Tx Specification

[TheSpeedoBeast]

Not sure if this should be in networking or hardware, sorry.

But I just got 3 new networking cards, 3c905-tx's by 3com, and none of them are connecting at all. What exactly does the tx prefix mean? Is that a possible incompatibility with my current lan setup?? (like, is it compatible with most hubs and routers?) I am literally kicking myself right now, any ideas on why none of these cards work on either windows xp / me / knoppix / debian??? Thanks a ton for a quick answer here.

[endoalpha]

I would think that 'tx' is part of the name of the card...
The 3com series is well supported in linux/
OS/2/windows/whatever. These cards are standard ethernet.

You dont give any information of what you mean by ' none of them are connecting at all'
have you installed drivers in windows, or modules in linux?

[TheSpeedoBeast]

Yeah, that's kinda what I figured about the product specification. But it is weird because the card is detected and drivers were installed correctly and everything (in xp and knoppix), and the card is blinking nicely in the back & whatever, but I cannot even get an ip address through dhcp... has anyone had similar problems ever? I am becoming balder by the minute due to stress and my fists, so any help here would be beautiful~ thanks!

[TheSpeedoBeast]

And one more thing: I noticed that the back of the card is blinking (3 lights: 10, 100, and act (activity)) and the 10 one is blinking instead of the 100 one. I am going to do a bottleneck check, but I am pretty sure that I am running on a 100 lan, not just a 10. Could that be anything which could cause dhcp, etc. problems? Also, is there any remote chance that all 3 of these cards are defective, because that is all I have come up with thus far :mad:

[endoalpha]

What kind of network are you on? Are you trying to dhcp to a personal router (linksys, etc) or directly from an isp?
ISP's usually only allow one ip address for each home customer, so if you dont have a personal router and have more than one computer hooked up... outa luck.

Sometimes ISP's keep MAC addresses (hardware signatures from an ethernet card) as an authentication system. If you changed the NIC the MAC address changed, and possibly your ISP won't allow this.

[JohnT]

Run the command lsmod Do you see the module 3c59x loaded? If not modprobe 3c59xRun again the command lsmodIf loaded, run ifconfig Does your card show as eth0?

[TheSpeedoBeast]

Ok, after doing all of that, at the ifconfig printout, it lists eth0 for 5ish seconds, and then disappears, leaving only the lo device. When it was listed, it looked like it was broadcasting / multicasting for a dhcp, but I am not sure; I am assuming that the dhcp request timed out, so it just removed it from the ifconfig list. Any help here?

[JohnT]

So when it does that checklsmod again and see if its running or not. Have you gotten any error messages at all? You might have an IRQ conflict...try changing slots.

[TheSpeedoBeast]

Yeah, the module is listed in lsmod, and I am pretty sure that it is not an irq conflict. I will retry it again in a few though.

[Bubba56]

Try this out, second download on the page from 3coms site. NIC detection (and I think diagnostic) utility for the 3c905-tx cards. Should work in ME, xp, 98.

http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/searchbyfile.jsp?path=download&sort=prodnum&fileid=3&prodcat=19&fname=&os=all&pgnum=21

[endoalpha]

Has my second post been totally ignored...? I am still curious about your network setup..

[JohnT]

Originally posted by endoalpha
Has my second post been totally ignored...? No..I've read it twice:p

[TheSpeedoBeast]

Sorry about 'ignoring' your post up there, kinda lost it in the thread there. But I do have good news: this thing is finally working. But it is one of the weirdest networking problems I have seen. This is what my network setup is: a cable modem in the basement, stemming to the hub, and then to our 3 (4, including laptop) computers around the house. But only my internet was working (they stopped working when I did some fiddling with our networking cards). But after trying everything within my power, I decided to restart the cable modem, and lo and behold, all of the computers networking problems were solved.

The strange thing was that only my 1 onboard a7n8x's 3com networking jack was working before I restarted the modem; even a card put into that computer wouldn't work until I restarted the modem. I am guessing that there was just some obscure handshaking problem with the dhcp client, but I guess that somehow my onboard ethernet was just a little bit 'smarter' to see past the dhcp problem. Beats me, but I don't care; the family has internet/instant messaging/spyware again, so the world is as it should be. Thanks for the help though!

[endoalpha]

Thats not a 'weird' networking problem at all. Your onboard a7n8x's network card was probably the original one connected to the cable modem and that MAC address was authenticated by your ISP. When you attached the other cards, (which have different MAC addresses) the cable modem didn't recognize them and wouldn't let them connect.
What IS weird is that your ISP allows 4 IP addresses. You might want to make sure this is OK in your contract, because if your ISP finds out, you may have to pay extra. (probably retroactive from the time you aquired your cable hi-speed access). I would invest in a home router if I were you, instead of using a hub connected to the cable modem.

[TheSpeedoBeast]

Yeah, that is weird about my isp, but hey, I am not going to complain until they only allow one ip; then I can finally invest in a nice router for myself. But not a minute earlier :)

(I am really, REALLY cheap.)

[EnigmaOne]

Originally posted by TheSpeedoBeast
(I am really, REALLY cheap.)

So are routers.

BTW: From the stand-point of security, you would really rather have a firewall/router between all your machines and the Internet.

Especially if you're running windoze machines. http://www.toontowncentral.com/forums/images/smilies/eek.gif