[NTLUG:Discuss] Please recommendation PCMCIA ethernet card

[Mark Bickel]

> Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2001 17:21:46 -0500
> From: Neil Aggarwal <neil at JAMMConsulting.com>
> To: discuss at ntlug.org
> Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] Please recommendation PCMCIA ethernet card
 
> can someone please recommends a relatively inexpensive card
> that works well under Linux and Windows?
> 
> I am looking 10 Mbps cards, but if the price difference is
> not significant, I would like a 10/100 card.

Linksys makes a variety of PC-cards that are well supported under Linux.
They are also a linux-friendly company, and have even included Linux
distros with some of their cards. Note that they have several 10/100
PC-cards, the cheaper cards are PCMCIA (16-bit) while the more expensive
cards are cardbus (32-bit capable). The other factor is whether they
support full-duplex operation, which will only benefit you if you are
connected to a ethernet switched LAN rather than a traditional hub. So
the cheapest of their 10/100 cards is 16-bit/half-duplex while their
most expensive is 32-bit/full-duplex capable, with a couple of inter-
mediate models. Cardbus has not been well supported under 2.2 kernels,
but promises to be under 2.4. I haven't tried cardbus under 2.4 *yet*.
Note that for maximum throughput full-duplex 100 Mb/s, 16-bit bus *is*
a bottleneck. However, for most notebook uses this is a non-issue.

Mark.Bickel at ericsson.com