[Techtalk] What is "The Best NIC for Linux"?

[Nicole Zimmerman]

At 11:00 on Sep 26, Brian Sweeney combined all the right letters to say:

> I've had problems with the on-board eepro100 adapters that came with 
> some Intel Desktop Boards (D815 series).  I've had packet loss on some, 
> specifically found when troubleshooting NFS/NIS issues, but seen in 
> basic ping tests.  In every instance, dropping the eepro100 support and 
> putting in a 3Com 3C905Cx (3c59x driver) seemed to fix the problem.  
> Since then I've been shying away from the eepros.  Has anyone had 
> similar experiences?  I do remember having found other people in 
> newsgroups who had problems with them, though I can't recall specific 
> examples.   Is it perhaps a problem only with the on-board versions, 
> though to be honest I can't think of why that should have an effect. 

I have had very few problems with the offboard eepros but the onboard ones
seem to be a little less reliable/consistent with the same drivers. When
we purchased a bunch of Dell workstations here, they came with a weird
sort of onboard 3com NIC -- we have had no problems. Supposedly they are
still i815 (Di815EEA) boards but have 3com onboard rather than Intel.

So I concur on your onboard problem, but the offboard ones seem to be
really nice.

-nicole