7 Jul
2003
7 Jul
'03
7:19 a.m.
On Sun, Jul 06, 2003 at 10:11:54PM +0100, Philip Pemberton wrote:
Then there was the fun I had with a D-Link network card (based on a Realtek
chipset). Here's a tip - grab Realtek's latest driver kit and install it. I
had lost packets, Windows networking errors, you name it. Upgraded the
drivers and the network card suddenly started working properly...
The best place for a Realtek network card is in the trashcan. Period. Do
not buy this crap.
The FreeBSD kernel driver for this card is cursing it explicitly:
* The RealTek 8139 PCI NIC redefines the meaning of 'low end.' This is
* probably the worst PCI ethernet controller ever made, with the
* possible
* exception of the FEAST chip made by SMC. The 8139 supports bus-master
* DMA, but it has a terrible interface that nullifies any performance
* gains that bus-master DMA usually offers.
*
* It's impossible given this rotten design to really achieve decent
* performance at 100Mbps, unless you happen to have a 400Mhz PII or
* some equally overmuscled CPU to drive it.
And I had one of the buggers running in a server (not my choice, I
replaced it later with a 3Com) - and the crap thing randomly decided
that no, it didn't want to talk to the network at all. Pulling the
ethernet cable and reinserting it usually reset the card enough to get
it speaking again. Not exactly acceptable behaviour, so it got junked
and replaced with a 3Com 3C905C which never caused us any trouble.
Regards,
Alex.
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison