On 22 Apr 2002, at 12:28, Ron Dawson wrote:

> I am attempting to set up a home network using (Cat5 w/crossover
> cables) two 3Com 3C905-TX NIC's.  I cannot get the computers to
> recongize each other. I have read several guides, on this and
> other sites, in an attempt to overcome this issue. I am not sure
> if I have a bad ethernet card. My question: Should any of the
> three LEDs (ACT, 10, 100)on the back of the two NIC cards be lit
> with the computer turned on. Or do these LED's only light when the
> card is communicating with a different computer. From what I can
> determine all my Network Neghborhood setting are in place and I
> have loaded current drivers for the 3Com cards and have confirmed
> that there is no IRQ conflicts or sharing, which may prevent this
> process.

  The ACT (ACTivity) LED should flash as data is sent across the
network.

  The 10 or 100 (Mbps) LED should light, showing the speed of the
connection:  the cards should try to negotiate a 100 Mbps connection
first, and fall back to 10 if that fails.

> have loaded current drivers for the 3Com cards and have confirmed

  Danger, Will Robinson!  The 3C905, 3C905B and 3C905C cards use
totally different chips, and last time I looked there was not a
single unified driver set that worked with all three -- nor did
3com's installation software do an acceptable job of verifying that
the driver version was correct for the hardware actually present.
  It would be terribly easy to "successfully" install the drivers for
the wrong card.

David Gillett

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