NOTE: This page does not cover 802.11 Wireless PCI card adapters.
(There's a separate page of Mac 802.11N reports/info and Mac OS X Compatible 802.11AC Adapters (USB, PCIe/Mini-PCIe).)

Reader Reports (most recent first)
(If you find Mac compatible drivers for a PCI Ethernet card, or cards that work with the builtin drivers, let me know the card/system/OS version details. When reporting on PCI cards see if the card supports sleep also. (i.e. fans off, etc.) If the card supports "Jumbo Frames" (remember everything on the network must support Jumbo Frames also to work) include that info also. Thanks!)
NOTE: Remember that chipset used in various brands of cards can change over time. For Gigabit Ethernet, a Category 6 cable (CAT6) is recommended.

D-Link DGE-30T Gigabit PCI Card:

(added 10/1/2012)
"My G5's (2.5GHz Dual G5 with PCI-X 66mhz slots) built-in Ethernet has basically died on Sunday Sept 16th. I needed a replacement pronto as the G5 is (was) my work horse for development, so I drove over to Memory Express and picked up D-Link DGE-30T Gigabit PCI Adapter for $19.99 CDN as it had a Mac compatible sticker on it.

After installing the PCI card and rebooting - Apple had no built in drivers for it. So I had a look at the included D-Link CD and they have .pkg Package component installer for OSX 10.3 and 10.4. However I am running Leopard 10.5.8.

I ran the 10.4 pkg installer - rebooted and no drivers show up in the "System Profile" for the PCI card - so I was pretty sure they simply will not install on 10.5 but did not report an error either.

I decide to force the issue, so I opened the .pkg installer, copied the .zipped "DGE-530T(10.4).pax.gz" file from Content/Resources and that got the "AppleRTL8169Ethernet.kext" file extracted. I then copied that kext to /System/Library/Extensions and did the usual Apple induced crap to get the permissions set up correctly in terminal (rm chmod chown etc.) as described here: www.ihackintosh.com/2009/02/what-is-kextwhere-is-kext-how-to-install-kext/
Otherwise OSX keeps "whining" it wasn't installed properly (oh for the old OS 9 days when copying things to the Extensions folder and a re-boot was all one needed) and refuses to use it.

After a reboot, it's up and running just fine now and has been rock solid for the past 5 days. In fact I would say it's got 10 to 20% speed improvement over the old built in Giga Ethernet too.

The drivers are RealTek's, PowerPC only (not an option for x86 Macs at all) and were discontinued in 2008. Finding an NIC Giga E card for the Mac is nearly impossible now - no one write drivers and I suspect Apple will kill off the remaining expandable Mac going forward - so no incentive for 3rd party companies going forward
-Milton "

It's been a couple years now, but earlier reports here include links to compatible cards and drivers (usually Realtek) and some natively compatible cards from the past. Netgear GA311 for instance (see reports below - unless they've changed chipsets). As of Oct. 1 2012, the Netgear GA311 is still available (google search showed stock at Amazon for instance, under $25US). Also found a Sonnet Presto Gigabit PCI card at sponsor OWC, but Sonnet cards typically cost more ($49.99).

More Netgear GA311 (10/100/1000) Reports:

(added 8/16/2010)
"Netgear GA311 Card
A lightning storm killed the onboard ethernet port on my 2002 PowerMac G4. I read your posts and found what I needed to fix it. I plugged in the card and my Tiger and Leopard drives work fine with it. No drivers needed.

I got the card on eBay for 12 bucks. This Netgear GA311 NIC has the Realtek 8169 chipset and was plug and play. What a deal.
Thanks again, Dan M."

(added 7/15/2010)
"Great Site. Found my answer here! Yet another Netgear GA311 success.
Needed a second NIC to multi-home a server (G5 1.8GHz Tower running 10.5.4 server). I had tried a D-Link DFE530TX card that was supposed to work with 10.3 (server did have 10.3 server on it), but that card did not work even after installing the driver. I then decided to put 10.5 server of the G5 for various reasons and so needed a nic with 10.5 support. An Apple authorised dealer told me that it would cost about £ 200 to get an a NIC that would work. I told him he must be joking!
After looking at your site, I got hold of a cheap second hand GA311 card from ebay (£ 12 including delivery!). Put it in and turned on the mac. After boot up, checked system profiler and saw the card listed under PCI. Fired up the network control panel and saw it listed. Set up the TCP settings and plugged in the cable.
Presto, instant network access (at 100TX speed, since I don't have gigabit network).
No driver install. Just recognised by the OS, which is always good.

I cannot comment on sleep support, since this is a server and so does not sleep. I am very happy.
-Nick"

TP-Link TG-3269 (Realtek 8196 based):

(added 2/3/2010 - updated w/more notes)
"Hello from Germany, just to let you know:
The Gigabit PCI Network adapter TP-Link (Brand) Model No. TG-3269 which uses the realtek 8196sc Chipset works plug and play in my G4 400MHz AGP Model.
Just bought it new on Ebay for 8 Euros which is about 11$ as of today (Feb.3rd 2010)

(he later wrote)
OS version I'm using is 10.4.11. Don't know about Jumbo Frames as I haven't tested, manual says card supports it.
more card info:

• 32 bit PCI Interface
• Autosensing, Auto MDI/MDIX
• Gigabit RJ45 port
• Half/Full duplex, IEEE 802.3x flow control
• IEEE 802.3q Tag VLAN, IEEE 802.3 Qos
• 7680 Bytes Jumbo Frame
• Boot rom Socket
• backward compatible with 10/100m Fast Ethernet products

Discovered one drawback: obviously there is no support for deep sleep (fans are still running). Maybe some realtek driver can help. But I won't bother to install cause I don't need it for a home server, and the card is running just fine with built in network software.
Regards, Sven R."

Sweex LC101 (Gigabit): (later reports first)

(added 12/28/2009)
"I just installed a Sweex LC101 PCI Gigabit Ethernet card (link removed/no longer online) on my 8 year old PowerPC (Quicksilver) running OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger) and it acknowledged it right away without having to install a driver.
Works like a charm.
Thanks for the tip.
-JMD"

An earlier report from July 09 follows:

(added 7/15/2009)
"Sweex LC101 PCI Gigabit Ethernet card. (Link removed/no longer online)
After having repeated network dropouts from my G4 450DP running Tiger 10.4.11, I popped one of these straight in a spare PCI slot and it runs like a charm. The chipset is a Realtek RTL8169.

This ten year old workhorse is back serving 1TB of media files every day - what a great machine.

I don't have a gigabit switch so can't shed any light on jumbo frame compatibility.
Thanks for the great site.
-Paul B."

Thanks Paul.

Another D-Link DGE-528T (Gigabit): (I didn't see the DGE-528T in dlink.com (USA) site's product list anymore and even searching for it there found nothing today. Googling for it found a hit at the Dlink UK site though. For previous reports on this card here do a browser 'find' for "DGE-528T". And there are other (preferred) 8169 based card reports here noted w/native OS X 10.4 and 10.5 support. One popular example was the Netgear GA311 Gigabit card (8169 based))

(added 7/15/2009)
" Our studio server (G4 with a Sonnet 1.4 Ghz updgrade) Ethernet port got zapped by lightning a few years back, and I have bought various PCI ethernet cards to try and reestablish an ethernet connection but nothing had worked so far.
The two cards I bought had a Realtek 8139 chipset and didn't work with Leopard. (there's old posts here also on realtek 8139 based card problems w/Leopard since the early OS X 10.5 releases, where he noted switching to a 8169 based card instead.) After reading up, I decided to buy a Giga card with a Realtek 8169 chipset.
Today I purchased a D-Link DGE-528T which didnt load after installation and various startups - D-Link only supplied a driver for Tiger and previous OS versions.
(FYI - there's many previous reports here on Realtek 8169 based cards (usually natively supported in tiger and leopard - although some cards seem to have an ID that's not in the (os x install) driver plist (see earlier posts - you can do a browser 'find' (search) on "8169" to jump to the (many) past posts here over the years). The previously posted link to Realtek's driver page (bottom of page's "other" drivers listing) has a v2.0.0 Driver for Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5 "on Intel-based Macs" (??) and older OS X (10.3, 10.2) drivers.)
I found and downloaded an open source driver from this link:
www.psystar.com/opensource/r1000
I put it in the extensions folder, restarted, and - after manually configuring the DHCP, have a steady 100 MB connection. finally
-Tim P."

D-Link DGE-530T (working after Plist Info edit):

(added 6/22/2009)
"Just adding to your list of mac NIC compatiblitity: I got the D-Link DGE-530T working with my 1.8ghz single core G5. My cards vendor id/device id where 1186/4b01 (respectively) and the chipset is Marvel 88E8001. Jumbo frames are not supported.

I used the Syskonnect sk98xx drivers but I had to modify /system/library/extensions/sk98osx.kext/Contents/Info.plist slightly after the installation was complete. (Several years ago I had to do similar Plist edits for ID to get a MS 802.11G PCI card working (despite being broadcom chip based, the ID wasn't in the apple airport2 extension's Plist). However I later just swapped the card for one that worked w/o any edits.)

1. after installation, control-click on sk98osx.kext in /System/Library/Extensions and select "show package contents". Open "Contents"

2. Copy Info.plist to the desktop

3. double click (to open property list editor)

4. change the values of

Root>IOKitPersonalities>SK-9821>IOPCIPrimaryMatch and
Root>IOKitPersonalities>SK-9821>IOPCISecondaryMatch

from whatever they currently are, to
0x<device id><vendor id> (in my case, 0x4b011186)

5. Save, and open terminal

6. Enter "cd ~/Desktop"

7. Enter "sudo chown root:wheel Info.plist" and enter your password

8. Delete the original Info.plist (in the extension) and replace it with the one on the desktop. You have to delete it first, trying to over-write/replace will not work.

9. Reboot

Hope this helps...this took me some time - now it can save someone else some time. My recommendation, however, is that people just get the GA311 and forget all of this. It just works!
-Jordan"

Intel Pro/1000 MT:

(added 10/7/2008)
"I can report the Intel Pro/1000 MT Dual Port Server Adapter with chipset FW82546EB works, supports GIG-E and Jumbo frames for PCI-X systems. Tested under OS X Server 10.5.5.
-Aaron"

Another Rosewill RC-400 (GigaBit) report: (Note - previous reports here on this card from 10.4.11 (and 10.5.x) users noted native support (it's Realtek 8169 chip based) but this reader running OS X Server 10.4.11 noted he had to install a driver.)

(added 10/3/2008)
"I just got a Rosewill RC400-LX for my G4 AGP tower (with 1 ghz CPU upgrade). I'm running Mac OS X Server 10.4.11. My built in ethernet just will not work at GigaBit speeds, so I got the Rosewill PCI card. I added the card and it was not recognized by the computer. (Maybe clearing the system kext cache would have helped? (That does in some cases where PCI cards with native support don't work initially.) Normally Realtek 8169-based cards don't require driver installs with current OS X Tiger and Leopard.) I downloaded and installed the drivers from the Rosewill.com site and the card was recognized and works at GigaBit speeds (at least according to ifconfig).
(The RC-400-LX (10/100/1000) product page no longer online - was $19 list. Driver download tab there had 1 zip file for Windows/Mac/Linux.)
I did a speed test using a large file and an scp transfer to G5 tower through a Netgear gigabit switch and I found that the file transfered at 5.5MB/s using the built in ethernet set at 100baseTX but only 5.2MB/s on the Rosewill card set at 1000baseSX.
-Allan M."

You can do a browser "find" (search) on "Rosewill" to jump to previous reports on the Rosewill card here.

Another Trendnet Gigabit TEG-PCITXR report:

(added 10/3/2008)
"Trendnet PCI Gigabit TEG-PCITXR (Version 3.1R) works with no drivers (Realtek 8169)
Just a confirmation that the Trendnet PCI Gigabit TEG-PCITXR Gigabit network adapter (Hardware Version 3.1R) works with no drivers on a Sawtooth G4 (formerly G4/450 upgraded with Sonnet 1 GHz upgrade) running Mac OS 10.4.11.
This is even newer (card version/revision) than what is listed on the Trendnet web site (they list up to hardware version 3.0R, and I can confirm that it is still using the Realtek 8169 chipset.

I had initially tried a D-Link DGE-530T, with OS 10.5.4 and 10.4.11, even with the drivers and preference adjustments currently available at insanelymac.com, and nothing I did could get it to work. Plus, the Trendnet is cheaper than the D-Link -- I highly recommend the Trendnet for this reason. It just works.
-Graham."

