NIC for 98SE - recommendations?

We're looking to finally get DSL on our home computer (98SE, PCI 2.1).
I've done a lot of reading in this group about problems folks have had
installing NICs on 98SE, so I was wondering if anyone had
recommendations of NICs that install with minimal pain.

We're not running a network at home. Just adding DSL to one computer.
Any help/guidance would be appreciated.

IndyBass

In article <(E-Mail Removed). com>,
(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>We're looking to finally get DSL on our home computer (98SE, PCI 2.1).
>I've done a lot of reading in this group about problems folks have had
>installing NICs on 98SE, so I was wondering if anyone had
>recommendations of NICs that install with minimal pain.
>
>We're not running a network at home. Just adding DSL to one computer.
>Any help/guidance would be appreciated.
>
>IndyBass

For 98SE, I recommend D-Link DFE-530TX+, Belkin F5D5000, and Netgear
FA311.

I've had so much trouble with Linksys NICs that I won't use or
recommend them for any version of Windows.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> We're looking to finally get DSL on our home computer (98SE, PCI 2.1).
> I've done a lot of reading in this group about problems folks have had
> installing NICs on 98SE, so I was wondering if anyone had
> recommendations of NICs that install with minimal pain.
>
> We're not running a network at home. Just adding DSL to one computer.
> Any help/guidance would be appreciated.
>
> IndyBass

I have used Linksys, Intel & D-Link cards at one time or another.
I currently use Linksys NICs in 4 machines, 3-W98se, 1-W2000P. Just
'OnSale', no other reason.
The install for the W98s all had some hangup. My solution is to try the
install from the floppy. When that fails, Copy the .sys file to
%windows%/system and the .inf file to %windows%/Inf/Other.
Then in Device manager choose the NIC(!) and in Properties choose Update
Driver. (the NIC will have an ! with the notation that it is not working.
.....Duh....) Select the option that lets you choose from a list of
Drivers. The new NIC driver will now be one of the ones displayed. Select
it and OK your way out. When you Reboot it should now be working.

One other thing. My machines are old enough to have provision for Legacy
PCI cards. Even tho all of the ones I mentioned above are PnP I set the
card slot for the NIC to Legacy before installing and use IRQ either 10 or
11. This way all other devices, PnP or not, don't mess w/ the NIC.

Afterwards check the manuf webpage to insure that the latest driver was
the one you installed and if not d/l and upgrade using the above
proceedure in DMgr.

Thanks much for the advice so far. How do you do what you've described
below (setting the card slot to Legacy)?

The computer in question was built in 1991.


(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> One other thing. My machines are old enough to have provision for Legacy
> PCI cards. Even tho all of the ones I mentioned above are PnP I set the
> card slot for the NIC to Legacy before installing and use IRQ either 10 or
> 11. This way all other devices, PnP or not, don't mess w/ the NIC.

How do you know the computer was built in 1991? Very few if any computers
built in 1991 can run Windows 98.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> Thanks much for the advice so far. How do you do what you've described
> below (setting the card slot to Legacy)?
>
> The computer in question was built in 1991.
>
>
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> > One other thing. My machines are old enough to have provision for Legacy
> > PCI cards. Even tho all of the ones I mentioned above are PnP I set the
> > card slot for the NIC to Legacy before installing and use IRQ either 10
or
> > 11. This way all other devices, PnP or not, don't mess w/ the NIC.
>

Yikes! I meant 2001. Sorry.


Gary S. Terhune wrote:
> How do you know the computer was built in 1991? Very few if any computers
> built in 1991 can run Windows 98.
>
> --
> Gary S. Terhune
> MS MVP Shell/User

I've got the D-Link DFE-530TX+ on the way. The dlink web page has a
Win98 driver for this card, too, so we'll see how it goes.

drop on back if you problems :>




<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> I've got the D-Link DFE-530TX+ on the way. The dlink web page has a
> Win98 driver for this card, too, so we'll see how it goes.
>

Well, the first problem has been in just getting drivers installed. All
the documentation strongly recommends installing the driver before
installing the hardware, so I started with the CD that was included
with the card.

The install program didn't auto-load, so I started with the "Run"
command, and ran the .exe from my first CD drive. The drive spun up,
but the installer window never came up, and the computer eventually
locked. Task Manager told me that "Demo32" was not responding, so I
ended that task and tried again. The next time the computer locked for
good, and I had to do a hard restart.

On restart, I tried the CD in my second CD drive (which is a newer
drive, if that matters). Still no auto-load. I used the "Run" command
again, and this time, the installer came up. I clicked on "Install
Drivers", heard the drive spin up, and then nothing. I was able to exit
out of the installer. I started it again, clicked "Install Drivers"
again, and locked the machine up this time.

On restart, I now resorted to the floppy disk where I had saved the
"WIN98" driver that I had downloaded from the DLINK web site a few days
ago. This was a self-extracting .EXE, which I extracted just fine to a
folder. I used the "Run" command to run the installer, and got an "Exec
Fail" dialoge box, with an "OK" button.

So, there I am. Any thoughts on how to get the driver installed would
be appreciated.

I've tinkered a bit more with this. I tried to follow Brodick's advice,
and copied the .sys and .inf files to their respective locations. I
installed the NIC, displayed the driver list and found the right
manufacturer and model, and pointed the Wizard to the WIN98 subfolder
of the temp folder that I extracted the DLINK website driver to. The
wizard said that there was an error in the driver installation, but
then went on to prompt me to restart the system.

On restart, Device Manager shows the device properly as the "D-Link
DFE-530TX+ PCI Adapter". Under "Device status", it tells me that "This
device is working properly", but I also see "Manufacturer: None
specified" and "Hardware version: Not available". Seems like it should
have something listed there if the install was really successful.

Under the "Driver" tab, the "Provider:" and "Date:" fields are blank,
and the message is that "No driver files are required or have been
loaded for this device". The "Resources" tab shows no conflicts in the
Conflicting device list.

When I run winipcfg, the only device in the pulldown list is the "PPP
Adapter".

So, is this thing installed correctly or not? Is there any way to tell
before we call the DSL provider and get all that set up?