green@eng.umd.edu (Michael D. Green) (09/25/90)
I am in the process of ordering a 386 clone to put on our Starlan 10BaseT network. The PC network board costs $320 from AT&T but I understand that Starlan will run on 3Com boards and others. Does anyone know the specifics on which boards are compatible, I'm wondering if I can get it cheaper out on the street. I need twisted pair incidentally. Thanks -- INTERNET:green@eng.umd.edu UUCP :uunet!eng.umd.edu!green VOICE :(301) 454 8656 at work, or (301) 253 2807 at home.
jbreeden@netcom.UUCP (John Breeden) (09/26/90)
In article <1990Sep24.202729.19445@eng.umd.edu> green@eng.umd.edu (Michael D. Green) writes: > >I am in the process of ordering a 386 clone to put on our Starlan >10BaseT network. The PC network board costs $320 from AT&T but I >understand that Starlan will run on 3Com boards and others. Does >anyone know the specifics on which boards are compatible, I'm >wondering if I can get it cheaper out on the street. I need twisted >pair incidentally. >Thanks > I assume you are trying to run StarGroup 3.3 software (Lan Manager/X). If that's so, yes you can run it on any ethernet card that supports NDIS (3Com IS one of them). If you are running StarGroup 3.2, you HAVE to run Starlan cards, there are no drivers for other cards (and, by the way, SG 3.3 comes with the NDIS drivers for the 3Com card). If you look for "street" prices, you'll find that both Starlan and 3Com 305/TP cards are about the same price (at least here on the west coast). Two words of warning, stick with "mainstream" cards (AT&T, 3Com, WD etc), off brand cards can cause all kinds of headaches. If you get a clone, make sure you get a "money back guarantee", I've seen alot of clones with "off-the-wall" bios' that work just fine as stanalone PCs but fail as network devices. Hell even some namebrands (like Zenith). -- John Robert Breeden, netcom!jbreeden@apple.com, apple!netcom!jbreeden, ATTMAIL:!jbreeden ------------------------------------------------------------------- "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from. If you don't like any of them, you just wait for next year's model."