Through a few google searches, the closest I could find to this card was here: https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/cabl … inc-e2110#chips
Anyone got any idea what this card is?
Winbond EN-2200T is using the same chip, maybe the driver is reusable for your card.
https://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/n/C-D/40180.htm
Looks like an NE2000 clone - no need for native drivers...
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Grzyb wrote on 2024-11-05, 00:33:https://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/n/C-D/40180.htm
Looks like an NE2000 clone - no need for native drivers...
Sorry, noob question, so this doesn't need drivers to work with dos/3.x?
Goob wrote on 2024-11-05, 12:01:Sorry, noob question, so this doesn't need drivers to work with dos/3.x?
It needs the NE2000 driver, which is already included with majority of networking software.
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Goob wrote on 2024-11-05, 12:01:Sorry, noob question, so this doesn't need drivers to work with dos/3.x?
Just as Grzyb says: If you have any kind of network system, you will surely have the option to select "NE2000" or "NE2000 compatible" as networking card. IIRC some system (Netware? MS LanManager?) allowed more IRQ and Port choices for "NE2000 compatible" than for "NE2000". That choice should work out of the box with that card, as long as you set up the IRQ and port address correctly. IRQ numbers are printed on the card, so that jumper is obvious. The port address setting is 300h in default factory configuration, but at the moment your card seems to be set to 340h. The Windows 95 hardware detection will auto-detect the card.
In 1993 to 1997, most budget ISA cards were NE2000 compatible. Later cards had higher integrated chips and often offered jumperless setup using proprietary configuration software, but your card is dead simple: Just set the jumpers/DIPs and use an off-the-shelf NE2000 driver.
Thanks a ton, mkarcher! This is a perfect answer. Now I just need to learn more about IRQ reservations etc. Is there a way to see what ports are already reserved so I don't pick one that's already being used? Also, are the IRQ numbers arbitrary or does it matter what I choose, as long as it's open?
Latest Crynwr NE2000 Packet Drivers: http://crynwr.com/drivers/many-other-drivers.zip
Goob wrote on 2024-11-05, 20:09:Thanks a ton, mkarcher! This is a perfect answer. Now I just need to learn more about IRQ reservations etc. Is there a way to see what ports are already reserved so I don't pick one that's already being used? Also, are the IRQ numbers arbitrary or does it matter what I choose, as long as it's open?
For ISA, every device should have its own IRQ. While in the early days of ISA, it was common to have an "IRQ enable" bit in each device, and IRQs could be shared if only one device ever had its IRQ enabled at the same time, with the advent of the AT that provided 5 further IRQs for expansion cards, IRQ sharing between cards just was no longer a thing. This effectively means: Just assign different IRQs to every device and you are done. In the golden era of ISA, there was no such thing as an "IRQ reservation", IRQs were manually assigned by the PC owner.
When we reach around 1994-1996, PCI and ISA Plug'n'Play started to take off, completely shifting the paradigm from manual configuration to automatic configuration. Furthermore, any PC bus design after ISA (and except the 486 local busses) was designed to allow shared IRQs. This is essentially talking about MCA and PCI, but also EISA allowed sharable IRQs as optional feature. This auto-configuration stuff can work fine as long as the computer knows what resources are free. This is easy if all devices in a system are either on-board devices which are known to the BIOS or Plug-and-Play compatible cards. Mixing "old style" and "new style" hardware will create issues, because the "new style" cards need to be auto-configured in a way they don't interfere with "old style" cards (often called "legacy cards"). And that's why modern BIOSes have that "PCI/PnP setup" page in which you can assign some IRQs to "Legacy ISA", which means those IRQs may not be assigned to PCI or ISA Plug'n'Play cards. The network card we talk about in this thread is a legacy card, so if you have a Plug-and-Play BIOS, it is indeed recommended to reserve the IRQ there.
The "standard XT IRQs" are usually all used up in a typical retro computer: IRQ0 & 1 are assigned on the main baord and not available to expansion cards. IRQ2 no longer exists on an AT-class machine, because the IRQ2 input to the primary interrupt controller (IRQ0..IRQ7) is used to tell that controller that some interrupt is requested on the second interrupt controller (IRQ8..IRQ15). The line that triggered IRQ2 on PC/XT systems is now reassigned to trigger IRQ9. The default handler for IRQ9 calls the legacy IRQ2 handler for PC/XT compatiblity. That's why you sometime see IRQ2/9 as designation for that IRQ. If you decide to use that line, set software to IRQ9 if the software supports that, and only call it "IRQ2" if you really have to. IRQ3 and IRQ4 are assigned to COM2 and COM1 respectively. IRQ5 is assigned to a SoundBlaster (compatible) card by convention. IRQ6 is always assigned to the floppy controller. IRQ7 is assigned to the parallel port, but especially in DOS it is often unused. As explained, sharing IRQs is unusual on AT-class machines, so better treat IRQ7 as "used", even if the parallel port IRQ is seldomly used in practice in DOS. Multi-tasking systems like Windows might use IRQ7 for printing. That's also why Creative Labs shifted from shipping sound cards pre-configured to IRQ7 to being pre-configured to IRQ5 as soon as Windows got more popular and XT hard disk controllers (which also used IRQ5 by convention) got less popular.
On the secondary IRQs, IRQ8 has a fixed assignment on the mainboard, as does IRQ13. IRQ14 is used by IDE hard drives, and if you have a second IDE channel, that one will use IRQ15. A PS/2 mouses uses IRQ12, so the three "usually free IRQs" are 9, 10 and 11. As Adaptec defaulted to IRQ11 on their SCSI controllers (some cheap ones are fixed to IRQ11), this IRQ has a tendency to be assigned to SCSI or other storage controllers. IRQ2/9 was traditionally assigned to the EGA card, but this feature is seldomly used and some VGA cards can't drive IRQ2/9 at all. Yet, people are sometimes hesitant to use that IRQ. So IRQ10, the last one remaining, is most commonly seen to be used as IRQ for a network card that support it. This does obviosly not mean you need to use IRQ10. For example, disabling COM2 and using IRQ3 is equally valid.
