im going to buy a NIC card tomorrow. What would be an extremely cheap (i have like $20) at www.outpost.com just because i can get a ride to a store in about 3 minutes. what would be a a card compatible with mandrake, fedora core2 and winows xp?! if one could be found it would be greatly appreciated. i wouldnt be surprised if one of the people there hasnt heard of linux...they arent the brightest. -OLE!
I'd recommend any card with a RealTek chipset. For instance, this one [Outpost.com; cheaper elsewhere]. They're very inexpensive, and no matter how generic the card they always work. 3COM cards are great, but they cost too much to justify the gain. If I was setting up a business network, 3COM would be a serious option, but in 7 years of building PCs I've never put a 3COM NIC in a home PC. The only thing I'd recommend you seriously avoid is Netgear. They make great routers, but their network cards SUCK. Not only are the drivers sketchy/non-existent for Linux, but the physical hardware is flawed. It seems their RJ-45 keystones (female recepticles for ethernet cables) are sub-standard, and therefore don't make very good contact with network cables. You literally have to "jiggle" the connectors to get it to network half the time. Not good when you're trying to play a ranked multiplayer game, I'll tell you that.
thanks, couldnt find that one you put in the link at but i did find a different one with a realtek chipset and works good with winxp...now i'll see if it works with linux... thanks you guys but i do feel ashamed....i bought a microsoft mouse....*smacks face* but it was so cheap...*smacks face again* but its microsoft....
It should work with Linux just fine. When you see the silicon crab on the chipset, you pretty much know it's going to work with everything. BTW, the mouse you bought may be the only thing that's not fully compatible with Linux. MS doesn't follow the AT/ATX mouse standard that's been around for more than a decade. Big surprise, eh? It'll work, but you may have to tweak a few things first.
yeah i noticed i had to tinker with it a tad...thats weird you think of all people taht ms would follow the standards. those little crab prints are funny...when i first got my computer and peeked at the mobo i was like...why is there a crab....uhh, its a pretty crab but why. thanks