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New ethernet card

A

AVG

n00b
Joined
Jul 15, 2004
Messages
3
I was over newegg.com to get a friend an ethernet card so she could plug her desktop to a router, and I found cards ranging from 3.99 to hundreds of dollars, so I wanted to know which one would be good for her something simple that is reliable and easy to install since i'll probably won't be there to install it.

Thanks
 
You can generally do with a cheap $10 network card. Although, there are those time when the moons don't line up properly. I had an old dell that I tried a cheap network card from campus computer supplies store and ended up toasting the registry. Every time I plugged the CAT5 in, the comp would restart..was getting help from Dell tech [back when I used to use Dells tech support] when the registry became corupt.. Format and a visit on Dell site to order an $80 NIC and I was back on track. I think that situation was just some fluke or something. Have used other NICs on that comp with no problem

You will generally want to pay a lil more for a part that has the free shipping since with the cheaper cards you have to fork over another $4 or $5 for shipping.. might as well pay more for the part than spending the money on shipping.

I'm sure the Archtech card for $8 with free express shipping would be fine too.. but I havn't tried any of their products. Check out the reviews. Seems to have a driver disk.

The Trendware ones should be fine too. Driver disk.. check the reviews.

The DLink is more of a known name.. but it doesn't seem to have a driver disk included so it might not be the best option for your firend.
I'm sure the others I mentioned will be fine. The reviews seems to say so. Just make sure ya get one with free shipping ;)

<><><>Ya beat my post BBS.. yeah.. those Intels are nice.. that $80 I mentioned was one of the Intel Pro100+ Management cards.. awesome if ya use two cards in the same machine and have the capability to feed it the bandwidth.. Overkill in any other situation [I was pissed wiehn I got it so I had to make sure it worked. ;) ]. but in this case.. any card should work well. I have used cards my friend pulls out of his parts piles with no problems. I have learned not to spend too much money on an NIC as long as you can find drivers for it.
 
I've had good luck with a variety of generic cards based on the Realtek 8139 chip. They can be had for next to nothing and are extremely well supported. I'm not terribly impressed with D-Links support. Honestly you should not be paying more than $10US for a NIC.
 
If you want a flawless installation and something more affordable, go for one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=33-105-117&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=33-106-110&depa=1


If you want something that is well known and budget based, then go for one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=33-124-107&depa=1


If you want something cheap and that does the job you need it to (I recomend this one for you application), then go for this:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=33-130-107&depa=1

FYI, you dont need gigabit or cards with the ROM, or even other advanced features. There is no reason to pay over $10 for a network card if all you are going to use it for is email, surf, etc.

Also, for $3.99, you can't go wrong, if it doesn't work, then exchange it for something else.
 
I have used quite a few of those zonet cards, and they have all worked just fine. I would definately recommend them for this situation.
 
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