SIIG JU-2NG011 Combo Gigabit Ethernet/FW400/USB 2.0 PCI Card:

(added 9/30/2008)
"I haven't tested the firewire ports yet, but I have an SIIG JU-2NG011 Combo Ethernet 10/100/1000 + firewire 400 (2 ext, 1 int) + USB 2.0 (2 ext, 1 int) working natively on a beige G3 minitower running 10.4.11 via XPostFacto 4. USB is also working, as I have a USB keyboard and mouse attached although I did use an ADB mouse and keyboard to get the initial OS 9 -> OS X installs going. It's been stable through a week of intermittent use (most of the time the minitower is powered down). The minitower has been upgraded with: Sonnet G4 @ 1 GHz, 768 MB RAM, ATI PCI 9200, ACard 6280M (I think) PCI IDE interface, 40GB IBM on the internal ATA and 80GB IBM on the ACard PCI interface.

Install of 10.4.3 onto the PCI interface HD also natively supports the SIIG combo card's RealTek 8169, which allowed me to download the big 10.4.11 combo update much more quickly than the minitower's built-in 10Base-T Enet interface would have done. Interestingly, during early boot-up of either 10.4.3 (I think) or 10.4.11 the LEDs on my Netgear GS-108 gigabit switch indicate that the 8169 is first brought up as fast Enet and then later when OSX is loaded the lights indicate gigabit Enet is working.

Also interestingly, when the SIIG card is installed I cannot get Tiger to complete an install on the built-in ATA attached HD. XPostFacto works to get the 10.4.3 installer started, but the installation always hangs after zero or only just a few percent (I've seen up to 6% after many retries) of files written. It always gets past the installer DVD check and the destination check. Unplugging the Enet cable from the SIIG card makes no difference. The best news is that installing 10.4.3 to the HD attached to the Acard PCI controller works every time . . . I retried the installation a few times to make sure I didn't just get a lucky install first time.

Installing 9.2.1 to the internal ATA attached HD works every time, but then OS-9 doesn't appear to know anything at all about the RT8169 (no native support). I've tried patching an OS 9 RT8169 driver I found online (but no longer available on RealTek's website) according to the included instructions for setting vendor ID, but I couldn't get it to work. (FYI - Realtek 8169 (10/100/1000) drivers page had the OS 9 driver back in spring 2008, but it's not there now.) In any case, I'm not too concerned about getting gigabit Enet running under OS 9 because (apart from bootstrapping from OS 9 to OS X via XPostFacto 4) OS 9 on the minitower is mostly there just for Classic support as the other Macs in the house are now running 10.5.5.

FYI, I bought the SIIG combo card from www.compuvest.com for $40 plus shipping. According to their webstore, they currently (late Sept. 2008) have 31 more in stock. They shipped quickly and the SIIG card was new (unopened box), old stock. It's too bad that SIIG doesn't make these cards any more. Thanks for the great website, this is where I found out enough information and got the confidence to give the SIIG combo card a try!
-Bruce"

Thanks Bruce. There's some older reports here on other combo cards like the SIIG Combo Gigabit Ethernet + FW800 card (still listed at SIIG's site) and other Gigabit/FW/USB 2.0 cards like the Kuotech GigaBit EtherNet/FW/USB 2.0 card and other "Generic" Gigabit/FW/USB 2.0 models. (One was as low as $12.99 when first posted here but sold out now.)

Another Netgear GA311 (Gigabit ethernet) report: (Realtek 8169 based card)

(added 9/29/2008)
"Just wanted to let you know that I use your website a lot to read user reviews and this time I figured I should post-back to the community. I was having problems with my ethernet port on my Power Mac G5 1.6Ghz (Late 2003 series), it wouldn't connect after awakening from sleep. So I bought a Netgear GA311 (Realtek 8169 chipset - confirmed on the chipset) (several earlier reports here on the Netgear GA311) and plugged it into an open PCI slot. Worked right off the bat with no need to install additional drivers on Mac 10.5.4. Solved my problems and been working ever since!
-Chris"

Rosewill RC-400 (gigabit ethernet): (another Realtek 8169 based card)

(added 8/20/2008)
"Wow, this page is great resource we you need it! I thought I would let you that I just installed a Rosewill RC-400 gigabit NIC in my old 400MHz PowerMac G4 AGP running Mac OS 10.4.11 and it worked like charm right out of the box. It uses the RealTek 8169 chip set, supports wake on lan (I tested it, it worked), hasn't given me any trouble with sleep, and was only $9.99 with shipping from Newegg. The only thing I haven't tested is gigabit speed, since I only have a 10/100 hub.

The built-in ethernet on this machine went bad a few years ago, and at the time I was running Mac OS X 10.3.9, so I bought a Netgear FA311 (10/100 card), which worked fine with the (Natl Semi DP83815) with their driver install. I had to upgrade to 10.4.11, however, and couldn't find a way to make the Netgear FA311 work with it. (There's also several reports here on the Gigabit GA311 Netgear card) So, after reading everything here and searching around on various vendor sites, I discovered the Rosewill card. I ordered it, plugged it, turned on my Mac and opened the Network control panel. After doing that, I got a message saying a that new ethernet card had been detected, and that I should click "Apply" to start using it. So I did, and it has worked great.
Thanks again, Rob C."

Startech ST100S (although there's some previous reports on using this 10/100 card with Tiger and earlier, there's reported issues with 8139 based cards like this with OS X Leopard, although Realtek 8169 (10/100/1000) based cards are reportedly OK in Leopard.)

(added 7/30/2008)
" My story is the same, lightening fried the built in ethernet port. My local Advanced Tech store sold me a Startech ST100S. I found your site and decided to give the card a try. We have a G4 tower running OS X 10.4.11. We only use ethernet for high speed cable internet. I put the card in slot 3 . The port showed in system preferences along with the fried port and the internal modem. I gave the new port the info to configure and a name. My smart little Mac then asked me if I would like assistance (it knows how helpless I am). I quickly agreed and "buzz click" it told me the port was now ready. All that was left to do was return to the network list in sys prefs, where I noted that the original "toasted" port no longer appeared, and select the new port as my port of choice. We were instantly back on line. No extra fiddling with additional drivers was needed. The system seems to work just as before, just as fast, sleeps, etc. We've learned our lesson and will unplug when storms happen.

I wouldn't have known what to do had it not been for your site. Apple doesn't want this info out there, apparently. The Apple ethernet card is nearly impossible to find and what Apple has available is way over priced. I'm going to buy another startech card to have on hand ... just in case. Thanks to all who gave the helpful feedback. Thank you for the great resource. I'll check back often.
-Kristina L."

Apple PCI-X Gigabit Ethernet Card:

(added 7/18/2008)
"Just to let you know: I got my money back for the ($10) D-Link card (DFE-530TX+ - Realtek 8139 based - but I could not get it to work in a G4 Mac running OS X 10.4.11) and got an Apple PCI-X Gigabit Ethernet Card (M9451LL/A) instead. I found it on-line for $19 + shipping. It took a few days to arrive, but I plugged it in this morning and it worked right away.
-Michael"

Planex GN-1200TW2 (Gigibit):

(added 7/18/2008)
"PCi Planex Japan GN-1200TW2, 1000Base-T (supports Jumbo frames).
Out of the box support in OS X 10.5.4. Uses Realtek 8169SC chipset
(I asked what Mac he's using it in)
PowerMac G5 (early model with PCI/PCI-X slots. Later G5 towers had PCI-e slots.)
-Robert H."

There's also other reports here on low-cost Gigabit cards based on the 8169 chip. (you can do a browser 'find' on this page for '8169'.)

StarTech ST100S (10/100) Card: (with reminder on issues in OS X Leopard w/Realtek 8139 based cards)

(added 7/17/2008)
"Just wanted to give you an update for your OS X PCI Ethernet page. I've tried just about every which way to get a couple of StarTech ST100S cards, based on the Realtek 8139 chipset, to work in a PowerMac G5 running OS X Server 10.5.4. With the built-in driver, they come up in the Network pane of System Prefs, but they're unable to communicate with the network in any way. I tried every OS X driver on the Realtek site, even the ones for 10.1 and 10.2 out of desperation, and nothing works. Either I have particularly bad luck, or the previous posters about the ST100S have particularly good luck.
Sincerely, Tom M."

Although there were several previous OS X Tiger (10.4.x) reports on using this card OK, there was also a previous post here with Leopard user notes on issues with Realtek RTL8139 based cards. (Use the browser Find/search to jump to previous ST100S reports, the most recent previously was on March 2008 from a QS Tower/10.4.11 user that noted it working, as did some other OS X Tiger (10.4.x) users, although there are other options (including low-cost Gigabit cards) mentioned here.)

Another D-Link DGE-528T (Gigabit) Card Report:

(added 7/3/2008)
"I Installed a D-Link DGE-528T gigabit card in our G5 (Mac OS X 10.4 server).
The card didn't show up in profiler when I installed it, but when I used the driver on the CD that came with the card, it did. The installer noted that: "This driver is for Mac OS X 10.4 or newer versions." The D-Link is a very cheap gigabit PCI card, so we're happy.
kind regards, Peter S."

This card is Realtek 8169 chip based. (There's a previous G5/Tiger user report on the DGE-528T from May 2007 with link to the Realtek drivers page for it. FYI in case there's later drivers there vs on CD - the OS X 10.4/10.5 driver v2.0.0 there currently is dated 3/26/2008 and there's also an OS 9.x driver download.) [Update: As of 2009, the OS 9 driver is no longer there and the v2.0.0 driver notes "intel-based macs" (??)]

Linksys Gigabit EG1032 v3 (problems), Netgear GA311 Gigabit (Working):

(added 7/3/2008)
"Consulting your site would have saved me 3 hours today of useless search for drivers and shifting NICs from one pci slot to the next... :-/

Anyway, so my experience with a NIC Linksys Gigabit EG1032v3 (network card) here: I searched the AppleDiscussionGroup for this card and found no entry (good sign?) so I bought the card and installed it in a G4 (Digital Audio) with 10.4.11 on. (Bad Weather and a flash destroyed my customers NIC on the motherboard.) I thought any brand named PCI NIC should work on a Mac right now, but I failed. (What chipset is the card based on? (although vendors like Linksys are infamous for changing chipset used over time, even when the model# is not changed, just a different "version" or revision). Many (often low cost - under $20) Gigabit NIC cards are based on RealTek chips which have drivers and/or native support for OS X as mentioned here in the past. But better to buy a card that's been reported on here, although any vendor can change chipset used over time.)

Anyway, the Linksys EG1032 card is not recognized without any drivers. The CD (comes with the card) has only a .zip package - assuming it is only for Windows. So opening up the zip brings a Macintosh folder and in there a .sit package. This sit has a cryptical number ending with v2. Consulting the linksys website asks for a version of this card (printed beneath the linksys-label), Choose nothing or v2, but the card is v3... Hmm, downloaded and found out it is v3. BTW: Driverdate on the website is year 2005). Installed the driver and the card got recognized by the mac os, configured it, but it always had a red dot in front of it, with the saying "there is no network cable attached..." Of course, the network cable is attached...

So, after moving the card around the available pci-slots, nothing changed, instead of another error on startup, that a "1035.kext extension cannot be used by the system or is wrong installed". Installing the driver again, removed this error. But the linksys-driver had to be installed again on any move between PCI-slots.

Finally I found your site (this page), read other users experiences and choose to exchange the card for a Netgear (Gigabit) GA311 PCI card and it workes flawless without any external driver. Just plug it in, boot the mac, and voala, surf the net...
greetings from vienna, Robert"

There's several previous reports on the Netgear GA311 here (and others based on same chip) - you can do a browser "find" (search) for GA311 on this page to jump to them.

Another D-Link DFE530TX+ (10/100) report:

(added 7/3/2008)
"I'm not a MAC guy, but I support a windows/MAC network at a local business, so I answered the call when the G4 wouldn't show on the network any more. I quickly determined the NIC was bad, and was astonished to find how difficult it was to locate a PCI NIC.
Thanks to you (this page), I pulled a D-Link DFE530TX+ (Realtek chip based 10/100 PCI card) out of my used parts box, installed it, and was out of there in 15 minutes.
Many thanks.
(Just for the record I asked what OS version the Mac was running.)
I know we updated to OS X 10.3 at least, and the CPU was something just over a GHz, but I don't recall the exact speed. (Likely a MDD Tower then, if running stock CPU.). I have to confess it's been very reliable, and it's used daily. One very noticeable trait is the excellence of the case design. I tend to clean annually, and the MAC never really needs it.
-Hugh"

Netgear GA511 PCMCIA (Gigabit Ethernet): (Not a PCI card but adding as a FYI)

(added 5/19/2008)
"I was taking inventory of my Pismo hardware and software for a possible sale later, and I came across one item I had completely forgotten that I had acquired, most likely because I did not have anywhere to use it, and I had probably acquired it when I was running Panther, where it most likely did not work.

