Best Ethernet Card for the Amiga?

[Iggy_Drougge]

I won't say which one is the best, but I can say which one is the worst, without comparison: The ASDG EB920. It is not only a bad ethernet card, it even makes the machine unstable.

[Chain]

xeron wrote:
The Hydra Systems AmigaNET card apparently has a terrible reputation

i have two cards, v 1.1 and v 1.2 (with RJ45)

while 1.1 really must be on the end of zorro chain, the v 1.2 is fokkin stable and works great under 3.9 in A4000/060

[Iggy_Drougge]

stopthegop wrote:
The best network card for Amigas is an rtl_8139D plugged into a Zorro->PCI  bridgeboard

Doesn't the RTL8139 steal lots and lots of CPU cycles?

[adolescent]

Iggy_Drougge wrote:
Doesn't the RTL8139 steal lots and lots of CPU cycles?

Doesn't seem to here on my Mediator 4000Di (I can't speak for other PCI solutions).  Of course, transfers aren't near 12MB/s either.

[countzero]

amigadave wrote:
 I will then put the Picasso IV into one of the A3000D or the A3000T Toaster/Flyer machines.

arrrgh ... If you want to use PIV in a A3000 please trade it to me for a Cv64.

PIV has one of the best scandoublers ever made for the AGA chipset. Using it in a A3000 is a complete, utter waste of resources (since A3000 has its own scandoubler anyway)

[pVC]

Iggy_Drougge wrote:

stopthegop wrote:
The best network card for Amigas is an rtl_8139D plugged into a Zorro->PCI  bridgeboard

Doesn't the RTL8139 steal lots and lots of CPU cycles?

In my experience all network cards use heavily the cpu in maximum transfer rates. Both Zorro and PCI cards use all available CPU power with fast transfers... so faster the CPU is faster you can get data. With 060/66 I got max 600k/s with Amiganet on Zorro2 bus and around 900k/s with 10Mbps RTL card on MediatorZIV. With 10/100Mbps RTL card I've got roughly 1.3M/s... When using slower outside lines, then it doesn't matter that much, but in any case, PCI cards have worked better here.

[mdivancic]

countzero wrote:
arrrgh ... If you want to use PIV in a A3000 please trade it to me for a Cv64.

PIV has one of the best scandoublers ever made for the AGA chipset. Using it in a A3000 is a complete, utter waste of resources (since A3000 has its own scandoubler anyway)

I have to agree with with countzero on this one. I know we are talking about network cards, but putting a PIV in a A3000(T) is a waste of a good scan doubler.

[Gwion]

How can i use a RTL8139 using Amithlon?

[stopthegop]

I don't know anything about Amithlon..  I assume its just a PC emulating an Amiga in software, right?   If so, I would imagine any $1.99 PCI network card should work...?   On my Amiga, the rtl_8139 card requires a driver in "Devs:networks" called rtl_8139.device.  In "libs:" should be openpci.library.  In "Envarc:openpci" should be rtl8139-n.config (where 'n' is the unit number of the card, 0 being the nic in the lowest physical pci slot, 4 being the max).  If 'n' is not specified in the filename, 0 is assumed.   The config file contains only one variable (that I am aware of..), and that is the connection speed.  I think "1" indicates 100M FD, and "4" is Automatic.  I might have those backwards, not sure..  Will check to confirm.  

[amigau]

I have used nearly all of the above (and the Ariadne II mentioned later) and found the Ariadne was pretty much the easiest to install and deal with.  While it otherwise seemed pretty good, I ran into some weirdness with the x-surf and other software (but it's been too long to remember what it was) so sold it.  

The A2065 (or was it the hydra?) used coax, not rj45, so it required a terminator and an older hub that still had a coax port, but otherwise worked fine (but if you find one, buy the hub and terminator with it if you can).

A couple not mentioned already are the variations on PCMCIA ethernet (there were at least two on the market at one time, one I got from National Amiga in canada, can't remember on the other) and, the DKB A2000 68060 accel. has ethernet built into it, if you are lucky enough to find one still out there (definitely among the rarer, yet coolest hardware out there for the Amiga ever made).

Finally, I would imagine now that you might use one of the various still-avail. USB cards as an ethernet alternative too?  I've done that route on occasion with PCs, why not Amigas?

good luck!

amigau
http://www.amigau.com

[pVC]

amigau wrote:

The A2065 (or was it the hydra?) used coax, not rj45, so it required a terminator and an older hub that still had a coax port, but otherwise worked fine (but if you find one, buy the hub and terminator with it if you can).

More cleaner solution is to get transceiver into AUI-port (at least Hydra has that port). The one which converts AUI->RJ-45. On Hydra's Amiganet 1.1 you have to switch one jumper row to different position to activate AUI instead of BNC. Transceivers used to be pretty expensive, but nowadays they can be found cheaply as used... I found handful of them from one recycling center and they worked fine with Hydra

[Gwion]

How do i acces Envarc to put openpci in it?

[stopthegop]

"Envarc:" is the alias for the directory "sys:prefs/env-archive".  From a shell type "makedir envarc:openpci".
Then open editpad and save a file to the folder you just created called "rtl8139-0.config".  When Genisis or Miami-init ask you for a "configuration" file, select this file.  
 

[Gwion]

WOO! Genisis now shows RTL8139 as online (green light) but when i got on A-Web it doesnt connect to the internet, Why could this be? (thanx for all the help so far)

[amigakit]

Possibly you need to enter your DNS servers to resolve the URLs.

Can you access your router from the browser by entering it's IP address?

[Gwion]

Well i doesnt say unable to load page, the boing balls fly for a second then it just doesnt do anything, what do u mean by the dns thing?