Networks

Ask something
Discussion Locked

3com network cards

0 helpful
5 replies

by mikki40

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Hello,

In my network we have always used 3com 10/100 3c905b-tx cards however, on occasion I have tried other 10/100 cards and although I can connect to my servers and print I have never been able to get the generic cards to get out on the internet. Just recently I purchased a new workstation with a 3com 10/100 3c905 no B and the same thing happened. I took out that card and replaced it with a 3com 3c905b and it worked fine internally and externally. This has always bothered me. Anyone have any idea why this happens.

thanks

5 replies

by cavedweller

3com changed the chipset between the original and -B versions. The original [NT] driver is not compatible with the newer NIC. After trying several things I finally settled on using the driver which was supplied (on floppy) with the -B NIC. Using the control panel go to "update", "Have Disk" and use the floppy. When installing service packs I always choose "Keep existing driver" when prompted.

This was even less fun to resolve on my SCO Open Server Unix systems. We ended up throwing the 3Com boards away and replacing them with SMC NICs because there wasn't a single driver for both versions of the NIC, we had both types installed in systems that needed to use a common OS image, and there was no promise 3Com wouldn't screw us again.

by vh_s

It happened to me also.

It seems that 3com 3c905b doesn't work very well with other brands, in this case versus dlink dfe-538tx. You would have the connection, yet if you issued a command like dir on a networked drive, then only partial list of the complete directory would come out.

It might come from the full/half duplex setting, I didn't really look at it carefully. I just take the shortest path, changing the 3com905b with dlink (since most of them use dlink).

This discussion is closed to new replies.