It's a Netgear GA511 PCMCIA gigabit network card. It looks like this card is based on the Realtek 8169 chipset, and works natively on Tiger (specifically Mac OS X 10.4.11) without the need to install additional driver software.
The relevant portion of the output of ioreg -l is:

AppleRTL8169Ethernet <class AppleRTL8169Ethernet, !registe$
{
"IOFeatures" = 0
"IOMediumDictionary" = {"00000020"={"Type"=32,"Speed"=0,"$
"IOMatchCategory" = "IODefaultMatchCategory"
"CFBundleIdentifier" = "com.apple.driver.AppleRTL8169Ethe$
"IOMinPacketSize" = 64
"IOPacketFilters" = {"IOEthernetWakeOnLANFilterGroup"=0,"$
"IOModel" = "RTL8169SB/8110SB"
"IOVendor" = "Realtek"

Let me know if you'd like me to provide any additional information.
cheers, Vinai"

Another Trendnet (TEG-PCITXR) Gigabit card report: (Several previous reports on this card - it's Realtek 8169 chip based as many others are, although chipset used can change over time on some "brands".)

(added 4/16/2008)
"I purchased the TrendNet card from Amazon:
www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-TEG-PCITXR-Gigabit-PCI-Adapter/dp/B00023433U (under $17)
Plug-n-play in a MDD dual 1.25GHz running 10.4.11. Used it to share the lone wired (Gigabit) connection upstairs with a 1.6Ghz Intel Mini = many times faster than the 802.11g in the Mini (I have a 802.11g WAP as well). Still getting 10MB/sec throughput to my Dual 450 G4 Panther with file sharing on (set to 100TX), I fully expect to hit 30mb/sec when I replace the schlock crossover cable I'm using so I can set to full Gig-E. Once again, thanks for *the* reference site on the 'net for this kind of info.
-Rick P."

Thanks Rick (and thanks to all readers that share their experiences here).
(FYI - There was also an OS 9.x driver for Realtek 8169 chip (10/100/1000) based cards, but they pulled it from their drivers page. We used to have to request it via email, but they finally listed it for a short time - but pulled it. Not sure why.)

Another Netgear GA311 (Gigabit ethernet) Report:

(added 4/14/2008)
"A couple of weeks ago, I picked up two Netgear GA311 gigabit cards from Office Depot (https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/720774/GA311-Gigabit-Ethernet-PCI-Adapter) (Link fails today) for a whopping $9.99 each. Unfortunately, it would seem that they've raised the price back up to $24.95, but I wanted to send you a compatibility report anyway.

I have two B&W G3s that sit in my closet: an "iServer" (containing my iTunes, iWeb sites, and iPhotos) running Mac OS X v.10.4.11; and a login/e-mail server running Mac OS X Server v.10.3.9. The Tiger machine had a little trouble recognizing the card until I rebooted into single-user mode and ran a file system check, but since then, it's worked flawlessly. As for the Panther Server machine, it just saw it as a generic PCI card until I found the RealTek (8169S chip) driver at http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=147135 (which should also work with Jaguar); a quick download and install gave the Panther Server a gigabit connection, as well!
HTH, Jeff"

Several earlier reports here on the Netgear GA311 also (use browser find feature to jump to them).

Another StarTech ST100S (10/100) report:

(added 3/5/2008)
"StarTech ST100S rules!
Works great on QS 733 MHz (2001) running OS 10.4.11. Sleeps well, too.
I tried a D-Link DFE-530TX+ earlier with no recognition of the card. D-Link support people were clueless. Xlr8yourmac is a great resource. I would not have known what to do but for your "OS X PCI Ethernet Card Compatibility Reports".
Thanks, TLH"

Some previous reports on this card mentioned prices as low as $7, and there's some Gigabit ethernet cards for not much more.

Trendnet TEG-PCITXR (10/100/1000): (there were reports on this Realtek 8169 chip based card here going back to 2005 - including notes on OS 9.x...)

(added 3/5/2008)
"I originally wrote to you a few months back bemoaning the fact that my cheap ethernet card that worked well with 10.4, gave crappy throughput with 10.5. I need a card because lightning fried the onboard ethernet on my MDD G4.

As an interim solution, I was able to use a trendnet USB 2.0 to Ethernet adaptor that worked in both versions of OS X. This device required a .kext that I found with a simple Google search. Occasionally, the USB-Ethernet box would take a while to 'wake up' after the computer woke up. I did get excellent throughput in Tiger and Leopard but the device is limited to 200 Mbps.

I was on a mission to find a cheap gigabit ethernet card. In my reading, I found discussions on how many Realtek chip based cards slowed down in Leopard. (also noted here in this report on poor Realtek RTL8139 based cards, which also mentioned using OS X tiger extension in Leopard as a workaround. However he said his gigabit Realtek 8169S based card was fine. As mentioned here in 2005 (older report way down the page here) - the Trendnet card you have is 8169 chip based, which doesn't have the performance issue with Leopard that the 8139 (10/100) cards did per that earlier report here.) One discussion explained that there was a problem with the .kext that handled the Realtek chip in 10.5. They showed how to copy the .kext from 10.4 to 10.5 and get full use of the cards. I purchased a cheap Realtek based card form Newegg. It is the Trendnet TEG-PCITXR for only $13!! It worked perfectly in 10.4.10. I upgraded Leopard to the latest 10.5.2 and guess what? The card worked flawlessly WITHOUT having to muck with the kernel extensions!! Apple must have upgraded the extension in the 10.5.2 upgrade. (No 8139 driver update in 10.5.2 per comments below, but I suspect your original card was 8139 based and you now have a 8169 based card.) I have no problems with sleep/wake. It is possible that other cheap cards may also work. No more spending big bucks for 'Mac Compatible' cards.
-Jeff"

That what's this page is all about (for many years :-) - finding cards that are either natively supported or have compatible drivers. (And often very cheap...)

SIIG FireWire 800+GigaLAN Combo PCI Card:

(added 2/28/2008)
"The other day I need a another network card for a Power Mac G5 2.7 Dual PCI-X running Tiger 10.4.11 and Xsan 1.4.1. Someone handed me a PC Siig multi-network card called 'FireWire 800+GigaLAN Combo PCI' model number NN-8G0012-S1 -- we were using it on our PC and swapped it out for another card. I couldn't figure out what chip set it had and I couldn't wait another day for a mac network card to be shipped, so put it in a booted up... Both the network card and the firewire 800 worked! No drivers needed. We are currently using another network to transmit the meta data for Xsan. It still working great! I installed Leopard on another drive on the same machine and the card works with Leopard too! I checked Siig website and it doesn't support this card for Mac use, but it works for us!
www.siig.com/ViewProduct.aspx?pn=NN-8G0012-S1
Thanks for having a great website!
(I asked if he could test for deep sleep support and if he'd seen any issues with it so far (either NIC or FW related). However as a FYI to readers - remember deep sleep support can also be affected by other things in your system and in some cases by connected devices.)
Yep, everything seems to work... even after waking up from a sleep (overnight) it came back and all the firewire 800 drives reported in, as well as the network connection -- no crashes yet. I'll report long term, but so far, so good.
-Ariel"

Back in 2006 here (way down the page now) there were a couple earlier reports on multi-function/Combo (Gigabit+FW+USB 2.0) PCI cards here but not sure they're still available now.

Leopard user notes on Realtek RTL8139 based cards:

(added 2/26/2008)
"on the "my card drops packets and has a very slow throughput"-issue. If you happen to use a Realtek 8139 chipset based 10/100Mbit network card and Leopard, you're screwed. Even when updating to 10.5.1. (Tried 10.5.2 - any update in that installer?) The driver keeps generating interrupt errors (there was an Apple forum thread (no longer online) that RTL8139 Belkin network card gives 25kb/sec max?).
As I'm currently pimping my old Quicksilver and don't want to spend money on it (just for the sake of "more power") I'm checking all network cards I've at hand. In general just check the old way for whats supported: /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns. If your Chipset is there, try. If not: bad luck.
If you like I keep you informed about the cards that work (especially the good ones) :)
(he later wrote)
I didn't try it (OS X 10.5.2), but checked the network drivers updates using Pacifist. No update for the RTL8139 there. Some sites report that version 1.2.0 (it's est. 68KB in size) fof the kext from Tiger works. That was not the case for my Quicksilver. After a couple of hours I found a patch from the hackintosh scene, which they report to work. It's compiled for intel, maybe this can solve our ppc problem when being recompiled?
I don't think I'll be persuing this in the future, as I got a card to work just fine. Here's which NICs I tried:

Intel Pro 1000/MT - Kernel panic during boot

Intel Pro 1000/GT - Kernel panic during boot

3Com 3C905B TX - Shows up in System preferences, but can't detect cable plugged / unplugged (shows as "<inactive>" in ifconfig)

DGE-528 - Not detected

But my Realtek 8169S (Gigabit) NIC just worked fine. As these cards are dirt cheap and (hopefully) better than the 8139s this is the way to go. I suppose you can saturate at least half of a gigabit link with these before you get hitting the PCI maximum bandwidth.

Currently I'm looking into getting some cheap SiliconImage S-ATA controllers to work with my Mac as I have so many small S-ATA HDs laying around and if that works I'll try to build six disks into my baby. I can keep you posted...
Greets, Falk"

I checked a link here previously to Realtek's driver downloads page (bottom of page "Others" section has mac OS driver list) but the latest driver there is listed as v1.02 from March 2006 (listed for OS X 10.04 - typo - should say OS X 10.4).

ZYNX ZX345 10/100Mbps PCI Ethernet card w/OS X Leopard

(added 12/20/2007)
"An update to my earlier input about the ZYNX ZX345 10/100Mbps PCI Ethernet card. I can confirm that it works fine under OS X 10.5.1 running in my first generation 1.8GHz PMac G5. I use two of them connected to different ISPs, with the builtin Ethernet port talking to my local 1000Mbps network. In fact, I've never found a PMac or Mac OS that the ZYNX didn't function in. Wonderful old Ethernet card!
Happy Holidays!
-Rod P."

Thanks Rod, you too.

Hawking 10/100 PCI Card and OS X Leopard

(added 12/20/2007)
"Anyone finding that their PCI Ethernet card stopped working with Leopard? My built in Ethernet was killed by lightning. I had an old Hawking 10/100 NIC laying around and threw it into the g4 MDD. It worked instantly with tiger. This weekend, I installed Leopard on another drive and found that the Hawking card now gives very little throughput (worse than a modem). Anyone else not a problem with the cards on this page?
-Jeff G."

Maybe it's a MTU setting issue and also remember many of us PPC/Leopard users have seen major performances hits (in general) with AFP/mounted shared volumes. (Issue came up day one of leopard release and I saw it here with my G5 tower). However I welcome other reports from PCI NIC/OS X Leopard users, let me know the details (Card brand/model, if natively supported or drivers used, Mac model and if you've seen any pros or cons). Thanks.
(BTW - as mentioned in previous news posts since 10.5 was released, even some natively supported PCI USB cards (and SATA cards) have had problems but most often related to sleep (not working after waking from extended sleep).)

Cnet Power200 (no go), another StarTech ST100S (OK) report:

(added 9/10/2007)
" G4 Dual 500 (Gigabit Ethernet Tower) running OS X 10.4.9
I recently purchased a Cnet Power200 after reading specs that it was Linux/Unix/Novell compatible, installed and the drivers that came were for windows, no Unix support and card is not visible at even being installed in system properties.

So, I ordered StarTech ST100S 10/100 Card from Ecost for 7.00 plus 9.99 S/H as your site is about the only place I found that helped me locate a NIC that would work on install and is the ONLY site that I could report and help others avoid this Power200 Infineon AN983B Chip and save on S/H. Thanks for your site!!!
-Travis J."

Thanks Travis. (There's also some earlier reports on low cost Gigabit Ethernet cards here.)

StarTech ST100S 10/100 Card

(added 6/20/2007)
"My original ethernet got fried in a thunderstorm when our power went out suddenly so i decided to try and install a new PCI card after doing an internet search and discovering references about doing so on this site.

