[ale] Time to go ISA NIC Hunting

[griffisb at bellsouth.net]

> 
> From: Geoffrey <esoteric at 3times25.net>
> Date: 2003/10/04 Sat AM 07:48:39 EDT
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
> Subject: Re: [ale] Time to go ISA NIC Hunting
> 
> BruceG wrote:
> > Decided to put together an old box to work as a print server.
> <snip>
> > So - checked the mac address of the nic and looked it up. It's
> > an Accton. Don't know the model.
> 
> I had no idea you could do that, where did you look it up?

http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt
It's pretty cool. When you do an ifconfig eth0, you get the MAC address. Also on bootup, ordmesg |more - you can get the mac address when the card is inserted. dmesg says that the card is a n*000 on 0x240. I may have guessed the IRQ wrong, but it doesn't complain.

> 
> > 
> > I DO know that it is not ISAPnP. Did a pnpdump, and got no hits. Did
> > /cat/proc pci - no good. So it's an ISA card, not PCI. And NOT plug
> > and pray. Doing a cat /proc/interrupts shows it using IRQ 10 with no
> > conflicts. lsmod shows the card as well.
> 
> Check the cable?  Could be the card is just bad.  I've got one box that 
> has an integrated card.  Seems every OS I put on it, sees it, but it 
> just doesnt' work.  I've given it up for bad.
> 

I replaced the cable for one tested as good. Swapped ports on the hub. Went from a 10/100 autonegotiating swith to a 10 meg hub in case the card didn't like that.

> > Anyone know anyplace to get a CHEAP ISA Ethernet card? I'd like to
> > put together a print server, and move the shared printer off my
> > desktop.
> 
> You'll likely need to head to a used shop, as I've not seen any for sale 
> in a while.  Does it have to be 100 or is 10 sufficient?  The reason I 
> ask is, I've got a handful of isa nics I'd let you have one if you'd 
> like.  I'd give you 4-5 as I've not tested them and you can keep a 
> couple if you can get them to work.  Let me know if you're interested.
> 

That would be cool if you don't mind. Might be time for me to visit one of the ALE meetings. Do you go to the NW meetings? Ifconfig shows the card sending, but all packets are errored. It doesn't show it receiving any packets. I think it's time to toss it. 

Thanks, Bruce