Hello, i used to have a USB modem, but after finding it rather mroe difficult to set up in linux, i am now thinking of buying a router (Netgear DG814, comes with 2 free NICs!!!), but i dont have a NIC.

moreover, my motherboard is rather old, and has this funny spec in that 3 of the 4 pci slots that it has are 'bus mastered', whatever that means! the thing is, when i put a tv card in the non-bus-mastered port, it does not work - the irqs are set up ok, just no picture.

same with my creative labs soundcard - does not work in that slot.

now, before i shell out loads of money on the router, i was just wondering, does a NIC require bus-mastered ports to deliver 6mbps (i am going to get a 6mbps adsl connection next month!) - and will the nic actually work?





ps. i asked a man in a local pcworld, who said that nics dont require bus-mastering, but i am still quite confused as someone else said they need it

Bus mastering is a good thing, so it's unfortunate not all of your slots support it. You'll need to find out which NICs are in the box, and then you can find out if bus mastering is required. Even if they do require it, you can still use the router if you buy other NICs. The router doesn't know or care what your NIC is. You can get a PCI card that doesn't need it, or even go for an ISA card. An ISA NIC is more than enough for home service cable or DSL. Just be sure the NIC you choose is supported in Linux. Some NE2000 clones aren't very good, so sticking to a major brand might help. You could even go for a USB Ethernet adapter (again, check for Linux support) and not use any slots. USB1 is also more than fast enough for home cable/DSL.