I just installed the StarTech ST100S 10/100 PCI network card (after reading Julie G's comments on your site). The card worked right away so I didn't even have to worry about installing drivers - which is a good thing because the card came with a floppy disc with the drivers on it. I live in Canada so the card was a litte bit more than what she paid. I think it was about $25 with shipping.

I am running a (MDD) dual G4 1.25GHz G4 with OSX 10.4.
-Jocelyn "

There's some gigabit cards in the $20 price range also. (See past reports here.)

Dual-Port Intel PRO/1000MT:

(added 6/4/2007)
"I've got one dual-port Intel PRO/1000MT network card.
The card runs with the built in drivers under OS X 10.4.9 (tested on G3 B/W 350 Yosemite, G4/350 AGP Sawtooth, not tested yet on my G4/733 QS2001, but it should also work).

I was not able (yet) to play with the "jumbo" frames because I don't own yet a "jumbo" supported switch. But it's not dimmed, so one can test the different settings.

The description of the card is:
- Dual Port Server Adapter (PCI-X 133), Intel PRO/1000MT
- Intel Part-No: PWLA8492MT
- Chip is: FW82546GB
Attached two screenshots (just one port connected to a 100 switch).
Kind regards, Yasmin"

Belkin F5D5005 (Gigabit Ethernet)

(added 6/4/2007)
"I recently installed a Belkin F5D5005 ver.2000 Gigabit Ethernet card in my B&W 400MHz running OSX 10.3. It was not recognized by the Network prefs pane or System Profiler, so I installed the OSX driver from the included CD. The card was still not recognized, and changing PCI slots did not help.
After looking at the driver, I noticed the "Get Info" Version information showed "rtl8169 version 1.0.0d1", even though the card had "BELKIN" stamped on the chipset. I got the latest Realtek driver for 8169 (version 1.11 listed as being for OSX 10.4) and installed it as a last resort. After renaming the driver to "AppleF5D5005.kext" to match the Belkin driver's name, and a restart, it is now working great.

Netstat lists it as autoselecting 1000Mbit full duplex, and file transfer speeds are 3-4 times as fast as they were with the 100Mbit built-in card. Yay.
-Mitch "

Many 'name brand' (PC vendor) cards are realtek chip based (see past reports on driver notes/links). He didn't include a driver page link but directly below (Dlink DGE-528T report) is a link to Realtek's driver page that includes the 8169.

D-Link DGE-528T (Gigabit) w/G5 Tower/10.4.9:

(added 5/4/2007)
"This short mail to inform you that I succeeded (with a lot of pain) to have a NIC D-Link DGE-528T (10/100/1000) working on a PM G5 1.8gHz with PCI-X bus. (This model is not currently listed at dlink.com's USA site, but it was still at www.dlink.co.uk as of may 2007 post date.)
This Mac is running 10.4.9. The driver I used is from Realtek. I found it on this realtek drivers page You have to get the one in the "Others" section. (Very bottom of page) I used the version 1.11 driver (OS X 10.4 driver).
Best regards, Olivier "

FYI - as of spring 2008 the page has a v2.0.0 (3/26/2008) OS X 10.4/10.5 driver there. (And there's also an OS 9.x driver download too.)

Airnet AEG100 Gigabit Card:

(added 5/4/2007)
" Picked up an Airnet AEG100 gigabit ethernet card at the local pc builder shop for $15.
The card works with Apple's drivers in my Blue and white G3 350 (jumpered to 400). I'm running OS X 10.4.
The card has the Realtek 8169-S32 chipset.
Thanks, Mark"

D-Link DFE530TX+

(added 5/4/2007)
"I recently purchased a D-Link Network Adapter card, DFE530TX+, which I was assured by D-Link would work on my MAC (Blue and White?) G3, with OSX 10.4 (Tiger) installed. I was misled, repeatedly, and got some very odd suggestions from their support. All that D-link offers is a driver for OSX 10.2.8, which will not work with OSX 10.4. On ver. 10.4 you get an error message that is was incorrectly installed.
-Gunther S. "

I searched this page for "DFE530TX+" and only found a very old post from when OS X 10.1.x was current - he mentioned the dlink driver back then didn't work but said he found a realtek driver (card at least back then was based on Realtek 8139 chip - not sure if that's changed.) So I then searched realtek's drivers page for 8139 downloads and found this driver page. See bottom of page "Others" section - has OS X 10.4 driver (v1.02 dated 2006/3/16) and also an OS 9.0/9.1 driver. Let me know if that driver works. (Worth a try if the card is still based on that realtek chip.)

Another Netgear GA311 Gigabit card report:

(added 1/19/2007)
"Love the site. It's been a big help. Here's my 2 cents.
I've G4/400 Sawtooth running 10.4.8. Installed the Netgear GA311 card and can report that it works fine without installing any additional drivers AND it supports deep sleep (i.e., the unit will go to sleep with the fan off with the card installed).
Unfortunately, it does not support Wake-On-Lan (WOL), which for me is a must have.
I was wondering if anyone has tried the USRobotics 10/100/1000 64-bit PCI NIC Card. (the USR Model: USR997904? No mac os support listed, not sure what chipset it uses - i.e. if a chip that has drivers for Macs like some realtek, etc.) The box says it supports Jumbo frames (which I read is important for some) and Wake On Lan (which is important for me).
Keep up the good work. -Lewis A."

SMC9452TX-1 Gigabit PCI card

(added 1/18/2007)
"Gigabit Ethernet card that works with MacOS 9 (drivers also for OS X)
I thought you might be interested in the following tip.
I just installed a SMC Networks SMC9452TX-1 Gigabit Network Interface Card on a Power Mac G3 Blue & White running MacOS 9.0.4.
This card uses a Realtek 8169 chip set and is not to be confused with the same model number without the final -1, which uses a chip from another manufacturer. Although SMC does not claim the card's compatibility with MacOS 9.x, it does work with the drivers provided by Realtek. (there's also been other reports on OS 9 compatible cards from the past, down the page here)

Read the instructions included with the driver to configure the NIC. The drivers worked at once "out of the box", without even doing the edits suggested by Realtek.

Links:
The drivers from Realtek for MacOS 9.x are here (NOTE: as of Sept. 2008 that page no longer has OS 9 driver listed.)
SMC Networks: www.smc.com/
Best regards and thank you for your tips
Miguel, from Portugal"

StarTech ST100S 10/100 PCI card

(added 11/20/2006)
"I just installed the StarTech (10/100, model ST100S) PCI Ethernet card in my Dual G4 Silver Door running OS 10.3.2. This card worked perfectly from the start AND was only $7.98.
I installed it in the closest available slot to the processor (no particular reason), the card was immediately recognized without loading any drivers AND deep sleep is working perfectly... below is a link where I purchased this card.
www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=355069 ($7.73 as of Nov. 20th, 2006)
-Julie G. "

Kuotech Combo GigaBit EtherNet/FW/USB 2.0 PCI Card:

(added 11/20/2006) "just wanted to add to your OS X network card review page.
The ethernet port on my G4 500DP had been flaking out so I decided to add an ethernet pci card. I was excited to find the review for the combo gigabit ethernet/FW/USB 2.0 pci card. (see 9/13/2006 report below) While geeks.com isn't selling them anymore, (was $12.99 but link shows 'sold out") I managed to track one down for $25. (I'd mention where but I think I snagged the last one) newegg.com has then in stock for $55. ("Koutech USB2.0 & FireWire & Gigabit Ethernet Network Combo PCI Card Model IO-PC720" - not listed anymore there)
Under 10.4.8 the card is completely plug-n-play. Ethernet, firewire, and usb 2 all work wonderfully. I gave it a test under OS 9 as well. Ethernet works with an extension, usb ports work at slower speeds, and firewire works without a hitch. The driver location has changed to the bottom of this Realtek.com downloads page. I didn't check for sleep compatibility since i use this machine as a server. This is a great card, particularly if you can find a deal on it.
-Matt "

Combo GigaBit Ethernet/FW/USB 2.0 PCI Card:

(added 9/13/2006)
"I find your site extremely useful and I found a combo card that others may find interesting. FYI, I don't work for any of the companies or sites mentioned.
I recently purchased a generic Firewire+USB2+Gigabit Ethernet Combo PCI from Computer Geeks (sold out as of Nov. 2006) after making sure the network chipset, RTL8169S-32, had Macintosh drivers available here.
The card is almost a third of the price of a similar item at found at Newegg that is said to be Mac OS X compatible on the manufacturer's website (www.koutech.com/proddetail.asp?linenumber=201 ). You can save a little more using a coupon code available at Techbargains.com (10% off (Non Geek Specials) Put in promotional code: TECHBARGAINS).

Firewire, USB, and 100Mbit Ethernet all work properly in 10.3.9, I don't have a gigabit router so I can't test that speed. Ethernet doesn't work in 9.2.2, but I haven't bothered trying to check for Control Panel and/or Extension conflicts.

I've copied a 4.6 GB Toast format DVD image from a Windows XP system without any errors. I've copied around 8 GB of data from an NTFS formatted external hard drive over Firewire without any errors. I haven't tried copying large files out via any interface.

I have a USB keyboard and USB optical mouse connected and they function correctly.
I've put the computer to Sleep via the Apple Menu. It will only wake up when I press a key on the attached ADB keyboard, but not from the USB keyboard or USB mouse. (Later Mac models support "deep sleep" (fans off, etc.), if any reader tests this card in a later Mac, let me know.)

The only anomalies I've seen while in 10.3.9 are in the Network Control Panel and the System Profiler, where the Ethernet card shows up twice as "PCI Ethernet Slot 2, Port 1" and "PCI Ethernet Slot 3". I've attached JPGs where I have erased my Ethernet (MAC) Address. The combo card is in the middle slot, hard drive controller in the top slot, and graphics card in the bottom slot.

The specs on my computer are:
- Power Macintosh G3/300 (1MB L2) AV (Beige Tower; Rev. 3/C)
- Mainboard - Revision 4 (820-0991-B) with ROM Revision 3/C ($77D.45F2)
- RAM - 768MB (3 x 256 PC100/133)
- Graphics (Onboard) - ATI Rage Pro Onboard Video with 6MB SGRAM
- Graphics Card - 3DFX Voodoo3 3000 16MB VRAM PCI (Bottom PCI Slot) - Controller Card - Acard AEC-6280M ATA-133 IDE PCI Adapter (Top PCI Slot)
- Network Card (Onboard) - Built-in 10Mbps Ethernet
- Modem - Apple GV/56k "Comm Slot II" Modem
- Apple "Wings" AV in/out Personality Card
- PCI Generic Firewire/USB2.0/Gigabit Ethernet Adapter PCI (Middle PCI Slot)
- Hard Drive - Maxtor 6Y080P0 80GB EIDE Hard Drive (IDE 0 on Acard - Master)
- Optical Drive - Matshita CR-587 EIDE 24x CD-ROM Drive (IDE 1 on Mainboard - Slave)
- Floppy Drive - 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive (a.k.a. "Superdrive" - Reads PC & Mac Floppies)
- ZIP Drive - Iomega ZIP 100 IDE Drive (IDE 1 on Mainboard - Master)
- Input Device - Adesso AEK-906T / EKB-905TP ADB Keyboard w/ GlidePointe Tappable Touchpad
- Input Device - Logitech Internet Navigator USB Keyboard and Logitech USB Optical Mouse

Operating Systems - Mac OS X 10.3.9; Mac OS 9.2.2; Mac OS 8.1
Thanks for your site. Keep up the good work.
-Sean C., Ph.D.
www.chemicalshift.com"

Apple PCI-X Gigabit cards: (follow-up from reader that reported on hawking cards on 8/29)

(added 9/1/2006, updated 9/11/2006 and 5/11/2007)
"Here's an update (May 11th, 2007)....
It turns out that the DGS-1024D (switch) I have (had) does not support jumbo frames. Even though the manual says so, it turns out the particular switch revision I had didn't support this feature (newegg had old stock I guess). It's taken about 6 months to get the issue sorted out with D-Link and they're shooting me back a refund check.

I'll probably try out the HP ProCurve 1800-8G next which supports jumbo frames. I'll also be getting back another Apple PCI-X Gigabit card to test with this new switch.

