years ago.
For non PnP cards, some of the SMC cards can be good, but some can be a pain (can't remember which right now!)
But to add to what others have said re the 3Com -- they are also the easiest I've found for using the XTIDE universal BIOS as the boot ROM (I use the AT28C64B)

Also a note re WFW... it can appear to hang at the splash screen if there's trouble with DHCP... so wait a while for the blue screen before you reach for the reset button. 😂

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got 5-pin DIN.
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Reply 18 of 20, by Intel486dx33

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stalk3r wrote on 2020-08-24, 12:22:
The one I ordered does not seem to have a single jumper on it; so the configuration is done via software I guess? […]
Show full quote
jakethompson1 wrote on 2020-08-23, 01:17:
Nice, that's one of the highest end ISA ethernet cards, I think. If you're using WfW 3.11, be aware there that MS released a pat […]
Show full quote
stalk3r wrote on 2020-08-22, 20:44:

Thank you guys for all your inputs. I have just ordered a 3Com Etherlink III.

Nice, that's one of the highest end ISA ethernet cards, I think.
If you're using WfW 3.11, be aware there that MS released a patched EtherLink III driver at some point that you can find on a mirror site. I'm not exactly sure what it fixes.

Someone mentioned NE2000, and this may apply to the EtherLink III too, but I noticed with my NE2000, when WfW 3.11 prompts for the card's IRQ it's preset to 3, deceptively looking like it autodetected it. It does not (mine is set to 10), and even if it did, that's a bad choice since it conflicts with COM2:. So be super sure of your settings before you let WfW do anything with it.

The one I ordered does not seem to have a single jumper on it; so the configuration is done via software I guess?

q3oyeIM.jpg

Yes, you need to configure the card first before you load the drivers.
There is a configuration utility on the install disks.
I forgot what it is called. But it is easy. It has an auto detect and configure feature so it selects all the settings for you and then you can run the tests
to ensure your card is configured correctly.
For DOS all you need is the Packet driver.
In Win 3x , NT and 95 it automatically detects the card.

Here is a video about setting up the Intel card but the 3com card setup is similar.
https://youtu.be/Yw8moAQ1wTA?t=2605

Some settings:

The 3c5x9CFG.exe setup program detects my 3c509b-tx fine and passes all tests.

I just want to use the packet driver "3C5X9PD.com"
I am using this autoexec.bat config
C:\3C5X9PD -w 0x60 IOBASE=0x300

See posts:
Re: Performance difference between ISA NICs?

Driver:
https://oldsoftware.club/download/3c5x9x-zip

Reply 19 of 20, by Robin4

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HandOfFate wrote on 2020-08-24, 13:34:

Yes, that's right. I think I used these driver disks (this site, Metropoli, is a nice resources of drivers in general)

Are there also dos drivers for these cards?

Its not very handy if you want to use a bigger HDD which the bios dont allow. So then have to look first for a smaller size disk that will work.
After that have to install windows 95.. And then it would be possible to start up the card config tool to set the correct address for the LBA boot rom.

Its much easier to use a boot disk, set the card.. Install a lot bigger HDD, and then install windows 95 on it.

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