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Artisoft NE-3 and NE-2 Ethernet cards, jumper settings needed

paul

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Anyone have this info? I've reached the end of the internet looking for this. My cards are marked SC&S, who appear to be the manufacturer of the apparently-identical to Artisoft branded cards with the same part numbers. They are for thin coax or AUI media.

The NE-3 is 8-bit while the NE-2 is 16-bit. Also marked ASSY 121005 and 121007 respectively.

These appear to be a different layout than the later cards like the AE-2.

thanks,
Paul
 
What you need to find for the NE3 card is a file called NE3.EXE which will assist you in setting the jumpers. I no longer have it, but you might find it here

Also, does this make any sense with your adapters?
 
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OK, that's helpful - I found NE3.EXE buried inside a ZIP on that site. Hopefully that will read the current configuration which will be a big help. I just have to figure out the easiest way to get that file onto the 5150.

There doesn't seem to be any similarities to the 2 mbps adapters. It does look like it was designed by the same team that later made the AE-2, both being very high quality boards.

EDIT:
Well, that lead to a string of issues with the 5170 that I was going to use to put NE3.EXE onto a floppy. It turns out the MS LAN Manager client I have installed on the AT cannot mount shares after WinXP so I have to figure out another networking strategy that works with Win7. The AT hasn't been run in about a year and the disk sounded like a cement mixer when first powered-up. Must have been a stuck head as it was OK after a restart and seems to not have suffered any apparent damage. I let it run overnight with QAplus tests running and it's still running well.
 
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Necropost for anyone who finds this thread in the future. The NE-3 can be used with WD8003 drivers, both under DOS and Linux. For DOS, I used the Crynwr SMC_WD.EXE driver. With tomsrtbt (Linux 2.2.x) it was picked up and auto-configured by the kernel.

I've got the jumpers mostly mapped, I'll write it up at some point and post it.
 
I have one of these cards, labelled "SC&C NE-3/ETHERNET" and "ASSY 121005", which according to the photos I've found appears to be identical to the Artisoft NE-3.

Unfortunately, 6 years later, there is no NE3.EXE to be found anywhere on the 'net. I don't suppose anyone still has a copy they can post?

The myriad jumpers on the board are labelled generically (i.e. "7 5 3 1" along the top and "8 6 4 2" along the bottom) and the blocks go from J1 all the way up to J12. Sigh.

I did find a brief note from the Windows 3.11 knowledge base (Q90123) that seems to confirm that the card is basically a WD8003 clone:

SUMMARY
=======

Windows for Workgroups does not include an adapter choice for the Artisoft NE3
8-bit Network card. However, the card can emulate a Western Digital (SMC) 8003,
8-bit network card. There are no physical changes to the card (jumpers)
necessary for emulation.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The Artisoft NE3 network card is an earlier model and has been out of production
for several years. The configuring software (NE3.EXE) can provide useful
information about the card settings. This information can be seen by typing "NE3
?" (without the quotation marks) from the MS-DOS command line in the NE3
directory.

Important settings for the card include:

- Interrupt (labeled J10)
Available interrupts=2/3/4/5/6/7
Default interrupt=3

- RamBase (Software configurable)
Default=D000

- I/O Base (Labeled J1)
Default=280

For more information regarding the Artisoft NE3 network card, please contact
Artisoft technical support.
 
Awesome, thanks for tracking it down! I shall hopefully return to post more details if I can manage to get the card up and running.
 
Awesome, thanks for tracking it down! I shall hopefully return to post more details if I can manage to get the card up and running.

You're welcome :) I enjoy tracking down hard to find drivers. This one was a challenge ... took me a few hours.
 
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