|1. Is anyone having problems with 1 or 2 8139 cards in the same
|machine?
|2. The Intel seems to be a very popular choice - would it be worth
|investing in (I know worth is relative but the difference is 128meg
|of ram <g>).
For the use you envisage RTL8139 is fine, just make sure to get the
latest version of the driver as problems have been reported even
recently. The 8139 isn't *that* bad a NIC, certainly heaps better than
the PCI NE2000s. Donald Becker's main gripe with it is that it requires
8-byte alignment of transmit packets which costs an extra copy in
general. I wouldn't use it on a fileserver though.
My favourite inexpensive NIC is the MX98715, which is a Tulip clone and
sold under the label Skymaster 10/100 here. It's about $20. I haven't
seen it incorporated on motherboards though. The Davicom 9102 is another
Tulip clone I have seen on one or two integrated mobos.
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