I generally use only 3com cards, due to their outstanding performance/success ratio. However, on occasion, I have needed to use a different vendors card, due to support issues. I have used a full complement of the following 3com cards in my current network and others : 3c905b, 3c905, 3c595, 3c515, 3c509b, 3c509, 3c509TPO and PCMCIA versions 3c562D, 3C589B, 3C589D, and 3C589D.

I can tell you of some of the problems I have had, and what was needed to resolve them.

Starting with the first kit I ever purchased, which was the 3com Network starter kit (3c50902) which included 3 3c509TPO cards, 3 50 foot 4 wire cat3 cable, and a 3c16180 8 port hub. This was all I needed to begin my network which at the time, consisted of 2 windows 3.11 machines, and a Windows 95 (peer "server") machine. These cards all installed properly, and without a hitch. It has been all progress since then.

I then picked up a 3c509b for my newly created SCO OpenServer machine, and it too worked flawlessly. SCO included drivers for it, and even if they didnt, 3com offers them on their website. So, it was so far, so good.

Next step was to introduce a new UnixWare 2.12 machine to the network. So I again picked up a 3c509b card, and once again, all went well. Additionally, SCO and 3com both offer drivers for this setup.

Then, thru a deal with 3com, I was able to recieve a special deal on the 3c515 cards, to sort of "beta" test them, and give feedback. Now these are actual production versions of the card, in full retail box format, with manuals and all. They wanted to know how the installation and usage went. I did have quite a problem, getting this card installed in one of my machines. I have a PackardBell 486/66 machine, that was originally purchased as a win3.1 machine, and was upgraded to 3.11 WFW. Then it was upgraded to Windows 95. All of this worked fine with the 3c509b card. (The reason for the continual upgrades, is that I try to simulate what happens in the real world, rather than do fresh installs each time) Now, I tried to install the 3c515 in place of the 3c509b card, but it would only succeed if I didnt tell Win95 that I remove the 3c509b. I physically removed it, but when I tried to remove the drivers for it, the 3c515 would then fail to work. Eventually I gave got around this, by holding off on the reboot, and "finagleing" the setup. I dont know for sure that I could duplicate this scenario, but it was a problem. Another point I will mention is that I also had a lot of problems installing the drivers for the 3c515 in the first place. It couldnt find files that should have been no problem. I had to keep telling it where to look, and it was truly annoying. But I needed to find out if this card would work or not. As it stands now, the drive in that machine finally died, and I have reinstalled Win95, but this time it is the OSR2 version, and was a fresh install, using the 3c515. I have had zero problems since then.

I then purchased a 100Mbit switch for the network, as it was growing by leaps and bounds. So I could finally use the 100Mbit cards, and auto functions on the 3c515. I have had no problems with the 3c515 and was able to now introduce some 3c595's into the network. I had built another system, now an NT server, and the 3c595 card's recognition was immediate and problem free. I really liked this cards performance and ease of use, not to mention its support in the Linux community, and truly wish I could still get them. I prefer them over the 3c90x series, but such is life.

By now, I have a Solaris (Intel) machine using a 3c509b, because I could not find a proper driver for the 3c905 for Solaris 2.6 back when it came out. I have had no problems with it so never upgraded it. It is a good combination with little problems, so it stays as is.

There is also a RedHat Linux machine with a 3c905b card in use, but this is a problem for me. I am thinking about moving the 3c595 and this card around, because I cant get the Linux O/S to work at full duplex 100Mbit like every other machine is doing on my network. It binds properly upon bootup, and card recognition is proper, but before the boot is fully finished, it switches back to 10Mbit, half duplex. I have configured my Cisco 2924XL switch to force the full duplex and 100Mbit, but it wont help. So I am stuck on that one with 10Mbit and half duplex right now.

The real problem began when I tried to install NCR MP-RAS version 3.02.00 on a home built Intel machine, with SCSI peripherals. I successfully installed the O/S, but the network card would not work at all. There was of course, a driver problem, and I could find NO supported drivers for the 3com cards. Unless it was EISA, I could not find a 3com driver. So I was forced after about 3 nights of effort, to swap it out. I went with an SMC card. It is the SMC9334BDT EhterPower 10/100 dual channel fast ethernet card for PCI, with dual RJ45's. I have had tremendous success with this card, as I picked the card make and model, based on network packages available to the NCR platform. However, I did not use any SMC drivers, just he NCR drivers to make it work. For what it is worth, I was using this as a dual O/S for a while, with one drive dedicated to NCR, and the other drive to NT, and both worked well with this card configuration.

I also introduced Comcast@Home to my network at this point. They brought in their own equipment for the install, so they "deposited" an Intel Ether Express Pro 10 network card at this time. It was in a standalone Micron Vetix server, and was running windows 95 at the time (although only temporary - VERY temporary). As soon as they left, and everything was working with the cable modem, I loaded NT Server on this machines, since that is what it was purchased for in the first place, and currently have 3 cards in the machine. The first two are 3c905b cards, for the internal and external interfaces, and the last is a 3c509b card, since I was out of PCI slots. This is my firewall/proxy machine, and has been up "forever" without a hitch.