Unfortunately this means that the reviews I had previously posted had incorrect conclusions since the culprit was the switch. This means that the Apple cards and the Small Tree cards probably do work. I'll message you back about the 1800-8G and the Apple NIC.
-Doug

(comments from 9/11/2006 follow)
Hello again... Recently I found that the Hawking cards worked and are available via newegg, and I mentioned trying out the Apple "PCI-X Gigabit Ethernet Card" in two old PowerMac G4s to try to boost the file transfer performance (MB/S) using 9000 MTU on the Apple cards vs 1500 MTU on the hawking ones. The cards came, have nice LEDs (emerald green and sapphire blue), and are very easy to install compared to other cards. I'm testing using two powermac g4s (sawtooth's) one with the stock 400 MHz proc, other with a 1.8 GHz giga upgrade, both with 512 MB PC-100 ram, the test volumes are both raid-0 on both machines over two hdd. The Apple NICs are 64-bit.

The Apple "PCI-X Gigabit Ethernet Card" is based on the BROADCOM BCM5703CKHB chipset. The cards show they are able to handle jumbo frames in the ethernet tab in the network pref. pane. I set both cards to 9000 MTU which is usually greyed out if you have a non-jumbo card. Cards are connected over a DGS-1024D switch with 9.6k frames. (Note: per his later comments above he bought an older version of this switch that did not support Jumbo frames.)

I tried opening a AFP to my PVR machine (the other PM G4), the window popped up to enter the IP (I entered the IP), then I authenticated (that worked fine), then the next screen after that is the one where you choose your volume. I chose the volume and pressed OK and the AFP froze. (turns out his switch did not support Jumbo frames)

I found that using a MTU > 1530 crashes the finder, forcing a hard restart. I tested MTU at 1531-1540 and at every step the finder is "(not responding)" after volume selection over AFP. Very odd. I called Apple enterprise support and they said the card has no free support (even though I just bought two of them less than 2 days ago) and it would cost $199 to get started on a support case to work on an explanation why 9000 MTU causes the crashes. I returned the cards.

But before I return the cards I'll mention the performance at 1530 MTU. The xfers from one G4-A raid-0 volume to G4-B raid-0 volume produce a STR of about 25 MB/S. The Apple NICs perform very slightly better than the hawking units. The STR somestimes hit 26-28 MB/S. I used a stopwatch and the file size to get the MB/S.

The performance is exactly the same as the Hawking cards, but at 4 times the price. Not a very good bargain huh? The Apple web site says that the PCI-X Gigabit Ethernet Card requires a 800 MHz G4. Funny, as the card works semi-fine in a 400 MHz G4, albeit only at 1530 MTU. Perhaps a 800 MHz G4 is needed for 9000 MTU? Apple had no ready explanation why this is so, and mentioned it would cost $200 to start a ticket. That's how much both cards cost.

I contacted Corky at Small-Tree and he said the 90mt is my best bet for using jumbo frames and copper gig-e on a powermac g4. The 90mt is $150 a pop. He said that no one has ever tried one in a sawtooth as far as he could remember. Once my apple RMA posts to my paypal I'll drop $300 for 2 90mt's and try it out. If they can do 9000 MTU as he claims over AFP I'll keep em only if they get me over 25 MB/S.
(He later sent an update on the 90mt's)
The 90MT's came from Small Tree. Don't work over AFP @ 9000 MTU on both NICs. Pretty frustrated. Probably a problem with OS X. The AFP on volume selection crashes the finder.
Not much to say other than it appears that since this has happened with two different gig-e cards it's either the G4 platform or OS X itself.
-Doug "

Assuming everything else on the network supports jumbo frames.

Hawking HGA32T (Gigabit Ethernet)

(added 8/29/2006)
"HAWKING HGA32T cards can be had at newegg.com but beware, they do not support 9000 MTU. I purchased two HAWKING HGA32T cards for transfering files between two PowerMac G4's, one a 1.8GHz giga upgrade and the other the stock 400 MHz. Both sawtooths. (Running OS X 10.4.7) Linked them over a D-Link DGS-1005D switch. Maximum STR only 25 MB/S. Pretty lousy performance, but it's all at 1500 MTU which sucks. Both source and destination volumes RAID-0, both reading/writing over 90 MB/S. The CPU is the real killer I think, which MTU 9000 solves.

The only jumbo NICs I have been able to find for OS X are the apple $100 ones on their site. They support jumbo frames and are 64-bit cards compared to the 32-bit HAWKING HGA32T.

I returned the cards to newegg for refund and purchased a DGS-1024D with 512K buffer per port and 9600 MTU to hopefully solve the problem. (Note: see his 5/11/2007 comments - he bought an older version/stock on the switch, which did not support Jumbo frames)

The HAWKING HGA32T cards required absolutely no configuration short of going into sys pref and configuring the adapter. The maximum MTU supported is 1500.

Interestingly. If you consider the maximum STR of 1000 mb e-net being 125 MB/S and the performance I saw of around 25 MB/S, I'm missing about 100 MB/S. If you divide 25/125 and 1500/9000 you get 0.20 and 0.17. A weak correlation but pretty much shows you that non-jumbo gig-e really ISN'T gig-e. (assuming your other network components support jumbo frames)

I'll be purchasing two $100 apple branded NICs and test along with the DGS-1024D and then get back to you with the maximum STR, which I'm hoping will top 50 or 60 MB/S at least considering all the new hardware I'll be purchasing will do at least 9000 MTU.
Thankfully, the new MacPros support jumbo frame on board.
(btw I do a lot of network transfers.)
Didn't test (for deep sleep support), sorry. Most of the systems here won't sleep for various reasons (USB, processor upgrades).
Later, Doug.
This testing was done on 08/23-24/2006 "

Previous Hawking HGA32T reports are here (B&W G3 user w/Gigabit switch) and here (several).

Syskonnect SK-9521 Gigabit Ethernet card

(added 8/23/2006)
"I have been meaning to send you this report for ages but it kept slipping my mind. Today's news (yesterday's) item about an update to your OS X PCI Ethernet Compatibility Reports reminded me that I ought to send you a report on my experience with a Syskonnect card.

I wrote to you just over a year ago (Aug 10, 2005) about my problems with an Intel Pro 1000 Gigabit Ethernet card. Reader reports had led to believe that it would work with OS X's built-in Intel driver, but I couldn't get my G4/400 Sawtooth (running 10.4.2) to recognize it. (apparently there are several 'models' of that card - not sure if it's a ID issue, or PCI issue.) Fortunately, I was able to return the Intel card and talk the vendor into accepting it without charging me a restocking charge.

One of your readers (report of 4/13/2004) mentioned Syskonnect, so I checked them out last year and found out they provide a OS X Tiger driver for their SK-9521 Gigabit Ethernet card. I picked it at a PC parts store so I could not get any info on how it would perform in a Mac. The card works fine, but I was hoping it would support deep sleep and was disappointed to discover it does not. When I put my G4 to sleep the fan still continues to run.

I have been considering switching to using FireWire 800 to network my G5/2.3 DP and my G4. OWC says explicitly that their FireWire 800 card supports deep sleep. Do you think cards from other vendors such as Adaptec, Belkin, IO Gear, and SIIG would also support deep sleep under Tiger?
Best regards, Steve"

I can't say for sure but back in May 2005 (shortly after tiger release) several owners of FW800 cards reported the deep sleep problem was fixed. (Lacie card, OWC card, etc.) - but sometimes vendors change to a different card design (OEM them from another source) so it's best to ask them (assuming they're mac savvy and not just a PC parts dealer.)

10.3.9 User notes on Dynex 10/100 and Belkin GigaBit (F5D5005) Cards:

(added 8/22/2006)
" Backstory: A lightning strike took out 2 of the 4 ports on my Linksys router and also destroyed its wireless capability. Although my PowerMac 1Ghz dual-processor Quicksilver (running 10.3.9) was protected behind an APC, the cable modem & router (in a different room and circuit) were protected with what turned out to be a less-effective surge protector. The surge traveled through the Cat-5 and fried the ethernet port on the Quicksilver.

1. Based on Roger C.'s post in the thread, I went to Best Buy and picked up a Dynex 10/100 Fast Ethernet Adapter (DX-E101). Got the latest 10.3 drivers. Loaded 'em. Now, it may have worked under Tiger based on Roger C.'s post but it definitely didn't work for me under OS 10.3.9. The Quicksilver couldn't even recognize the card present in slot 2. (I tried different shots, also.) Wound up returning it. It may just have been a bad card but the LED's lit up...

2. Picked up a Belkin Gigabit Desktop PCI Card Part# F5D5005 (Ver. 2000). Loaded the drivers. Card works great, 'cept the Quicksilver won't deep-sleep. For me, I can't have a card which inhibits the deep-sleep function of the computer. The folks I spoke to at Belkin about this were clueless beyond measure and according to the two Tech support people to whom I spoke they aren't even given any Macs to use as test computers. Maybe it's the Wake-On-Lan function of the card. I even restarted the Quicksilver and disconnected the Cat-5 cable from the Quicksilver (to my router) and I still couldn't make the Quicksilver deep-sleep.

I'm not sure whether or not to try the NetGear one. I read that it is compatible with Tiger but has anyone tried it with Panther? (Which Netgear card model? See below here for reports on some NetGear gigabit card users running OS X tiger (most recent one just a couple reports below). Unfortunately not everyone tests for deep sleep support, although I ask.)

Does anyone know if cards exist which have ethernet capabilities as well as USB and/or Firewire ports, or am I reaching here?
Best, L."

See later reports above on Combo Gigabit ethernet/FW/USB 2.0 cards.

NetGear FA511 10/100 PCcard:

(added 7/31/2006)
" I just finished installing a PC cardbus NetGear FA511 10/100 card that uses the ADMtek AN985 chipset thanks to the open source driver at https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=51598 . I found a refurb card for $8 on eBay so I though it was worth a shot as my Powerbook's normal ethernet port has a flaky connector. (check for bent pins in the connector, often a source of problems with notebooks.)

I'm using 10.4.7 on a last-of-the Titanium Powerbooks, 1Ghz/1Ghz. You have to follow the directions and compile the driver but even though the author had never tested it on a cardbus card, just on PCI, it works well enough to suit me.

The readme mentions that the driver supports the following PCI cards:
Linksys EtherFast 10/100 Release 5.1 - ADMtek AN985
Netgear FA310TX rev D1 through D3 - PNIC
Netgear FA511
Accton EN1217
Abocom FE2500
3Com OfficeConnect 10/100B 3CSOHO100B
a few Microsoft cards
DEC 21143 (tested) and perhaps the 21140 and 21142

The author responded to my requests for help and did within-the-hour responses that resolved all my issues.
-Carlos L. "

I asked Carlos if he could send a zipped copy of the compiled drive for mirroring here (or send to sourceforge for posting).

NetGear GA311 and Linksys EG1032 Reports:

(added 7/27/2006)
"Hi, I just found a requirement to have a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 (vintage 2003) connected to two different ethernet networks and that machine only has one built-in NIC. The G5 is running Tiger Server 10.4.6. So I bought two to test -- a Linksys EG1032 and a Netgear GA311.

Both of these cards have Realtech 8169 chips on them.
The Linksys was not recognized out of the box. I added the Realtech drivers from their website (8169 v1.11) and the card was still not recognized.
The Netgear card was recognized and worked out of the box.
Also, upgraded to 10.4.7 -- still works.
Best, Mark"

There's also previous reports here on the NetGear GA311 (gigabit) card.

CompUSA store brand Gigabit Card:

(added 5/1/2006)
" I was looking around for a cheap gigabit card to try in a G4 Sawtooth running OS X Server 10.4.6. I had read here about how cards with the Realtek 8169 chip will work out of the box. I saw that the Hawking HGA32T is a good candidate, but it's nowhere to be seen in stores. I found the Netgear GA311, but it's $30 everywhere. That's cost prohibitive for a mere test.

During a visit to CompUSA. I noticed that their store brand gigabit card has a picture on the box, and the RTL8169 label on the chip is visible. It was $22 so I got one and put it in the Sawtooth.
The card worked great, showing up in the network configurations. I disabled the built in port and tried running it, no problem once I turned off IPv6. The bummer is that the box will no longer sleep properly. It even takes a press of the front panel doink button to restart it to get it back.

I also noticed that the lights on the switch flashed on and off a bunch of times before coming on to stay. I figured that was because the card has to autodetect that it's connecting at 100 megabits, as I don't have any gigabit equipment yet. Hence I don't have any speed figures to report.

The sleep thing is a bummer so I may look elsewhere for a card to use in the Sawtooth. Once I get a gigabit switch, I'll put this system and another Sawtooth running X Server, a Win XP system, and a G4 gigabit box together on it. This store brand card can go in the Win system so I can put sleep friendly cards in the Sawtooths.
-Randy S. "

Might check the system log to see if it has any entries related to the problem (to see if it's the card and not some other software addon/process that's causing the problem).

