From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Apr 17 11:09:24 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0BDF237B401 for ; Thu, 17 Apr 2003 11:09:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: from relay3.bu.edu (relay3.bu.edu [128.197.27.246]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2FEE643FB1 for ; Thu, 17 Apr 2003 11:09:22 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jhoder@bu.edu) Received: from software15.bu.edu (software15.bu.edu [128.197.27.115]) with ESMTP id OAA18473; Thu, 17 Apr 2003 14:09:00 -0400 (EDT) From: jhoder@bu.edu Received: (from nobody@localhost) ((8.9.3.buoit.v1.0)/8.9.3/(BU-S-05/17/2000-v1.1)) id OAA21740; Thu, 17 Apr 2003 14:08:59 -0400 (EDT) To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 14:08:59 -0400 Message-ID: <1050602939.3e9eedbbba6dd@webmail1.bu.edu> X-Mailer: SilkyMail v1.1.7 30-June-2002 BU MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Originating-IP: 128.197.245.240 X-Forwarded-For: 128.197.245.240 cc: jhoder@bu.edu Subject: Network Card X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 18:09:24 -0000 i'm looking for some words of wisdom about pci ethernet adapters for my freebsd system. i'm running freebsd 4.7, an amd 750 duron on a msi k7t turbo mainboard. from what i've read so far, it seems like cards with dec 21040 chips are preferred by at least some users, and the realtek (at least cheaper) ones are discouraged. i've also noticed that prices seem to vary greatly, and i'm trying to stay away from the $20 range of cards in general. i'm currently using a hawking card with a realtek rtl8139c chip and i've had some problems which include hanging on the boot process as well as problems with a mac i'm networking via ethernet to this machine. i haven't fully determined if these problems are specific to the ethernet card, but it seems like that may be the case. so, could someone tell me: what's the big advantage of the dec 21040 chip? is it that the driver is particularly well written? i settled on an smc etherpower 8432t card but then started reading about some problems with other linuxes using this card. then someone in tech support somewhere told me that they use intel cards which seem to work great. can someone recommend a card (make and model) that they've had first hand success with using freebsd? are some freebsd drivers more reliable that others? still easily configured? also, can i disable pnp on a realtek rtl8139c? is there a way to disable pnp using a freebsd utility? or do i need to do this with dos. does disabling pnp have any adverse effects on freebsd otherwise? i realize i've asked a lot. any information you can offer would be greatly appreciated. john