Suggestions for college Ethernet

[oxOGradiusOxo]

Just came back from an exhasutive 2 day orientation at North Carolina State University at Raleigh. It was a bunch of talking and walking, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I really think I have a good feel for the campus and staff. My class schedule stinks though (7:30-10:05pm Chem Lab 115) *yikes* I'm able to change and update my courses through the web, so I will keep checking for open spots. ANYWAY!!!

The reason I posted this is because the college has a 2 redundant OC-12 lines and ethernet connections in every room. So, that means I need any ethernet card and a Cat5 cable. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on popular cards to buy. The only requirement is that that have a 10BaseT connection and the cable be 10/100. The school bookstore sells them, but I just wanted to check around for prices because I'm sure I can find a used one for less.

[hd581]

Linksys 10/100 nc100. They're at Office Depot for $15. Check Sysopt's User Reviews; lots of other people like them. If not, I've heard people like the netgear cards but they're a little more expensive.

[SoopaStar]

3com all the way!! the 905 series dont' cost too much and are excellent cards!
Paul

[neo_otyugh]

i have three nic's two smc and one realtek....total cost less than $30, and they all were easy to install and I have had no problems yet...

[Dputiger]

I work in my University's network support system--(means I help other students fix network problems). Personally, I always recommend 3Com, but don't get conned into paying a hundred bucks for a card. I'd go with a 3Com TC-509b. It's a standard card that's a few years old--but it'll run like a charm.

There really isn't much benefit to getting a 100-base T card over a 10. Chances are your school isn't feeding enough bandwidth to your individual port to make it worthwhile.

[Joel Kleppinger]

Well, I'd personally go with the NetGear card. I have one and it works well. The Linksys LNE100 Etherfast is also a good card.

I definitely think you should go ahead and grab a 100mbps card unless someone just gives you a 10mbps card. I would expect that there will be a local LAN for your dorm or something and it probably will run at the full 100. There is a very noticeable difference between 10 and 100 when transferring a couple gigs of mp3s (conjecture... not that I'd know http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif) or even heavy dorm gaming. I'm sure you'll be getting into both.

Sure, 3Com is the best (due to the software, IMO), but when you can buy 4 or 5 of the other cards for the price of one 3Com card, why do it?

[chipbgt]

Well let me just say, welcome to the world of all night long frag fests http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

I have used both 3com and linksys cards and neither have given me trouble. I would do as Joel Suggests and get a 100mbps card if you can. For certain things like that it will come in handy.

[oxOGradiusOxo]

Wow thanks for all the choices. I'll have to look around and find the best deal on one of the cards metioned, probably 3Com. They had 3Com cards at the bookstore on campus but they were close to $100. Networking isn't an avenue of computing I've ever had to venture into much, so I know just enough to get by.

Oh, I just remembered. The instructor for the internet presentation told just to get a 10/100 card/cable because they were going to be upgrading their network very soon to 100 and then we wouldn't have to buy a new card.

[bdunn]

Been doing this for awhile and the only 2 brands I've never had fail on me are 3com and D-link.

Actually you can learn alot about networking from the dlink website http://www.dlink.com there is always neat stuff out there.

On the D-Link side for about $20 you can get a DFE-530TX+.

I work at a university and we are using exclusively 3com but that is not my choice.

Good Luck
Bruce

[oxOGradiusOxo]

Another stupid question coming up, prepare:

10Mbit, 100Mbit card? exactly what kind of bandwidth speed should I expect?

[chipbgt]

if you are going from dial up to a cllege LAN, your gonna be amazed either way...I couldnt tell yout he exact performance boost from 10 to 100. 10 actually is pleny for regular aurfing..but the 100 is always nice for downloading and multiplayer gaming.

[oxOGradiusOxo]

The 10Mbit = 10Mb/s? heck yeah that would be nice for gaming or downloading, but the university had a big talk with us about downloading MP3s from Napster. They told us not too and if we were caught doing so, they would suspend our account.