Network Cards and Pulsar

Rattler · Post by **Rattler** » Tue May 21, 2002 7:02 pm

Does anyone know if theres probelms running a Realtek Network Card and a Pulsar ? I get occasional lock ups and im wondering if this may be caused by the network card ?

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Tue May 21, 2002 8:04 pm

It is only likely if it is on the same IRQ as pulsar, what are your system specs?

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Wed May 22, 2002 12:09 am

DUMP THE REALTEK CARD!!!!!

I have known it to cause instabilities, it is the worst network card money can buy in my opinion. Lets say for the sake of argument you do get it to be stable, that doesn't change the fact that its pci latency seesm to be fixed at 128 clocks, this absolutely hogs the pci bus, robbing the pulsar card of performance, and casues small glitches in sound.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Wed May 22, 2002 1:01 am

Haven't really found any problems with the Realtek yet. Got a D-Link too, is that a better card? Any other cards you can advise?

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Wed May 22, 2002 1:23 am

The cheap d-link cards use the same realtek chipset, and have the same pci latency issue, its less of an issue on intel make chipsets, but still not the best card to have, just simply becuase you get what you pay for. I've seen these cards retailing for 15 euros.

I would recommend an intel network card, 3com are a good name also, but I've not tested it. I'm using a netgear at the moment its given me no problems, slight increase in network performance, although check compatibility with your motherboard, netgear doesn't get along with some via motherboards.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Wed May 22, 2002 1:25 am

thanks, remixme, i'll keep that in mind

The Z Station · Post by **The Z Station** » Wed May 22, 2002 1:29 am

Actually, I was going to switch to a Netgear NIC as well.... Although it's best not to have a NIC at all!

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Wed May 22, 2002 8:21 am

Netgear?

Hmm never did get a Netgear working on the AMD76x chipset.

Go with Intel or 3Com.

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Wed May 22, 2002 9:02 am

Yeah the netgear is known not to work with some amd761 boards, i think it was more to do with AMD then with netgear,
But do check compatibility before buying

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Wed May 22, 2002 12:13 pm

Speaking of networks I have the linksys usb ethernet adaptor and I could not get it to work on a CUSL2. I called support and they weren't able to help me. Does anyone have this problem? Rather than return it I figured I would wait and see if an update fixed it.

Rattler · Post by **Rattler** » Thu May 23, 2002 6:49 am

I got a Netgear USB to overcome the Realtek thing a while back but could never get it working. It installs ok and works sometimes but its really not useable as it drops out all the time and sometimes doesnt even work at all. Tried it on a CUSL2 and BH6....

I will go an Intel NIC i think. Thanks for the help...

The Z Station · Post by **The Z Station** » Thu May 23, 2002 8:19 am

I replaced my D-Link NIC with a D-Link USB 100/10 network and it works awesome! Since I need USB for Logic's XSKey, I might as well use the other for something - a network! That also allowed me to take the NIC off my board entirely, freeing a PCI resource and lessen my resrouce shares! It works as well as the NIC though conforming down to USB's bottle neck of 11Mbits/sec, but that's quite alright! Also, my box seem to be running a lot better! My only regret is that I should have done this in the first place and saved meself some headaches!

Also, I was advised that the CUBX board doesn't handle USB that well, but for my experience, It's humming along VERY well! Perhaps due to the latest MOBO BIOS? Actually, the CUBX doens't really have a good grasp on the on-board ATA66 - not a lot of difference from the regualr IDE controller.

[ This Message was edited by: The Z Station on 2002-05-23 10:11 ]

The Z Station · Post by **The Z Station** » Fri May 24, 2002 1:05 pm

On 2002-05-23 07:49, Rattler wrote:
I got a Netgear USB to overcome the Realtek thing a while back but could never get it working. It installs ok and works sometimes but its really not useable as it drops out all the time and sometimes doesnt even work at all. Tried it on a CUSL2 and BH6....

I will go an Intel NIC i think. Thanks for the help...

Hmmm, interesting, my D-Link USB network port is running like a champ! Netgear should probably work better?! Could it be a faulty devise? I couldn't be happier "De-linking" my D-Link NIC! This USB network is quite the work horse! Although it conforms down to the USB bottleneck of 11Mb/sec, XP Pro is still showing a connection of 100Mb/sec. and the performance is equally as good as the NIC! Haven't experience any drops at all!

[ This Message was edited by: The Z Station on 2002-05-26 17:29 ]

djevo · Post by **djevo** » Fri May 24, 2002 2:47 pm

3com seems to be the best there is!

BIT01 · Post by **BIT01** » Fri May 24, 2002 5:15 pm

I got realtek and i've had some trouble in the past but i got Via chipsets and amd but after tweaking my system and sfp or 3.01 even all of this have disappeared.
Use 4 in 1 drivers and latest patch if u share same chipset otherwise try pci latency....
Let me know more...

FreiFlug · Post by **FreiFlug** » Sun May 26, 2002 12:51 pm

I have a tusl2-c and have no probs with the realtek network pci-card. Two days ago i removed it to test the difference but there is no. SFP works fine but i can load "only" 6 MV´s.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Tue May 28, 2002 8:16 am

SFP works fine but i can load "only" 6 MV´s.

On CUSL/TUSL2, 12 should be the maximum if you have it setup correct with a make2 board (pulsar2,luna2,etc) as the main board handling the PCI. So perhaps it's doing more than you suspect.

More information on NICs:

http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/nictest.html - 3com makes the fastest cards, the 905 series, which aren't in this roundup.

http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/nictest-usb.html - USB network roundup - check out that performance

http://www6.tomshardware.com/network/01 ... index.html - includes a wider range of 3com cards and the Intel as well. I have the 3com SOHO card mainly because of the lower CPu utilization...

[ This Message was edited by: subhuman on 2002-05-29 09:57 ]