plain-vanilla ethernet; do brands matter?

[Kam Leo]

On 6/9/05, THUFIR HAWAT <hawat.thufir at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/8/05, Michael A. Peters <mpeters at mac.com> wrote:
> ...
> > I have yet to run across anything that is 10/100 that is a PCI card
> > that doesn't just work
> ...
> > is very easy to install yourself - you don't
> > need to pay a labor fee to have it installed (where I use to work,
> > as a
> > hardware tech, we'd charge $45.00 for that - it took us maybe 5
> > minutes
> > to put the card in, then just booting to make sure the card was
> > seen/install drivers - not really worth the expense imho)
> 
> yeh, the store wanted thirty dollars (canadian) for that, I would've
> paid ten but they wouldn't negotiate.
> 
> heh, it was easy.  a friend helped with the mechanical part, which was
> really easy.  I was hesitant because I've seen people totally
> perplexed with floppy drives being backwards (in fact, the guy who
> assembled my computer did that, too).  Then the NIC was detected on
> boot, I assigned it a dynamic IP address and rebooted with the
> internet connetion through the new NIC!
> 
> so I now know it works, which is great.  tomorrow I hope to get the
> VOIP adapter, plug it in and "see" what happens :)
> 
> thanks, all.  the driver turned out to be a non-issue, but it was good
> to have the input so that I at least knew it could be an issue.  for
> ten dollars canadian I'm (so far) happy.
> 
> the only downside, so far, is that we weren't able to align the screw
> which holds the NIC in place completely.  the NIC is firmly against
> the screw, which is good, but it's not perfectly aligned. oh well.
> also, I had to use a screw from the case, seems like they should've
> thrown in a screw.
> 
> -Thufir
> 

Your computer should have come with a plate covering the slot in which
you installed the new card. Screws are not normally supplied because
case manufacturers did not standardize on a common size or thread
pitch. You are supposed to use the screw that held the cover plate to
secure your new card.  Retail packaged hard drives with mounting kit
are the only product that I am aware of that comes with screws.  The
screws are again provided because of lack of standardization and
manufacturers do not want you to strip out the threads or jam an over
length screw into the works.