RIS Network Cards

[edie209]

I'm looking for some RIS Network Cards but i don't have alot of money so I was wondering if anyone knows of a good deal out there at the moment.

 

Cheers 8)

[ChrisH]

The cheap realtek cards I have bought in the past do but most of the time I found you really struggled to see whether or not they do from their description or specs for some reason.

I also ran into the problem that I had a PXE card but the BIOS didnt support it for some reason even though there was a boot from lan etc option. All things that need to be considered.

 

If booting from a floppy is an option then you can build disks to run etherboot which can start you on your way with ris. Look at romomatic.net and check out the thin client forum for other ways of doing it.

[tosca925]

I have a load of brand new Realtek cards in our store room. They are still snrink wrapped and never opened. We purchased far too many for our old machines when we started to use RIS.

 

These cards work perfect when you boot from floppy.

 

PM me if your interested.

[edie209]

I have been doing some reaserch on the net and i think i have found a card that may well work the Realtek 8139 which is also available as a dynamode NC100TX-R

 

Has anyone used one of these cards with a RIS setup, if so these cards are available for £5.99 + Vat, which would make a reasonable RIS NIC

[ICTNUT]

We use 3Com (3C905CX-TX-M) and work superb with our RIS setup.

 

The down side is that they do cost £20 each.

 

You can find info on them here --> http://www.3com.com/prod/en_UK_EMEA/detail.jsp?tab=features&sku=3C905CX-TX-M

[ICTNUT]

@edie209:

 

Are you sure these cards are PXE enabled from the start? we have only been able to find them with optional boot ROM support, requiring you to spend an additional £10 - £12 for the ROM

[beeswax]

I have been doing some reaserch on the net and i think i have found a card that may well work the Realtek 8139 which is also available as a dynamode NC100TX-R

 

Has anyone used one of these cards with a RIS setup, if so these cards are available for £5.99 + Vat, which would make a reasonable RIS NIC

 

we have them (Realtek 8139) in a bunch of machines here and they've been fine for ris.

[indie]

We've got a load of 3com 3C2000-T's in our older machines, very good Gigabit cards that support PXE. Around about £25 each when bought in bulk.

[edie209]

Thanks Beeswax thats just the answer I have been looking for. Oh and thanks to everone else for replying

[beeswax]

I've got to apologize for not going into full details of the Realtek 8139. You must ask your suppliers if they are PXE compliant first, I thought it was a standard thing that they were, but some older stock may not be.

sorry about that, it's something I've just caught the NM saying.

[ChrisH]

Thats what I mentioned earlier and £5.99 for these realtek based cards sounds expensive to me I would be looking at half that price.