What kind of card is this anyway?

[oxOGradiusOxo]

I got this networking card in a grab-bag-box from a local computer store, but since I'm not too fimilar with network cards, I don't know what I can use it for. Please bare with me through this description of the card. I will try to have a picture of it posted later on tonight.

Novell on PCB
AT/LANTIC (DP83905AVQB) on Chipset
Connectors on card:
1) Looks like a cable connection
2) Looks like a sound card joystick connection
3) Looks like a telephone line connection with a green & yellow LED

The card looks brand new, and I hate it just to be sitting here doing nothing. I've been wanting to network my two computers together for file transfer/gaming, but will this card work for that?

•g®/-\[)i|_|Š•

[oxOGradiusOxo]

I also forgot to add that the card is ISA, and I think when I had it installed in my system recently that is was dectected as NE2000 or something like that. I'm sure that doesn't help much though

•g®/-\[)i|_|Š•

[800XL]

That is a Novell NE2000 10Mbit card. Pretty much one of the standards of 10Mbit cards, next to the WD8013 Western Digital. The cable connector is 10base2 Coax, the phoneline looking port is a twisted pair 10baseT port, and the joystick looking thing is an AUI port. The card should work with any other 10Mbit card. I recommend you use the Twisted pair port just because it is harder to work with coax or AUI if you aren't used to it. Also, most info you will see about networking today will only cover twisted pair. This was a very common card, and many other cards are actually clones of it. Think of it like this though, you have the original.

[oxOGradiusOxo]

Whoo hoo! Well, not too bad for $5 then!
Where can I find a twisted pair line to hook from one card to the other?
What kind of transfer rate will I get?

•g®/-\[)i|_|Š•

[ktwebb]

that is a 10BaseT card so 10 megabit transfer or 1.25 Megabyte, although those are theoretical rates that you wont see. Maybe 6 megabit with that card if you are lucky. Buy a Cat5 crossover cable from the store you get your PC equipment from. Best Buy, Fry's, Radio Shack. With a crossover you don't need a hub, if you want to add more PC's later buy a small hub and regular Cat5 cable. Each PC would plug into a port on the hub.