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New Fucking Linksys
As I mentioned in this post http://iwt.mikevital....iwt?postid=12541, the built into the motherboard NIC in my kids' Dell Optiplex went bad, so I replaced it with the Linksys LNE100TX specifically because the ad on Newegg.com stated that it would work with Win 98 SE AND that it came with the Win 98 SE drivers on the CD.

Got it yesterday, go to install it with the minimal documentation that came with it sitting open on the desk, and I find out that it DIDN'T come with the driver for Win98 SE. It did come with drivers for WinNT 3.51, WinNT 4.0, Win XP ... and Windows for Workgroups 3.11.

Went to their site only to discover that NONE of their driver file downloads give you a fucking clue as to what is contained within them - they're all .ZIP files that have been converted to .EXE files and the names are completely non-descriptive.

I just spent 1/2 hour on the phone with their "support", who confirmed that the card will work with Win 98 SE but they DO NOT PROVIDE the drivers for it! And none of the drivers on the support page will work with it either! He suggested using the WfW3.11 driver or buying a new computer. Let's see ... use a driver that is 7 years older than the operating system on the PC or spend hundreds of dollars to get around their fuck-up. So I got flippant and told the guy if he wanted me to buy a new PC then he should give me his Visa card number, its expiration date and the CVV number from the back of the card.

He hung up on me after wishing me to "have a nice day".

Asshole.




"Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from."

-- E.L. Doctorow
New Re: Fucking Linksys
Actually it is there (at least on all the driver disks I have). Its not labeled as Win95 though, it's the basic one in the root of the floppy. I've installed this card in at least 40 Win95 machines over the years.
New time to retire Win98, surely.
If it's a 98-ish spec box (circa 400MHz-1GHz, up to 256MB memory) then Windows 2000 will make a better choice. I assume you need Windows for some game software or suchlike.

If you don't, then http://www.ubuntu.com is your answer.
New +5, Informative.
Windows 2000 will run just fine in 128Mb, FWIW.

Wade.

"Ah -- I take it the doorbell doesn't work?"
New Nope
The box is a 600 MHz Pentium III with 256 Meg RAM. It has all of the patches and security updates for Win98 SE. Almost all of the software has been removed so that this is nothing more than a Internet browser machine - no MS Office, no games, no useless apps, etc.

Since I repaired this on a visit to my family, and now I'm heading out the door for the airport and a return flight to my job 1000 miles away, at least it works for now. A new machine and/or a new operating system will be put off to a future date, which will not occur until I receive employment in the metro area where the house resides. And in today's economy, that probably won't happen for at least another year.




"Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from."

-- E.L. Doctorow
Expand Edited by lincoln June 15, 2009, 04:48:23 PM EDT
New Ubuntu is not the answer

Ubuntu is available for PC, 64-Bit and Mac architectures. The Alternate installation CDs require at least 256 MB of RAM (the standard installation CD requires 384MB of RAM). Install requires at least 3 GB of disk space.



source: http://www.ubuntu.co.../desktop/features


Not as bad as the minimum system requirements for WinXP or Vista, but it appears that Ubuntu is also not immune to hardware creep.






"Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from."

-- E.L. Doctorow
New Re: Ubuntu is not the answer
eComStation might be.

http://www.ecomstati...answer&faq_id=137
New It's always hard to diagnose things over the phone.
I've had similar aggravations with my mom's PC. Condolences.

I agree that driver disks are often less than helpful. And tech support often leaves a lot to be desired. But I think you're being too hard on the support guy - he may have been barely 8 when Win98 was released. ;-) I wouldn't be at all surprised if yours was the first Win98 call he's received.

Your time is worth something, and getting so upset over this isn't doing you any good either.

Given all that, if there's any way to swing it, it makes sense in this situation to simply get another PC. It'll be faster, have a later operating system, and you can configure it and make sure its working before dropping it in the mail.

DFS has a lot of machines for $80, and a lot more for < $200. http://www.dfsdirectsales.com/ Lots of places sell used/refurbished PCs - http://www.pmount.co...od_show.asp?ss=PC http://www.pcexchang...tegory_s/2000.htm etc. (Caveat emptor, as always.)

Yeah, a NIC shouldn't be this much of a hassle. But it was. Time to move on, IMHO.

I forget where you are these days. Chicago? If so, here are some $80 Dell systems for sale: http://chicago.craig...s/1220784681.html I'm sure there's a lot more.

Just something to think about. Good luck.

Cheers,
Scott.
New Re: Fucking Linksys
If all you need are the drivers, couldn't someone who has them, send them to you? I have all my disks for Win '98 SE still, let me know if that might help.

Brenda
___________________________________________________________________
When asking God for a break, be sure to specify what KIND you want!
     Fucking Linksys - (lincoln) - (8)
         Re: Fucking Linksys - (Andrew Grygus)
         time to retire Win98, surely. - (pwhysall) - (4)
             +5, Informative. - (static)
             Nope - (lincoln)
             Ubuntu is not the answer - (lincoln) - (1)
                 Re: Ubuntu is not the answer - (kj3n)
         It's always hard to diagnose things over the phone. - (Another Scott)
         Re: Fucking Linksys - (Nightowl)

Dein Glück... ist nicht mein Glück... ist mein Unglück.
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