Follow-up on OS 9 compatible (w/driver) Gigabit Ethernet card: (NOTE: See below for links to driver page with OS 9.x driver for Realtek 8169 (10/100/1000) based cards.)

"I sent you the following info back on 1/8/05, and I thought I should update you. We transitioned the customer that was using these cards over to Panther, 10.3.9 and installed the 10.3 beta driver. Every card is working well and all of them auto connected to the Gig switch at Gig speed full duplex. Very inexpensive way to get a Gig ethernet card.

Original message:
I have been looking for an OS 9 Compatible Gigabit ethernet card.
Well I have a solution to the problem.
I have a client that runs a mixed OS 9 and OS X marketing group, including some older pre Gigabit G4s running OS 9.

We have all the Mac connected to a Netgear 16 port 10/100/1000 switch, and all the Mac with built-in gigabit work well, but the preGigabit Macs were so much slower opening the complex Quark pages of the network server. I have been looking for a gigabit solution for them. Asante had a card that was OS 9 compatible but it is discontinued, and I have not been able to find it anywhere, including ebay.

Realtek.com.tw is a network chip company that has been very good about Mac support for 10/100 and 10/100/1000 PCI network cards using their chips. (This page here has linked to Reaktec driver pages many times, for use with cards that used their chipsets.)
Drivers are posted on their web site for download and are updated frequently. See https://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?lineid=1&famid=4&series=2003072&Software=True
(Note: as of 2008 this link fails - but here's a Realtek 8169 (10/100/1000) drivers page that's working as of spring 2008 and also now has the OS 9.x driver - see very bottom of page, "Other" section for Mac driver downloads. (Update: As of Sept. 2008, the OS 9 driver is no longer there. I guess we're back to requested it by email again.)

So I emailed their Tech support people and asked if they had any OS 9 drivers for their 8169S 1000 Mb chip set. I quickly received an OS 8.6/9 driver for the 8169s chipset.

We bought several of the TRENDnet TEG-PCITXR cards, see specs here, that use the Realtek 8169s chipset:
www.trendnet.com/products/TEG-PCITXR.htm (link no longer worked but found a page for the Trendnet "v3.0R" TEG-PCITXR card - not sure if they changed the chip used.)
Installed them and the drivers and they work prefectly in OS 9. I have not tested 8.6, because all the Mac use 9.2.2.

We selected the new card in TCP/IP, moved the ethernet connection to the new card, rebooted, and up came a full duplex 1000 Mb ethernet connection.

A full day of testing and not a single problem. I have emailed the Realtek support people and asked them to post the OS 8.6/9 drivers for download, even if they post them as a Beta driver.
This card is available for less than $20 as of post date.
You can send an email to Realtek Tech support at nicfae@realtek.com.tw and request the OS 9 drivers, but hopefully they will be posted to their site soon.
I hope this info is useful for other people looking for an OS 9 Gigabit nic card.
Regards, Frank P."

I wrote Frank with a copy of Realtek support's reply on no OS 9 drivers for this card and he replied:

" Well not sure where Kathleen Wei (realtek support) is getting her info from, but I still have a copy of the drivers and email I received from Ryan Kao, ryankao@realtek.com.tw, after I emailed them asking if drivers were available.
Here is a copy of the email responce from Ryan with my original info request. While I was looking at the info for the OS 9 drivers I also checked the modification date on the OS X 10.3 driver that he sent me. The version he emailed me was modified 12/30/2004, while the version posted at Realtek has a 12/24/2003 date. If you have an email address for Kathleen Wei, I would like to send her a copy of the software Ryan sent me and see if they will post it to their web site.
-Frank

Copy of email from Ryan Kao at Realtek:
From: ryankao@realtek.com.tw
Subject: Re: 8169S 1000 MB controller
Date: January 7, 2005 12:46:47 AM EST
To: (frank), nicfae@realtek.com.tw

Hi Frank
Thanks for your Email.
Please refer to our latest MAC driver.
One for Mac 8,9
Another for Mac 10.3.x
B.Regards
Ryan Kao
Technical Support Engineer
Wire Network Product, REALTEK "

Kathleen later sent a follow-up that she has the drivers and has sent them to some readers that requested them. (NOTE: See above red note for link to RT 8169 drivers page w/OS 9.x driver download.)

Belkin F5D5005 report (Problems) from OS X 10.3.x user:

(added 4/27/2006)
"I hesitated to write this because I don't have the level of expertise with PCI cards to understand much of the information provided at www.xlr8yourmac.com/OSX/os_x_network_cards.html (this page). However, I thought my experience might help someone else with a similar problem to avoid wasting a lot of time. So, here goes ...
I'm currently running OS 10.3.9 on a dual 867 MHz Power PC G4 with mirrored doors. Here is my Hardware Overview:
Machine Model: Power Mac G4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 867 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 768 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.4.8f2.

Recently, lightning struck in our front yard, wiping out the ethernet port on my Power PC G4. The balance of my computer seems to be working fine, so I set about finding a PCI Network Card to replace its built-in ethernet port capability.
I called Neatgear, who told me that their GA311 card was incompatible with OS 10.3.9. (some user reports on it with OS X tiger are below and above - native support in OS X Tiger they said with GA311 card.)
I contacted Belkin by email, explaining my situation and asking them to recommend a compatible card and driver. They responded with the recommendation that I go with their Model F5D5005 Gigabit Desktop Network PCI Card.
A visit to their web site further confirmed the appropriateness of their recommendation. In particular, https://www.belkin.com/support/download.asp?download=F5D5005=1= has a link labeled:
"Mac OS 10.3 F5D5005 Macintosh Driver 9/9/2004 3.07 Mbytes."
Clicking it took me to https://www.belkin.com/support/download/downloaddetails.asp?download=1440=1. There, it appeared you can click on "F5D5005.DMG 1.02 M" to download the driver installation package for OS 10.3.xx. So I bought the card.

I installed the Belkin F5D5005 card and the driver yesterday. It did not work at all: I couldn't reach the Interent with it, none of the four lights on the card's metal frame ever came on, and the ethernet cable connection light on my DSL modem (a Westell VersaLink Model 327W) never acknowledge that the card was cabled to it. (We verified that the modem and cable do work properly by connecting it to a Dell portable running Windows, and then reaching the Internet through it without incident.)

So I called Belkin again -- several times. Two of their Technical Support people and one of their Sales people each independently confirmed to me that the Belkin F5D5005 card is not compatible with Apple computers and neither is the Belkin Model F5D5000 card. A fourth one (in Technical Support) told me that the F5D5005 was compatible, but that Belkin had not yet been able to put up the correct driver on their web site. He said I would need to get the driver from Apple. He wasn't able to offer a plausible explanation for why Apple should have a driver that would work with Belkin equipment when Belkin didn't.

I called Apple anyway. Apple was as surprised by that idea as I was. However, Apple (JosŽ at 1-800-409-5381, x2532) did tell me that they sell a "Gigabit Ethernet PCI X Card" that is compatible with my computer and with OS 10.3.9. He said it sells for just under $100 and it ships with an appropriate driver on CD. He was not able to tell me who makes the card.

So, I'm still dead in the water, but I am now convinced that Belkin is convinced that it does not have a wired network PCI card that is compatible with Apple computers in general. (Contra that, a reader reported here on 9/21/2004 that the F5D5005 does work with certain legacy macs.) (Maybe they changed the chipset used on the card since 2004?)

I should add, one of Belkin's people recommended that I go with their F5D7050 card. But that is a wireless solution that works on the USB port. Alas, I don't want a wireless solution and I don't want to pile more activity onto my busy USB bus when all four of my PCI slots sit empty and idle. Besides, I've had it with Belkin.
Sincerely yours, Robert W."

NetGear GA311 GigaBit Ethernet Card/Notes on Linksys USB Gigabit Adapter:

(added 3/30/2006)
"The note you just posted on the NetGear 10/100 (FA311) NIC Card prompts me to share with you my recent good experience with the Gigabit version of the Netgear PCI card, the GA311. It is also supported out of the box on OS X Tiger. No need for drivers. I bought it for $29.99 at CompUSA. Works great. (There's also some previous reports on the Netgear Gigabit card w/Tiger and some other $20 or so gigabit cards below.)

Another thing worth mentioning. For anyone needing to add Gigabit Ethernet to an older PowerBook or Mac Mini, I can recommend the Linksys USB1000 adapter. Like other USB-Ethernet adapters, it needs a driver for Tiger as officially it's DarkSide only. Luckily, the good folks at Sustainable Softworks have a page at the ready with drivers they have written for these adaptors (www.sustworks.com/site/news_usb_ethernet.html). Although not specifically mentioned in their compatibility list, the USB1000 is supporterd by their latest driver. This is mentioned on another page in their forums. Just received it this morning. Still testing, but it seems to work well. One word of caution: for it to work at top speed, the USB port must be 2.0, but it does work with 1.1. As always, a loyal fan of your wonderful site,
-Istvan F. "

Thanks (and thanks to all the readers that share their experiences and tips with a myriad of Mac upgrades and software.) I asked him to report back if he saw any sleep/wake problems with the USB adapter.

NetGear 10/100 (FA311) Card in Beige G3/OS X 10.4.x

(added 3/28/2006)
" Using the data on the current NIC card compat. list, I decided to go out and purchase a NetGear 10/100 (FA311) for use in my Beige G3 running Mac OS X 10.4
I was ready to download the drivers listed at homepage.mac.com/yukidon/mac/en/dp8381x.html (no longer online) but when I unpackaged the card, to my delight, I found that the card has an RTL8139 chipset. The card pictured on the box is detailed enough to show the RTL8139 chipset for what its worth, and further investigation shows FA311v2 on the side of the box as well as on the card itself.
To make a long story short, the card installed without issue and without the aid of any drivers since the RTL8139 is natively supported in Mac OS X/Tiger. Thanks for the great resource!
-Heig G. "

(FYI - Reports below on older OS versions noted they still needed drivers for RTL8139 based cards.)

More Notes on Intel Pro 1000 Cards: Although some past reports here noted native support, this reader said his model wasn't supported in 10.4.5 (maybe they changed chipsets?)

(added 3/27/2006)
"I just got a Intel PRO/1000 card from craigslist.org. Using the chart on this page,
https://support.intel.com/support/network/sb/cs-012904.htm
I identified it as the "PWLA8391GT". After installing it in my G4 400 Sawtooth under OS 10.4.5, the card could not be recognized. It uses the 82541PI chipset. (the last report here from a Pro 1000 owner that said it worked natively noted his card model had an Intel 82540EM chipset.) I don't know if the latest AppleIntel8254X.kext plugin supports it - is there a way to find out?. Hopefully, Apple will update their plugin in the wake of their new partnership with Intel. I'm not holding my breath.
In the meantime, I guess this card is going into my PC.
Thanks for the great site. Aaron"

Updated SMC and Realtek driver Links: (as of Dec. 2005)

"(mentioned some older driver link posts from 2001 below were no longer valid)
So here are the new links: For RealTek 8139-based cards, drivers for all operating systems (http://w3serv.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?lineid=1&famid=3&series=16&Software=True)

For the SMC SMC1211TX/LP card mentioned (all operating systems, MacOS 8 to X):
www.smc.com/files/AR/DR_SMC1211TX_all.zip

Note that on the SMC download page (www.smc.com/index.cfm?event=downloads.searchCriteria), one must NOT select an operating system (select "All" instead), otherwise the drivers for Mac OS 8, 9 and X won't be shown.
Thanks for your very helpful site, F."

Another Hawking HGA32T Gigabit card report:

(added 12/15/2005)
"Blue and white G3 10.40 (running 10.4.0?), 400MHz overclocked original G3/350 apple OEM processor. Sonnet ATA-133 card. Card works fine, haven't tried IPv6 yet. Sustained real-world transfer speed about 700mbit/sec with a netgear gigabit switch. Nice!

Interesting to note that the driver on the disk is 10.2 compatible, and the 10.3 beta driver (the 10.2 is incompatible) seemed to be corrupt wherever I downloaded it from. So, there's a "blind spot" for 10.3 users and the use of this card, at least for the moment.
-Mike "

For previous reports on this card, see below.

Dynex 10/100 Fast Ethernet Adapter (DX-E101)

(added 12/14/2005)
"Hi, excellent site!
Dynex 10/100 Fast Ethernet Adapter (DX-E101), purchased from Best Buy for $15. Used in G4 Quicksilver Dual 1 GHz, 1 GB RAM, OS X 10.4.3
Deep sleep works fine.

