I recently began using DSL on an older Compaq 5250. I was using the live CD and was able to access all the features including Firefox. A few days later I attempted to use DSL in a Windows enviroment. During the process my computer froze and I shut it down. Later, when I tried the lice cd all features except Firefox were working. From the the control panel I get the message that no network card can be detetedted.....

I'm not sure, but do you mean this box?

If so, it's possible that the old networking chipset's not supported by DSL (in fact, it's pretty likely). My advice: Get a PCI network card (they're really cheap) with a supported chipset (I always use cheap older Realtek cards with a RTL8139 chipset because they simply work, but frankly, if it comes to ethernet, I gather that except for maybe the very latest chipsets, everything will).

If you're looking for a PCI slot, yank out the modem... (there should be one spare, though). Or rather, don't yank, carefully remove it

Presarios are always a little tricky... HP went out of their way to make them cheap, and in the course of that succeeded in making them really crappy pieces of junk... (which can be useful: I use an old Presario 2292 for distro testing - if it runs okay on that box, it'll run everywhere).

M.

Yes that is the computer on which I was trying the DSL live CD. Thanks for the information I'll search around for the "new" card. I do find the fact that DSL was able to access Firefox initially a bit puzzling....

I found this info on Tiger Direct. Would this card support DSL????

"D-Link PCI Ethernet Adapter is a IEEE 802.3/802.3u compliant Dual Speed 10/100MB Ethernet/Fast Ethernet 32-bit bus master PCI specification 2.1 Network Adapter Card with AMA Wake on LAN support. With D-Link's own powerful intelligent chip set, it is designed to deliver maximum flexibility and performance by delivering Dual Speed 10/100Mb automatic bandwidth sensing at a low cost. It is targeted across the board at the Small Office Home Office (SOHO), Workgroup and Enterprise market segments"

There are many D-Link PCI cards that work, but to be sure, one'd have to know the model number or (alternatively, and even better) the chipset. But I don't think you can go very wrong with a fast ethernet card... no promises on that, though!

As I said, at least the model number would make it possible to research the whole thing and make sure it works.

M.