3com Ethernet Adapter

[Robuck]

Hello,

I love Windows 95, and sometimes 98. You may call it not “vintage”, but as a 17 year old they definitely are to me! I have a Vaio computer that I am trying to use Ethernet with in order to download and play Old School Runescape, but I’m running into some issues. The big roadblock is making windows 98 open .msi files, but that is a bridge I will cross at a later date. Right now I need to connect it to the internet one way or another. It came with a dial up card, but I don’t particularly want to sign up and pay for a dial up service, nor do I think my area even offers it. I have another Compaq Windows 98 PC that is almost completely bricked. My plan was to salvage the 3com Ethernet cars from that to use in my Vaio and never look back, but it wasn’t so easy. I’m not entirely familiar with how these old things work- they are between my knowledge of super old computers and modern computers. In a sense I am entirely lost. Will it run any old Ethernet card driver? If it needs the specific one for that card, where can I find it? I’m sorry for any dumb questions, but again I don’t know much about this specific time period of computers yet. Thanks for your help!

 

[Chuck(G)]

There are 3com cards and 3com cards. Get the model number from your card and go looking for a driver.

 

[Andrew T.]

Speaking from experience, 3Com Ethernet cards on Windows 9x require drivers specific to the adapter.

Years ago, I bought what I thought was a 3C905 card on eBay. I had specifically sought out a 3C905 because I had one installed in another computer, I was familiar with its performance, and I knew that it was compatible with Windows 95 and 98.

When it arrived, I installed the card in a Win98 PC and became quizzical when it wouldn't work with the driver I had on hand. Or any other driver I tried, for that matter. I became even more quizzical when I booted from a Linux live CD in the midst of troubleshooting, and it did work on that configuration. What on earth was going on?

It turned out that the eBay seller had misidentified the card, and it wasn't a 3C905 at all. It was a 3C980. And the 3C980 didn't ship with drivers for Windows 98! (But did ship with drivers for NT4, for some reason.)

A proliferation of negative experiences like this were a key reason why I stopped tinkering with computers altogether for several years.