[XP home] Ethernet port

[themanwhowas]

Hello everyone,

I recently bought a new pc from ebay. It works ok, a lot faster than my other pc. The thing is, to use the ethernet port to connect to my broadband router, i have to install drivers. This is fine until i drop into linux as the drivers obviously won't work and neither will the ethernet port.

My other pc's ethernet port just works, no drivers, nothing, so when i use linux it works fine.

I am all too familiar with winmodems. Is this the same thing? After opening the case, the part itself looks exactly the same so i assume there is no extra hardware in the older one that works better. I'm thinking maybe it's the motherboard but this is just a guess.

Either way, is there anyway i can make this thing work without the need for the drivers? Apart from buying a new ethernet card or motherboard of course.

Thanks

[ua549]

Post the kind/model of NIC you have. Look for it in Device Manager.
What specific drivers are you installing for the NIC?

[eddds40]

Guessing that you have onboard LAN port (ethernet) on your new PC You may have to setup the drivers from the disk that came with your PC. Check your bios settings for the device . Alternative add a pci LAN card they are less than $10.00 but will still have to probably be setup depending on OS

[themanwhowas]

sorry for the late reply. I forgot i asked this question
the NIC is 'SiS190 100/10 Ethernet Device' in the device manager. The driver provider is 'Silicon Integrated Systems corp.' and the driver file itself is called 'SiSGbeXP.sys'.

I did get a cd with the pc which allows me to install the device on windows but nothing else. If i wanted to install an OS over a network for example, or use linux, i cant. I have checked the bios and under features setup, ethernet device is enabled.

Would it just be easier to buy a pci ethernet adapter? If i still have to install the card with a cd then i will be no better than i am now.

Thanks for help

[Train]

My realtec based pci nics have drivers for linux on the floppy.
And the drivers are in XP.
So, windows takes care of the installing for me.Then sets up the netowrking.

[ua549]

All NICs have to have drivers whether they are on board chips or add-in cards.

Many NICs use drivers that are distributed with Windows and installed automatically when the OS is installed.

Check your *nix OS for a matching NIC driver. Install it.

Updates are available here.

[themanwhowas]

All NICs have to have drivers whether they are on board chips or add-in cards.

aha. I thought that some dont need drivers, like the whole winmodem/hardware modem thing. I guess that the NIC on my 1st pc is just recognised by linux automatically whereas my 2nd is not.

Ok. Thanks. I appreciate the help