My new main W98 system has a P3 850, 512Mb ram, and a Promise Ultra 66 IDE controller, I don't think that performance will be much of an issue.

I did some fun playing around with some hi perf 32 bit pci network cards a while back.

I think the best one is the killer nic, but it’s kinda hard to find. Took some searching to track one down.

The next is probably the intel (pictured)

I’m pretty sure the killer NIC doesn’t have 9x drivers. But the intel if I recall, does. I’m running xp now and can’r recall. Perhaps someone can chime in.

douglar wrote on 2021-11-23, 01:50:

It's getting difficult to do useful networking between Windows98 and anything built after 2010. […]
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It's getting difficult to do useful networking between Windows98 and anything built after 2010.

I have not had much luck getting Windows98 to work with most HTTPS websites lately:
https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/ … s-sites-in-2015

Windows file transfers to Win98 require SMB 1.0, which is usually turned off by default these days:
http://kishy.ca/?p=1511

And if you CPU is < 200 Mhz, you might quickly remember how CPU limitted file manipulation could be back in those days. 4x over so if something is zipped and you don't have busmaster IDE.

I usualy find it more pleasant to do the file manipulation on a faster computer and use "sneaker net"

If I got a PCI system with Win98, I'll install the USB storage drivers. For older systems, I usualy set up a front mounted CF drive and reboot between transfers.

But if you want to do Duke Nukem 3D lan on IPX, or you have an emotional attachment to winsock or something, then you definitely want your lan card in there.

I think the opposite, slower the PC more convenient the network is.
Do the file manipulation or unzipping on the faster PC definitely. then kick off the file transfer and walk away or continue working on the faster PC and small files like divers don't take long at all.
But mostly I just like not having to mess around with media, be it cards, CD's etc.

but yes it's purely personal choice. Sometimes I will install off floppy just for the nostalgia and that makes no sense at all

Thanks for all the helpful network tips.

chinny22 wrote on 2021-11-23, 09:42:

but yes it's purely personal choice. Sometimes I will install off floppy just for the nostalgia and that makes no sense at all

I remember pipelining a 12 floppy Word Perfect 5.0 upgrade back in the 80's at a computer lab. Computer 1 got floppy 1. Then computer 2 got floppy 1, computer 1 got floppy 2, etc. Excellent excercise in system efficiency, but by the time I was done I had a lot of motivation figure out how to do installs from the Netware server. The floppy shuffle really cut into my weekly computer periodical reading. I remember infoworld, network world & pc week . They were the large form newspaper print type things you could get for free if you filled out their user surveys. Spent at least 1/2 day reading them every wednesday

Perfect thread to ask my questions. And I don't even have to necro it.

So, I got an Intel NIC and a 3com. After reading this thread, I will keep those for my personal gaming rigs.
But I also have two rigs, which I no longer need and want to sell. Since it's not worth to sell (most) NICs individually, I want to add them to the rigs as a bonus.

Rig number 1 is a 1GHz Coppermine with Voodoo3 and Soundblaster Live. It got replaced by a 2.16GHz Athlon XP. Still missing the Voodoo5. I intend to buy it from the proceeds of these two machines.
Rig number 2 is a 200MHz Pentium (non MMX) with a Matrox Millenium II and Soundblaster Vibra16. It got replaced by a K6 with GeForce2+Voodoo2. My AWE moved from the Pentium to the K6.

I have six Realtek cards:

So, RTL8139 is taxing on the CPU? I guess it doesn't matter on the Coppermine rig. So pick the 8139D for it?
How about the RTL8169S-32? Would that one be better suited for the Classic Pentium?
One of them has only half of the pins. Does that mean it's 10Mbit only?

I also have these two:

Windows didn't automatically install drivers, so I didn't bother to test them yet.
Are they worth checking out? The bottom one also only has half the pins.

The Dlink is using a DEC chip. both decent brands. I'd rate it above the Realtek but if you already have Intel/3Comm cards not much reason to go hunting down more drivers for this
The 2nd card is only a 10MB card but is Ne2000 compatible. (That's what the Netware Yes sticker is advertising) Possibly useful for a dos only rig and you don't want to bother finding drivers for a 100MB card.

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2021-12-04, 04:30:

I have six Realtek cards:
IMG_6282.JPG
So, RTL8139 is taxing on the CPU? I guess it doesn't matter on the Coppermine rig. So pick the 8139D for it?

RTL 8139 is fine for Pentium III rigs.

My 733 Mhz Coppermine runs fine with it, Win9x compatibility is good.

Just make sure you use a static IP Address, or else Win9x DHCP will spend some time assigning a random IP.

Using a static IP improved my boot time from 2 min to 40 secs on my 733Mhz Coppermine w/ 256 megs.