My built in Ethernet port died and I put this card in and it recognized and uses it without problem. I realize I went from a GigE card to only a 10/100 but I'm not wired for GigE and don't figure it was worth another $60 for GigE at this time.
-Robert C.
Four Seasons Consulting, Inc. "

Hawking HGA32T Gigabit card Reports: (several)

(added 12/14/2005)
"After checking the reports here, I just added a Hawking HGA32T gigabit ethernet card to my backup machine, a G4/450 AGP. The card was recognized by Tiger, so I didn't install any driver software on my Tiger drive.

Based on a report from another reader, I disabled IPv6. I may experiment to see if turning it on gives me problems, if I can find the time.

The software that comes with the card is for OS 10.2, and won't work with Panther. I downloaded the Realtek Panther driver, got it installed, and tried transferring some files while booted from the Panther drive. I didn't have any problems with straight drag and drop transfers. Data Backup (backing up from my MDD867 to the 450) generated some errors, but it's fussy about backing up over the network using the built-in ethernet, so I can't be sure that the card had anything to do with the errors. Data Backup did back up a lot of files successfully.

The two gigabit-capable Macs are connected to a Netgear 5-port gigabit switch. The switch is connected to a Linksys router.

I transferred some music and image folders. Performance seem significantly better than it did with the built-in ethernet of the G4/450.

The machine seems to wake from deep sleep without a problem: but it was only asleep for about 30 seconds. I turn these machines off when they are not in use. Thanks for your great site. It's an invaluable resource for the Mac community.
-Kathryn "

(added 9/16/2005)
Just a heads-up for other gigabit card users...
After reading the reports that the Hawking HGA32T ethernet card works in 10.3 with a driver, and 10.4 natively, (see previous report below this one) I bought two for my G4 and G3. After a lot of troubleshooting, I found out that they don't work properly with IPv6 enabled.
With the Apple driver in 10.4, and the Realtek driver in 10.3, and IPv6 enabled if I connected to another machine via AFP or SFTP and started two independent but simultaneous file transfers to the same machine (start a large file copy, then once it's going, start another), the transfers would stall, and the one started first would eventually error out and stop. Using AFP, the Finder would also stop responding. Changing the speed of the ethernet card using the advanced options in network made no difference.

I was initially connecting between machines using Bonjour naming, and having the issues described above. As soon as I started using the IP addresses themselves to connect, the problems went away. After turning off IPv6 in the network system preference, I can use Bonjour names again to connect, and everything works great.
-Chuck K.
FreeFall Software
www.freefallsoftware.com "

To answer some common questions I asked Chuck if the card supported Jumbo Frames (doubtful, and everything on the network must support it also to work) and if the card supported deep sleep.

(added 8/15/2005)
"I installed a Hawking HGA32T Gigabit card in both a 400 B/W and an AGP G4 450 upgraded to 1Gig. Both are running 10.4.2. It works on both machines without drivers. It comes with drivers for OS 8-9.

It's nice as it has LED's for 10/100/1Gig so it's easy to tell if your connections are up to par. I've installed cards on networks only to find that the integrity wasn't up to 1Gig. It supports bus mastering and Wake-on-LAN as well which would be useful for XServes.

It's interesting to note that they have been supporting the Mac for a long time.

Also interesting to note is that even though they mention that Mac drivers are on the CD, they don't have install instructions for them in the manual.

Just for the hell of it I called them and was told that over the years they have never gotten a support question from a Mac user. I guess that says something.
Best regards, Mel. "

Netgear GA311 Gigabit Ethernet card w/OS X 10.4/Tiger: (Updated w/2nd report)

(added 8/12/2005)
" This report is regarding the Netgear G311A Gigabit Ethernet Card. After trying the D-Link and Belkin cards under 10.4.2 unsuccessfully, I installed the Netgear card after reading one of the user's reports on the page. However, I installed the card and went directly in to Network Setup without installing the (Realtek) driver. (previous report from a 10.4.1 user mentioned he installed that driver.) I found that the card does, in fact, work without any drivers whatsoever under 10.4.2.
The machine I installed the card in is a Blue & White running Mac OS X 10.4.2 Server. Network transfer speed seemed to range anywhere from 15MB-25MB/sec. This is definitely faster than the built in port and the speed could have easily been limited by the speed of the B&W's internal ATA bus (or drive). (Also the B&W G3's 33MHz PCI slots have been reported to have lower than expected performance. See an older article on the SCSI topics page on 64bit Adaptec SCSI cards with past comments on this.)
Sincerely,
Cornelius Q. "

The previous report on this card follows:

(added 6/28/2005 - updated w/deep sleep and performance/Jumbo Frame notes)
"Just dropped a Netgear GA311 into a PowerMac G4 Sawtooth running Tiger 10.4.1. I wanted to see if it would run without the Realtek driver, but didn't realize that I needed to configure the Network preference pane again. So, ended up installing the Realtek driver before realizing my error. Card works great though. Found it online for $17 (including shipping). Not sure how it stacks up to more expensive gigabit cards, but definitely a speed improvement over the built in 10/100 port (not 10 times as fast -- looks to be more like three times as fast).
I do not use deep sleep, so I cannot comment on that feature.
-Nathan O.
(Just for the record I asked if he could try putting the system to sleep just to see if the card supported it.)
Deep sleep worked fine.
By the way, as far as my comment as to the speed of the card, while I observe it to only be about 3 times as fast as fast ethernet, this is about what I see with the Macs we have with built in gigabit ethernet (Quicksilvers and MDDs). So speeds appear to be equivalent.

(I asked Natha to check if the Intel card supports jumbo frames. (apple's onboard doesn't, not sure if that's a driver issue or what.) Check the Network Preference Pane under the Ethernet tab for the card after you select Configure Manually. See if Jumbo frame option is dimmed (as it is for onboard Gigabit on macs I have).)
Jumbo frames is dimmed, but I don't have jumbo frames turned on on our switches (Dell PowerConnects). I'm guessing it's dimmed for this reason -- probably the same for your Macs. "

(Links to Apple kbase docs mentioned below removed after they were no longer online.)
Apple's kbase doc on Mac OS X 10.3: "Jumbo" packet size is dimmed notes that "option is dimmed when your Ethernet device does not work with Jumbo frames. The Apple Ethernet devices that support Jumbo Frames are the Gigabit Ethernet PCI-X card and the built-in Ethernet port on the Xserve G5. The card is optional on Xserve, sold separately by the Apple Store, and may be used in the Power Mac G5."
Their Kbase doc on How to Enable Ethernet Jumbo Frames on the Xserve PCI Gigabit Card had these warnings (implying it could be enabled if the card supports it but if all devices on the network do not, it results in a loss of connectivity.)

Warnings:
1. All devices on a local network must be configured to use Jumbo Frames, or loss of connectivity could occur on that network.

2. All devices on the local network must support use of Jumbo Frames. Few network switches support Jumbo Frames, and sending them to a switch that does not support them may cause the switch to stop operating. Check the specifications of network hardware prior to enabling Jumbo Frames. Even if your devices are Jumbo Frame compatible, Jumbo Frames are not needed under most circumstances. Be sure you have a need for them before using this procedure.

3. This procedure is intended only for computers with Mac OS X Server and the PCI Gigabit Card, or for the Xserve G5. Jumbo Frames can be used on the built-in Ethernet port only on the Xserve G5.

Tiger/10.4 Support for Intel Pro/1000 cards (Note: despite the reports below - I've had at least one report from a Tiger user with an OEM Intel Pro 1000 card saying he couldn't get it to work.)

(added 6/28/2005 from 6/15 mail)
Just writing to confirm that the Intel Pro 1000 does work with 10.4 Server. I purchased a Intel 82540EM 1000MT Gigabit NIC PC for $29 from akida.net and it's running on 10.4 Server without any problems (no drivers needed). The Intel part # may be PWLA8390MT. I guess we all know the reason why this works with Apple's recent announcement.
-Jonathan"

(added 5/10/2005)
"Maybe my discovery is old news. I had bought an Intel PRO/1000 gigabit adapter a year or so past and I could never get it to work in my G4 under 10.3.

I knew that 'Small Tree Communications' made and supported their own version of the Intel card but their software only recognizes 'Small Tree' branded Intel PRO/1000 cards.

10.4 appears to have changed that. The package contents of the IONetworkingFamily.kext now has plugin - AppleIntel8254XEthernet.kext - that supports the Intel¨ PRO/1000.
I haven't had the opportunity to fully test it but I am using it as for my network connection as I type this.
Michael G.
Computer Technologist
(just for the record I asked if the card supported deep sleep.)
That is unknown at this time. I've always had trouble with deep sleep in the past so much so that I only have the monitor go to sleep. If I get the chance I give it a try."

See below for previous reports on low-cost Gigabit cards but they required drivers for 10.2.x/10.3.x use (usually Realtek chipset cards). If anyone tries one of them with Tiger let me know if there's native support or if the driver still works in Tiger. (Lots of reports from Tiger users of 3rd party wireless networking adapters that said drivers were broken in tiger. Native supported (in airport 3.x and later) broadcom chipset wireless adapters generally still worked in Tiger.)

Surecom Gigabit Ethernet card

(added Marc 2005)
"www.surecom.com.tw/pd-adapter-320g-tx1.htm
I looked on your site, but cannot find any reports of people's experience with this card. (there's reports on several low-cost (often $20 or so) Gigabit ethernet cards here, see below.)
Do you know if anyone has tried the Surecom 10/100/1000 320G-TX1 ? Surecom has drivers for it, for 10.2 or newer, and it retails for $28 Canadian.
Thanks, Martin J. "

If any reader has tried one of these in Mac send a notes. (often there's many cards using the same chipset/drivers (i.e. Realtek) but I've not looked at this card.)

D-Link DFE530TX in 9600/10.2.8

(added 9/21/2004)
" Mac 9600 w/XLR8-450 card running OS X 10.2.8 under XPF 3.0a11. I was looking for a fast ethernet pci card and found some very good info on your site. Great resource. I thought I would send along my experience even though there did not seem to be alot of recent activity. I ended up getting a $15 (Canadian) D-Link DFE530TX (not the DFE 530TX+) from Radio Shack.
After much suffering with the Mac driver on the supplied disk, the download from D-Link for the DFE 530TX+ (there is no DFE 530 TX software on the US site) and trying the RealTek drivers. I found from the system profiler that this card did not have the realtek chip even though the name is similar. ( the manufacturer code is wrong ) I finally removed everything related to D-Link and Realtek from the extensions folder moved the card to slot one from where the old card was and went with the supplied driver. It works. I suspect it was the slot.
RealTek provides some info for changing the Card ID code in their driver but it locked up the machine as soon as I switched to PCI Ethernet. There does not seem to be any OS 9 support or I would put the card in 3-4 other macs the kids have. I may try the OS 9 driver for the DFE 530TX+ and see if that works, if it does I will let you know. Again Great Resource.
Peter"

Another report on low-cost Gigabit Ethernet PCI Cards (Note - see later post above from 4/27/2006 - Belkin now says this card is not compatible with Macs.)

(added 9/21/2004)
"Just wanted to let you know the Belkin Gigabit Desktop Network PCI cards Part # F5D5005 work fine on 7300-9600 legacy macs with OSX (Jaguar tested). You have to download the driver from the CD that comes with the package but so far they run fine. I have several 7300's with G4 Sonnet 800 upgrades, Acard 6280m, radeon 7000 and ata100 drives working flawlessly at gigabit and 10/100 speeds. The cards sell for $24.00 at CompUSA. The box lists MacOS v10.2.xx as supported along with most other PC OS.
John "

Other reports on low-cost (often under $20) gigabit cards as well as 10/100 cards and driver download links

Multiport Fiber Optic Gigabit Ethernet Adapters for Macs Although not low-cost like other examples of gigabit PCI cards mentioned below, Smalltree sent an email press release (dated 8/25/2004) that appears to be a copy of the August 11th press release on their Multiport Fiber Optic Ethernet cards for Macs (and PCs). (Links removed as pages no longer online.)

(added 8/6/2004)
Running 10.3.4 Server versino on a G5.
Needed to be multihomed. Had been using a Belkin USB wireless NIC but it sometimes would lose the connection (6ft from the adapter to the base station). I would have to re-boot to get it working again. When this started happening a couple of times a week, it was time to look for a better solution, preferably higher speed than USB.

