Network Cards???

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave
  • Start date Start date
Dave said:
Is there one network card, for DSL, that's even better or worse than the
other?

Dave
Click to expand...
Just my personal experience has been that it doesn't make any
difference, at least between netgear, dlink, linksys, and belkin.
 
Is there one network card, for DSL, that's even better or worse than the
other?

Dave
Click to expand...

I have found no differences, but a well-known brand will have better
support for upgrading drivers. That may be important, for instance,
if someday you decide to install Linux. Today, a lot of motherboards
have networking already built in.
 
Dave said:
Is there one network card, for DSL, that's even better or worse than the
other?
Click to expand...

For DSL, it shouldn't matter. DSL is usually limited to less than 1 Mbps, so
any 100 Mbps card will allow full throughput.

If you have a wireless LAN, though, it may help to keep your wireless
Router/Access Point the same brand as your wireless network cards. Linksys has
shown great performance with their Wireless G components. PC Magazine reviews
have shown mixed results with mixed-brand systems.
 
Dave said:
Is there one network card, for DSL, that's even better or worse than
the other?
Click to expand...

Not really.
Linksys, SMC, Netgear and D-Link are all good products. I prefer the D-Link.

3Com and Intel may have a slight edge in terms of build quality, for a
modest price premium
 
S.Heenan said:
Not really.
Linksys, SMC, Netgear and D-Link are all good products. I prefer the D-Link.

3Com and Intel may have a slight edge in terms of build quality, for a
modest price premium
Click to expand...

From my own experience; there's also % of CPU useage in handling the
NIC("footprint"). Part of it is the chipset; the rest is in
well-coded drivers.

Intel's NICs usually have the smallest "footprint" at 2-6%

3Com, Linksys, SMC, Netgear and D-Link run in the 8-15% range.

Reality check tho-- those figures are for a machine on a corporate
LAN with lots of LAN intensive apps running at 100 bs

Home users using any decent NIC shouldn't have any problem with
cable or DSL . Unless you lucked out and have your "cable node" all
to yourself; you'll never even get close to 10 MBS .

Just beware of the "supercheapies" --
 
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