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DFE-530TX+ gigabit NIC

Started by sdennis, 2010.07.01, 18:07:56

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sdennis

Hi, everyone.

Since my wife and I are getting rid of our satellite TV and going to "TV on the Internet" using a Roku box, I've decided I'd like to upgrade my LAN to gigabit speeds.  I'll need to get a new switch, which isn't hard, but for the BBS box, a Dell OptiPlex GX100 (Celeron/500), I'm investigating getting this NIC:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127102

That's a D-Link DFE-530TX+ card.  There's other gigabit cards, but this one fits the budget.  Has anyone had success with this card and OS/2 or eCS working together?

This isn't a "must-have", but it'd be nice for my users and especially since I'm considering running my own web server here at home again.
OS/2: Shuts gates, opens windows.

RobertM

Quote from: sdennis on 2010.07.01, 18:07:56


That's a D-Link DFE-530TX+ card.  There's other gigabit cards, but this one fits the budget.  Has anyone had success with this card and OS/2 or eCS working together?

This isn't a "must-have", but it'd be nice for my users and especially since I'm considering running my own web server here at home again.

I have had success with various of these cards using the driver located on this page:

http://www.os2warp.be/index2.php?name=nicpak

You must follow the installation instructions and ensure you have downloaded the correct driver pack. I always simplify that by downloading every driver pack for Chuck's NicPak and running his card detect routine. At times, it seems to pick some weird card that doesnt seem right (but turns out to be) since it picks drivers based on chipset and not branding.

I have made the mistake of downloading the NicPak utility and running that, and watching it fail on installing anything - simply because I forgot to download the driver packs needed. Not sure if the detection utility has been changed to auto-get the drivers or not... but hence my method of downloading all of the driver packs and then running NicPak detection utility.

Best,
Robert


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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RobertM

#2
Another suggestion on any card manufactured a few years ago (maybe pre 2006) is to look for one of the following directories on the install/driver disk:

- NDIS2
- OS2
- LANMAN
- MSLANMAN
- DOS

Various card manufacturers who had/have OS/2 drivers have dropped support by simply not mentioning OS/2 while still including drivers buried someplace on the CD. This will doubtfully apply to newer cards, but I do have a bunch of early 2000's cards that came with OS/2 drivers, even with no mention of them (my Intel 1000Pro/MT for instance).


I've often found OS/2 drivers located there (in the ones that it was in the DOS directory, they were in a subdirectory there usually). Generally, the higher end (high end desktop, or server class) cards of that age or older will contain drivers someplace. Another good thing to do is find what IBM options were sold for their OS/2 capable machines (especially the server lines) - generally, there will be OS/2 capable drivers either online or on the CD (for instance, for various Broadcom gigabit cards/chips, for the first couple generations of Intel 1000 cards, and so on).

I have found Linksys to be a very very bad choice - Linksys seems to subscribe to the "chipset of the month" scheme, where you will not know what chipset is in the box unless it is labelled by version number and you take the time to look up the particular version of the card to determine chipset compatibility. Some of their cards have over 8 versions/revisions, containing different chipsets (of which, I believe 3 or 4 are supported by OS/2 drivers).

Best,
Robert


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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jmbw

Not to nitpick, since maybe the Newegg link is somehow stale already, but their description of the DFE-530TX+ seems to say that it's a 10/100 card, not gigabit.

There's an OS/2 driver for at least *some* of the RealTek gigabit cards, which are super cheap on eBay, FWIW.  People bust on RealTek but I've always had great luck with their stuff.

John Wilson
D Bit