Which NIC with no RTL8139 chipset

Hi list !

I had some problems to make a gateway with 3 NIC using RTL8139
chipset (Slack9.0 - kernel 2.4.20)
I've found on news group it was a bad chipset.

So, I'd like to buy new ethernet cards (RJ45 10/100) but I
notice many of them use this chipset...
For my gateway, I ordered 3com cards. But for workstation, I'd like to
find some less-expensive cards.
ATI (Allied Telesyn) also seems to use RTL8139.

Could you tell me please which NIC would you recommand ?

Thanks
Paul

PAUL Anthony schrieb:
>
> Hi list !
>
> I had some problems to make a gateway with 3 NIC using RTL8139
> chipset (Slack9.0 - kernel 2.4.20)
> I've found on news group it was a bad chipset.
>
Its not really bad, but can cause problems.
>
> Could you tell me please which NIC would you recommand ?

I prefer DEC Tulip based boards, buts its just a personal favorite.
No idea who still sells/manufactures them,
the chipset itself seemes to be OEMed by intel now.
3Com used to switch the chipset with every new revision of their cards.

Gereon

> So, I'd like to buy new ethernet cards (RJ45 10/100) but I
> notice many of them use this chipset...

Try Linksys. They make - or at least used to make - their own proprietary chipset.

PAUL Anthony <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Hi list !

> I had some problems to make a gateway with 3 NIC using RTL8139
> chipset (Slack9.0 - kernel 2.4.20)
> I've found on news group it was a bad chipset.

> So, I'd like to buy new ethernet cards (RJ45 10/100) but I
> notice many of them use this chipset...
> For my gateway, I ordered 3com cards. But for workstation, I'd like to
> find some less-expensive cards.
> ATI (Allied Telesyn) also seems to use RTL8139.

> Could you tell me please which NIC would you recommand ?

For some desktop those rtl8139 cards usually work fine, perhaps
yours are rather old? For a server you want something better,
Intel eepro cards are a good choice, best performance.

--
Michael Heiming

Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM

PAUL Anthony <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I had some problems to make a gateway with 3 NIC using RTL8139
> chipset (Slack9.0 - kernel 2.4.20)
> I've found on news group it was a bad chipset.

> Could you tell me please which NIC would you recommand ?

I have no problems whatsoever with the RTL8139 chipsets. Perhaps you
should elaborate on the problem you had.

--
Cameron Kerr
(E-Mail Removed) : http://nzgeeks.org/cameron/
Empowered by Perl!

Thank you for all your answers !

About intel, it seems they still make their own NIC. Is it good or bad if
3com use to change their chipset for each release ?

If some people are interested in my gateway problems, there are some
details:

For this example, I use only 2 RTL 8139C NIC. One is Surecom and the other
is Acer. Slackware9.0, kernel 2.4.20 (bare.i from CD)

My dmesg give me this:
[...]
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf0200, last bus=0 PCI: Using
configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
[...]
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 Fast Ethernet at 0xc48c8400, 00:02:44:11:ae:97,
IRQ 5
eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139C'
eth1: RealTek RTL8139 Fast Ethernet at 0xc48ca000, 00:60:67:07:81:e0,
IRQ 10
eth1: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139C'
[...]
eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.
eth1: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.


lspci:
======
00:0e.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL-8139/8139C/8139 C+ (rev 10)
00:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL-8139/8139C/8139 C+ (rev 10)


lsmod:
======
Module Size Used by Not tainted
ide-scsi 9424 0
8139too 15240 2
mii 2304 0 [8139too]
crc32 2880 0 [8139too]


ifconfig:
=========
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:02:44:11:AE:97
inet addr:10.20.178.30 Bcast:10.20.178.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
Interrupt:5 Base address:0x8400
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:60:67:07:81:E0
inet addr:10.23.1.31 Bcast:10.23.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
Interrupt:10 Base address:0xa000
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0


Then, I just can't access 10.20.178.0 network (eth0). No ping.
But 10.23.0.0 (eth1) is OK.

So, if I change my rc.inet1.conf to have:
eth0 on 10.23.0.0 & eth1 on 10.20.178.0
Then I have the same result:
I can't reach 10.20.178.0 (eth1) but 10.23.0.0 (eth0) is OK.

I know that someone else had the same problem using 3 RTL8139 on a
Linux Mandrake.

Of course, I tried every possibilities with mii-tool and change both cards
with 2 others RTL8139.

If I try with 2 RTL8019, it works, but I'd like to avoid 10Mbs NICs to use
in a gateway...

If you had a clue...

Thanks

So anyway, it was like, 14:15 CET Feb 04 2004, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
PAUL Anthony was all like, "Dude,

> I had some problems to make a gateway with 3 NIC using RTL8139
> chipset (Slack9.0 - kernel 2.4.20) I've found on news group it was a
> bad chipset.

I have one box (a shuttle xpc) with an onboard 8139, it's working well
for me. Given the choice, I'd have picked something else tho. *shrugs*

> For my gateway, I ordered 3com cards. But for workstation, I'd like
> to find some less-expensive cards.

A 3com card is never wrong, imho.. and worth the cost. Given the big
picture, the cost of a desktop 3com card isn't something I'd even
think twice about. I'd suggest something of the 905 flavour if those
are still around. You can probably find a used 905, if nothing else.

I dunno if intel cards are comparatively cheaper, but that'd be my
second choice in that case. Pro/100 or some such.

--
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. Perth ---> *
10:26:10 up 11 days, 18:02, 3 users, load average: 3.05, 3.15, 3.10
$ cat /dev/bollocks Registered Linux user #261729
disintermediate plug-and-play platforms