[112] in resnet
Re: Cheap network cards.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (J. Keith Fowlkes)
Wed Jan 12 07:51:35 1994
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 07:47:49 -0500
To: resnet@MIT.EDU
From: fowlkes@hanover.edu (J. Keith Fowlkes)
>NDC Communications has a full page add in PC Week this week
>advertising demo pricing of their new NE2000 compatible cards
>which they GUARANTEE to work with all NE2000 software drivers you will ever
>own.
>For plain 10BaseT in demo quantity of 1 is only $35. (normal list of $69)
>For combo card with UTP,AUI,and BNC they have a special price of $84
>including Blue label shipping.
>My friend just ordered two and they said it would be here by Friday.
>
>If you are willing to take a risk it might be worth a look.
>
>Call 1800-323-7325 for ordering and info.
>
>-Rupert
>Yes I am a resnet consultant and I will say that if this card does not
>work, it is your problem since it will not be officially supported.
Here is another option for fairly cheap and reliable ethernet cards. I
have (for the past 2 years) used Asante ethernet cards. The EtherPac 2001
cards are NE2000 compatible and have been extremely reliable. I have used
about 120 of them and I have had about 3 failures (mainly due to line
voltage problems... lightning). They may not be as high performance cards
as the 3Com and SMC but I have absolutely no complaints. Asante's
technical and customer support is excellent.
They have a new, smaller card out now that I have tried out and they seem
to be as good as the EtherPac 2001 cards. These are software configurable
instead of the normal switching of jumpers. These use a NE2000 compatible
driver that comes with the card called EP200ODI.
J. Keith Fowlkes
Assistant Director of Academic Computing
Hanover College
phone: (812) 866-7237
Internet e-mail: fowlkes@hanover.edu