That Intel card that I just spoke of, is currently in the Caldera Linux 1.1Lite machine now, and is working great. I did, however, have TONS of problems trying to Caldera Linux to recognize any of the 3com products. I originally tried to get it working with the SMC card and couldnt make that work. Then I tried a 3c905b and that wouldnt work. I tried a 3c905, and that too failed. I did not have any 3c509 series available at the time, and rather than purchase one, and wait, I used the Intel card I had laying around. This combination has worked great for me, and during nightly backups to my Seagate Backup Express 7.2 backup server, it actually outperforms some of the other better hardware on the network. So it stays.

I have an SCO UnixWare7 machine on the network as well now. It is using a 3c905b card, without the WOL connector used, but its performance is not very good during backups. As a web server, and for file transfer/telnet/etc, it is a "screamer". I figure one day, I may work on the drivers for that one, but with all I have going on, as long as it "aint broke dont fix it" right now, is the best advice. This combination was easily detected during installation.

I just purchased my own "daily driver" so that I wouldnt have to work on the servers anymore. It is now an NT workstation, and uses the 3c905b with the WOL connected. This machine gives absolutely outstanding performance during nightly backups. Even as fast as the local disk on the backup server itself. This was a problem free installation as well.

As for the PCMCIA cards, they are a different ballgame altogether. I actually got the 3c589c card to work with SCO OpenServer 5.0.2 that I had installed on a Micron Transport Trek notebook computer. This required drivers from LinnSoft, to make the PCMCIA a recognized device, but once I had them installed, it worked great. It actually gives good performance too. For what it is worth, the UnixWare7 release comes with the LinnSoft drivers by default now, so that should be a simple install.

We put NT Server on another Micron Transport Trek2 notebook also, and on that one, I was using a 3c589d card. I did have a few problems with that, but it is working ok now. It seemed to need me to located some files for it during installation, but that was no big deal at all. Now, this notebook sometimes needs to serve as a router for our machine installations. When we install a new NT or Unix machine for the client, we generally try to make the network IP numbers match the customer site, to avoid the need to change the IP on install. To make these work with our networks however, we need a router in place. Since this notebook sits idle, when not being used for demo's, we use it for the router. Performance isnt great but the functionality is. To make it work, I add a 3c562d card to the setup. This is a combination modem card, and I have never had a reason to complain when using NT with this. I dont leave the second card in all the time, however. WHen it goes out on the road for a demo, I remove that card, so that it wont interfere with the demo, and when it has to play router again, we fresh install the card again. I have had zero problems with this setup, so it stays as is. Standard Operating Procedures now, if you will.

My personal laptop/notebook, is a Tiger Pentium 166 machine, that also uses the 3c562d card. I use both the modem and the LAN ports on this card, and often both at the same time. This notebook is running Win95 and has had no problems either. Installed ok, and runs great.

Some problems that I have had are with the HP Pavilion series of PC's. We setup a network for a client one time, of about 25 machines. We did the NIC installation, and configuration. There were machines so old that it would make you choke, and some as new as the new Pavilion machines from HP. This was back in Dec 97. The Win95 operating system was used on about 90% of the machines, with the remaining old ones using Win3.11. For whatever reason, the HP Pavilion machines, would burp on the 3c905b cards which were purchased in 5 packs. Whether the cards are different from the single retail box version or not, I dont know. I tried the drivers that came with the cards, and the drivers I had from the single card versions but each machine would always crash with corrupt registries. Sometimes, I could move the card to a different PCI slot, and that would get it running again (of course after de/re installing the drivers again), but once we loaded the Internet Explorer 4.0 software, it would crash out with registry corruption. We ended up using the 19 dollar DLink ISA cards (10Mbit) and never had a problem. That kind of disturbs me, but we didnt have enough time figured in to find out what was going on. We had to do this before the client's vacation week ended, and the office returned. I can tell you that I have not seen this problem since, but I now carry a DLink card in my "bag-o-tricks" at all times.

I have used a fddi card on an NT server in the past (Dell 2200) that gave all kinds of problems. I contacted Dell and 3com, and they sent a new card, no questions asked. It however, did not resolve the problems, and in the end, we needed to go with a 3c905b, with a fiber-to-10bt transciever, to make this work. I didnt like that either, but we were stuck for time, since this was the same client. Needless to say, I didnt like that job at all.

I have installed countless 3c905 cards in Intel servers running SCO OpenServer, SCO UnixWare7 and NT Server, without many problems. I have also installed NUMEROUS 3c509b and 3c905's in Win95 for client workstations, again without a hitch.

I will continue to use and recommend the 3com series of cards, even with the trouble I have had, because they just feel right to me. I have successfully used SMC and Intel cards without any problems AT ALL, and even DLink, but I still push the 3com.

I guess one more problem I have had, is that sometimes the 3com cards, specifically the PCI versions, are cut really tight and square around the knotch that fits into the motherboard. I have had to carefully "carve away" some of the card surface without touching the contacts, in order to make the card seat at all, but after doing so, have had no problems. I would say this has occured about 10% of the time. For what it is worth, this didnt occur at all, on the problem client mentioned above.

I will try to update this page, with full details in the future, but wanted to share my stories for now, so that users wont keep seeing the "coming soon" icon.