[WBEL-users] Anyone Using Gigibit Ethernet with White Box?

[Pete Stevens]

On Fri, 17 Sep 2004, George Salt wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> Can anyone recommend a gigabit ethernet pci card that
> works well with WBEL?  Any driver issues I should be
> aware of?
>
> I know it's no longer an issue with 10/100 ethernet,
> but I want to check before I purchase some gigabit
> cards (and hub), and most vendors (Netgear, for
> example) don't say anything about linux support.
> Thanks in advance for any advice.

I've two machines working fine with onboard Realtek cards,
RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+, they're plugged into a CISCO 100Mbit switch.

An onboard Intel Corp. 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller, works fine on a
machine that's been hand patched up from Redhat 6.0 to a 2.6.5 kernel, I've
also used PCI Intel Pro Gbit desktop adapters which have all worked very well
[although they're on Debian stable].

Personally I'd recommend the Intel PCI cards, they cost around 30GBP [$50 US]
and just work.

The only thing I'd watch out for is if it's an old machine [e.g. a BP6 dual
celeron] you can get stung because the PCI card spec changed to add an extra
voltage - we can't put a Gbit card in our dual celeron which is a shame, we'll
have to retire it instead.

Hope that helps.

Pete Stevens

--
Pete Stevens
pete@ex-parrot.com
Virtual WBEL servers http://www.mythic-beasts.com/vds.html

      A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
                                                           -- Winston Churchill