Re[2]: Hmm.. Cannot get 2 NICs detected? Do I buy other NICs?

[Richard Welty <rwelty@averillpark.net>]

On Tue, 1 Jan 2002 22:20:27 -0500 Christian J Hedemark <chris@yonderway.com> wrote:

> Nuno said:
> 
> > I also tried a 3COM 3C509BTP (10mbps/ISA), with no luck. (this model
> > doesn't appear in the supported hardware list)
> 
> Not help, just confirmation.  I'm in the middle of refurbishing an old IBM
> PC 330 (model 6577) into a firewall.  The 3C509 I had laying around did NOT
> work under OpenBSD but it did work in that machine when Windoze 95 was still
> on it.

hmmm. i had a pair of 3c509s (one combo, one TPO) that worked once upon a
time. i put both of them into a 3.0 box for a firewall. one worked, the
other would ARP, but wouldn't actually pass data (i looked at the arp
tables on another machine hooked up to the bad card, and verified that both
ends were seeing each other's MAC addresses.) i yanked it, put in a
DFE-530TX, got the firewall working briefly, and then the other 3c509
crapped out, to be replaced by yet another DLink.

mostly i think it's that 3c509s are very old cards. they also aren't very
efficient cards (tend to require a lot of cpu intervention.) the DFE-530TX+
is cheap ($12-$13 online from the right source). you can get the card
cheaper if Staples still has their rebate going; $15 over the counter, with
a $10 rebate. don't waste too much time on old 3com cards; you're not
saving that much money.

richard
--
Richard Welty
Averill Park Networking          Unix, Linux, IP Network Engineering, Security
rwelty@averillpark.net
518-573-7592