grimjack2's Full Review: 3Com Fast EtherLink XL TX (3C905B-TX-NM-25) Networ...
I know there are probably about a half dozen 3Com Network cards available right now. I think 3Com comes out with new ones at least three times a year! The specific cards being reviewed here are the 3Com 3c905BTX.
What a hassle it is to install, or reinstall these quality cards!
I am torn about whether to recommend or not recommend these cards. It is a great card, from a great company. However, the install process is harder than any other network card, and the reinstall process is very frustrating.
What makes this install so unusually hard is that in order to install the cards right, you have to run a program off of the CD BEFORE YOU PHYSICALLY INSERT THE CARD! There is a sticker on the instructions, markings on the plastic wrapper that the card comes in, and it is also mentioned in big letters when you insert the CD. However, I like most hardware people install our new hardware the same way for everything. We install the card, turn it on, let windows do its auto-detection, and install a driver disk if needed.
This card will screw up if you do it this way! First, you must insert the CD before the card is in the system, and run the preinstall program. This only takes seconds, and it must prepare the operating system in some way that can't be done by the average person looking at the registry or network settings in the control panel. Then, and only then, do you physically install the card, and go through what seems to be the normal installation process.
This wouldn't be such a bad thing if not for the fact that my introduction to these cards was when I had to replace a motherboard that shorted, but keep the operating system intact as best as possible. I was keeping all the old cards I could, and was unaware of this card’s unique installation beforehand. After reading how this works, and being stubborn enough to try different strategies, I thought I could get around removing it. The problem was that it kept re-detecting itself every time I rebooted, adding an identical card to the System control panel.
After an hour, I finally had to write down all the network settings, and remove all instances of the 3Com network card from both the Network and System Control Panels. Then I had to turn off the machine, remove the card, and run the preinstall program on the CD. Then I shut down, installed the card, and it went somewhat without a hitch. I really hated losing all the TCP/IP and Gateway settings, however. Fortunately I had played with them so much trying to get the card to be recognized without being seen twice, that I had almost remembered them all.
It seems to be working great now, but now I'm even more hesitant about saying it is worth the large price increase. At two different places I've worked, the company chose Netgear over 3Com because the prices for similar cards were about $30 for the Netgear, and $80 for the 3com. The Netgear cards all seemed to work fine, but the extra $50 may have been thought to bring some better reliability. Considering the hassle to install this particular brand, I wish I just gone out and bought a new Netgear card.
Of course, if I had known what I would have to do, I probably could have just done it, and it wouldn't have been a big deal. If I hadn’t thought it sounded so screwy, I should’ve just listened to the instructions, removed the card, ran the CD, and then put the card back in the machine. One problem with that however, was that the CD-ROM drive had burned out so I wanted to access someone else’s CD from across the Network. This process forced me to put in a new CD-ROM sooner than I had expected.
Okay, now on to the card’s features. The cards are standard sized, unlike some of the really small network cards I've been seeing from some of the no-name brands lately. This is neither a particularly good or bad thing to me, yet.
The instruction book seems very thick, but in fact it is the same instruction book in nine (!) different languages. The English portion is only sixteen pages and has clear diagrams and easy to follow instructions. It is actually quite impressive when compared to many of the cheaper network card competitors.
The card can be installed for DOS, NT, Windows 3.11, or Windows for Workgroups with little hassle. Win95 and Win95B seem a little more difficult judging from reading their sections in the instruction manuals.
The software on the CD comes in ten languages (one more than in the instruction manual) and has the complete docs, all the drivers, and the browser setups for both Netscape 4.06 and Explorer 4.01.
The card performs as good as every other 10/100 speed NIC card, and probably just a little bit better. 3Com has always been known for having the best cards, but at the highest price.
The port is directly in the middle of the back of the card, which puts it under some video plugs. Some Network brands have the plug off center to avoid this, but sometimes those can get under other card’s devices as well. It can never really be helped 100%. I happen to have a home system where I have to switch a network connection frequently because I prefer to use a crossover cable rather than use my hub to connect multiple machines. Most businesses would never mess with their network connections once they are plugged in, so this isn’t really a big deal.
In the back there are the standard three lights. One green one that shows you when a connection is made at both ends. This is often more useful for me to tell when a hub is working or down. The other two lights are amber and let you know when you are sending or receiving data. Unfortunately being about the size of a square millimeter and invisible unless you can climb back behind the machine makes them pretty worthless most of the time. I always hoped some company would add a software feature to their drivers that gave you little lights in the bottom corner of your taskbar similar to the old modem transfer utilities from years ago.
In summary, the card is better than the competition, but only slightly. It costs a lot more than most cards of fairly similar quality. And it is a pain to install. I can only reluctantly recommend them because of their quality.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 79 Driver Availability: Windows, Linux, and Mac
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