Eagle Technology NE2000T NIC Questions

[Great Hierophant]

I own the following NIC :

http://artofhacking.com/th99/n/E-H/40659.htm

But I have several questions about it.

First, judging from similar cards in the same series, the Boot ROM socket can support up to 16KB of ROM, EPROM or EEPROM. Can the card be used to reprogram EEPROM? Can this be accomplished in DOS and how?

Second, should the card be set to linear or star topology if connected to a modern router, which in turn goes to the cable modem? My guess is star

Third, would this card work in an 8-bit slot? Its fully jumper-configurable. If so, should I use a NE2000 or NE1000 packet driver?

Fourth, there is a jumper for normal or alternate ISA bus timing. In a Tandy 1000, which is the better choice?
Fourth, this accepts twisted pair cable. Any issues I should be aware of with modern ethernet?

 

[DOS lives on!!]

I also own this card and have set it up properly (using mTCP) and it does work fine with modern internet. It does work fine with 8-bit slots. And use the NE2000 packet driver.

 

[Great Hierophant]

I have tried mTCP and DHCP and NE2000.COM and I cannot get the card to work in either an IBM PC XT or Tandy 1000SX. Here is what I have done :

NE2000 0x60 0x3 0x300
DHCP

I have set MTCPCFG=c:\mtcp\tcp.cfg in AUTOEXEC.BAT

tcp.cfg :
PACKETINT 0x60
HOSTNAME TANDY

I am connecting the UTP cable, CAT-5, directly to the router from the machine. When I run the packet driver, it sets up an Ethernet Address (MAC Address). So I assume that the 16/8-bit bus is not an issue, especially as the packet driver detects the CPU type. But DHCP command will hang, as will FTP or IRCJR from the mTCP package.

Settings seem to be unchanged if I use the Normal or Alternate ISA timing. Boot ROM socket is empty and disabled, jumper settings seem to be correct to what I tell the packet driver. If I use the Star Topology, the port light on my router will stay dark. If I use the Linear Bus Topology, the port light will turn orange (tried multiple ports). That generally means that the router knows there some kind of connection but there is a problem (blue is good). I am using a Netgear WNR3500v2, and that is the only machine physically connected to the router. (Everything else is wireless). There are two LEDs on the NIC, and if Total Hardware is correct, the green LED should be off if the connection is good. I have only seen them solid. Also, if I use the Linear Bus topology, the computer hangs after loading the packet driver.

I have connected to the Internet and the LAN using my Toshiba Libretto 70CT and a PCMCIA ethernet card, so I know the router is not necessarily vintage unfriendly. Do I have a bad card, is there something I need to configure on my router, or have I lost the knack?

 

[Great Hierophant]

Okay, it seems to work just as well and may actually be more stable, with the NE1000 driver. I wonder that, because this is a very early card to support UTP, that the wiring is different. I am using T568B pin/pair cables, where its striped orange/orange, striped green. . green. It may sound silly, but perhaps this card requires a crossover cable with the T568A pin/pair on one end. It definitely seems like a cabling issue.

 

[Great Hierophant]

I have an update. This card works just fine in a 486 in a 16-bit ISA slot connected to Netgear router with a CAT-5E cable. I have been able to successfully connect to the VC channel using ircjr.

My current conclusion is that it may not work in an 8-bit slot.