Decided to try a D-Link DFE-530-TX. Installed the driver from the D-Link site that says it is for 10.1 and up. I got a warning about corrupt *.kext file or bad extension or something like (security warnings can be permissions related also, using the 'fix and use' option will correct permissions - however see the update in this (previous DLink 530 report that includes a link to realtek drivers) that when I re-booted. Re-booted a second time and got no warnings, set up the card in the network preferences and it has worked just fine for one whole day since then. I will let you know if I run into any problems. The card was $5 after a $10 mail in re-bate.
doug b. "

See below for other options including under $20 Gigabit Ethernet cards which have drivers for later OS X versions.

Another Intel Pro/100 Report: (see below for others)

(added 8/6/2004 from 7/2 email that got lost in the inbox)
"I've just purchased an Intel Pro/100 M PCI Ethernet card for a dual 1 GHz Power Mac G4 running Panther, and the card is indeed supported by Apple's drivers and works flawlessly. It costs about $35.

I will note that finding a specific chipset for an Ethernet card is next to impossible if you can't see the card in person. For instance, a report on the Internet led me to buy a Linksys Ethernet card first, but only the 4.1 revision of that card used the compatible chipset; the 5.1 revision I bought didn't work at all.
cheers... -Adam"

That is why I prefer to buy a NIC card locally (for easier return) - and Linksys especially is infamous for changing chipsets on some products (i.e. later model 'revison' or 'version' cards may not have the same chipset - I saw this 3 times on 802.11b cards and again on their PCI 802.11g adapter - v2 was broadcom chip based and worked with airport 3.1 and later, v4 now has a different chipset and not compatible with airport).

More on Cheap Gigabit Ethernet PCI Cards:

(added 8/6/2004 - from 7/31 email)
"Just did a little shopping at BestBuy, and ran across the Netgear GA311, Gigabit PIC NIC. The photo on the outside of the box shows a picture of the card, which displays the Realtek logo. This was promosing, so I purchased the card. Sure enough, upon closer inspection of the actual card, I was pleased to learn that this is based on the Realtek 8169 chipset. I downloaded the 10.2.x driver for my smurf running 10.2.8, installed the driver, deleted the extension cache, and shutdown. I then popped the card into a free slot, and fired it back up. Pleased to report that I now have working gigabit on my vintage smurf!
-jonathan"

BTW - if possible when reporting on PCI cards in macs that support deep sleep (G4/AGP and later towers) see if the card supports deep sleep (fans off, etc.)

(added 4/23/2004)
"SMC 9452TX (gigabit nic $29)
i was at compusa the other day and saw a SMC 9452TX nic selling for $29. the box (and their site) state windows and linux are supported...not mac. i called smc and spoke to a tech support person who emailed me their (unsupported) beta driver for 10.2.x. i'm running 10.3.3 but i decided to give it a try.
i installed the driver and rebooted. the SMC 9452TX nic was instantly recognized and FULLY CONFIGURABLE!!! i'm running osx server 10.3.3 and need to set up a box as a vpn server so i needed a cheap, fast card. i can't tell you how amazed i am at the performance with this card...and it's $29 price.
here's the (2004) beta driver readme:
http://donmontalvo.com/temp/smc9452m.htm
thanks, don "

I wrote Don to ask if they've got the drivers available for download yet and if not to send what email address he used to get them sent to him.

Another report on the Airlink+ gigabit card (under $20) working with the Realtek drivers:

(added 4/20/2004)
" Thanks again for your site. Based on your tip (see prev. info below), I went to frys and am running the Airlink+ gigabit ethernet PCI card (sale $18.99 thru April 20th, 2004) with the 10.3 Realtek drivers in one G4 sawtooth with 10.3.3 & one G4 sawtooth & one G4 dual 1.25 MDD with 10.2.6., All works fine. The documentation shows the windows install wizard picking the Realtek RTL8169/8110 family drivers.
Frys has several 8 port gigabit switches under $200 so all in all its a pretty cheap upgrade to a faster network.
Peter H. "

Airlink GigaBit card + Realtek Drivers: Earlier today (April 15th report below) there's a link to OS X (beta 10.3 and non-beta 10.2.x) drivers for Realtek's RTL8169 Gigabit Ethernet chip. A reader bought a $20 card based on it from Fry's and said the card's working in his B&W G3 running 10.3..x (10.3.3 I assume.)

" As an experiment, I bought an AirlinkPlus+ gigabit card from Fry's. It only costs about $20. It uses the RealTek chipset and the driver from their website works with 10.3. I've got it installed in a 450MHz BW G3 Mac and it works fine except that the processor can't push data fast enough to realize gigabit speeds.
Tan T. "

Of course other network components (switches, hubs, etc.) can also limit performance. (Many home users are probably not going to have GigaBit rated switches, etc.). Also the 33MHz PCI slots of the B&W G3s historically have had lower than expected performance with controller cards. (Using the 66MHz slot was a common tip - that's assuming the card he has is 66MHz PCI slot compatible.)
See report below below for the RealTek driver download page.
Another reader sent a note about a ($30 list) Asante gigabit card that reportedly uses the same Realtek chip.

" Asante has a new PCI gigabit card (supported in Windows only).
www.asante.com/products/adapters/GN2032T/index.html
However, I found this in their "unsupported driver" readme:

"This document describes the procedure to setup the NetWare v3.X , v4.X workstation driver for REALTEK RTL8169 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Adapter."

I don't own this card personally, but if it is an RTL8169 based device I would imagine that it will work with the driver mentioned on your site earlier today.
Jim "

The specs on the card note it's 33MHz/66MHz PCI compatible. If anyone tries this card with the realtek drivers send a note.

Realtek RTL8169 Gigabit Ethernet Drivers for OS X 10.2/10.3 (in reply to yesterday's posting on 10.3.3 driver mods for using $25 Dlink Gigabit card.)

" Read the post (below) with interest, so I went to RealTek's website and looked for a driver for their gigabit chipset for OS X and they do have one available. I looked for a manufacturer using the RTL8169 chipset for their card, but expect to have an answer soon.
www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?Keyword=rtl8169"
(down the page in the "other" listing is a beta 10.3 driver and a non-beta 10.2.x driver)
It looks like Hawking Tech is using the chipset in its HGA32T gigabit NIC. I haven't had a chance to test this out, but the card is $20 at Microcenter (and about $5 less online).
Cheers,
Jon
Executive Director
Boston Macintosh (BMac)
Boston's Premier Macintosh User Group "

10.3.3 driver mods for low-cost Dlink DGE-530T Gigabit Ethernet PCI card (from a reader mail on 4/13/2004)

" Last week i made a web investigation about cheap gigabit nics (network cards) supported by OSX 10.3.3. Most of them (supported by the vendor) where a little too expensive for us or simply not available in Chile. So i found this little cheap Dlink card DGE-530T, supporting Gigabit speed, 33Mhz, 32 Bit PCI, cable diagnostic, etc for $US 25 here in Chile, but no support for OSX.
Dlink even said it would never have support (commercial option?). So i found out that our Linux friends were using this card with a driver made for another Card from Syskonnect (german nic assembler), the 95xxx series. Both cards use the Marvell 88E0003 Chipset but Marvell doesn't have OEM drivers for end users at their website. So I got the OSX driver from Syskonnect for his 95xxx and 98xxx Gigabit PCI nics series and installed it on one of my G4's but no luck.

The extension installed used Apple's Info.plist structure to identify the Device ID and Vendor ID. So i went into open Firmware, made a PCI device listing and got this ID's. 1186 for DLINK and 4c00 for the DGE-530T (shown as PCI1186,4c00@13 (i think the @13 is irq 13). So i went back to OSX, got rid of the IOPCIPrimaryMatch and IOPCISecondaryMAtch keys in the Info.plist inside the extension folder (sk98xx) and replaced them by a single IOPCIMatch key whith the combined Device and Vendor ID

<key>IOPCIMatch</key>
<string>0x4c001186</string>

After this I deleted all extensions caches and rebooted. So I've got a cheap 100% functional DGE-530T Gigabit Ethernet Card on OSX 10.3.3. I know this works also in 10.2.
Syskonnect Driver : www.syskonnect.de

I never got response or help from dlink or marvell, but i think it's a simple solution for getting a cheap PC Gigabit card running on OSX.
Thanks (sorry for my bad english), i hope this helps other OSX users.
Diego Pino N
Krayon Media
www.krayon.cl "

" Regarding your recent story about OSX NIC drivers (just more reports that were added to this page.), I wanted to drop you a quick line about the work I've done on an IOKit tulip driver that runs on darwin-ppc and darwin-x86. I recently added it to the opendarwin.org CVS repository after it lived on sourceforge for a long time.

Source and binaries are available from my opendarwin blog home page www.opendarwin.org/~cremes/. I support a pretty decent set of tulip and tulip clone cards including the ADMtek 98x, PNIC, DEC 21143 (MII), with preliminary support for 2114x (SYM) and PNIC2. When that code stabilizes a bit, I'll add the 21040A which ought to bring support back for the Kanga PowerBook (Original G3 PB).

This driver has wider support than the Apple drivers for tulip clones while the support for genuine DEC chipsets is a little weaker. That will improve over time.
-cr "

Intel Pro 100S card report: In reply to a post yesterday (below) on Asante PCI Network card drivers for 10.3.x, a reader from France wrote the intel Pro 100S card has native support:

" I have a store and i tried to use intel Pro 100 S in my G5 bi-2 Ghz. In 10.3.3 no drivers necessary. Works fine.
Didier D. "

Another reader replied to this post to say that every OS X release has support for this card. (My first fall 1999 sawtooth G4/AGP tower had an intel 10/100 NIC chip on it - perhaps the same chip they still use and why there's native support.)

OS X 10.3.x drivers for Asante PCI Network card:

Asante FriendlyNET 696 10/100 cards have drivers for 10.3 Just got one for my g4 quicksilver 867 10.3.3 No problems. Great card.
Thanks, Mark
(I asked for a link to the drivers)
www.asante.com/support/
www.asante.com/support/downProd.aspx?id=AF696
See the release notes."

OS X 10.2.8 and later drivers for Netgear FA311/312/331 Ethernet Cards (from the March 10th, 2004 www.xlr8yourmac.com news page)

" After some searching i found these drivers for Netgear Ethernet Cards
homepage.mac.com/yukidon/mac/en/dp8381x.html (no longer online)
NETGEAR FA311
NETGEAR FA312
NETGEAR FA331
the site notes that this is for the chip DP83815 produced by National Semiconductor

I have a Netgear FA311, i put it in my 8500 running 10.3.2 and the card works fine. it is now running as a router using the builtin ethernet port and the netgear card
thanks, Seb "

(Info/posts from 2002 follow) In the 2/11/2002 news page I asked for reader reports on PCI Network cards that work (and don't) with OS X. I was flooded with emails on this and have divided the reports in those reported as working and not. (In some cases these cards are the same ones noted in the FAQ's Networking section info on low-cost PCI NIC cards with Mac drivers, which was posted before OS X was released.)

Using Onboard + PCI NIC ports: A reader asked if anyone is using a PCI network card to add a 2nd interface (not just as a replacement for the onboard NIC.) I've gotten several reports on this working - see the this section. (Also includes comments on Multi-port PCI card use.)

Here's a summary list and (farther down) copies of reader comments on specific brands. (I'm adding a link to this page to the FAQ's OS X and Networking sections.)

Summary: (based on reports below)

Reports with OS X 10.2
• AsanteFast 10/100 model 690 using driver update (see reports)
  (their OS X driver page (www.Asante.com/support/index.html#osx) listed 10.2 drivers for 590, 690, 696 as well as some Gigabit cards)
• D-Link DFE-530TX+ Not working in 10.2 [using Dlink 1.10B drivers] (see report)
  *Fix is to use RealTek drivers noted here prev.*
• Kingston KNE110TX (see report)
• RealTek RTL 8139 Chipset Cards (see report)

Success stories/Cards w/OS X 10.1.x drivers
• Apple 10/100 NIC Card (see reports [3])
• Asante Fast 10/100 (see reports [10])
• CometLabs (see report)
• CompUSA brand w/RealTek chip (see report)
• D-Link DFE-530TX+ [using realtek drivers] (see report)
• D-Link 570TX 4 Port (see report)
• Several Farallon/Proxim models (see reports [4])
• Kingston KNE 100 TX (see report)
• MacSense (realtek chip based) (see report)
• Realtek Chip Based (see reports [5])
• SMC EZNET 10/100 [using realtek drivers] (see reports [2])
• X-NET (Realtek chip based) (see report)
• ZYNX (DEC chip based) (see reports [3])
  
  Not Working w/10.1.x: (see reports below)
  [One SMC report moved to "working" section after using Realtek drivers]

Reader reports on various brands of cards follow.

Success Stories/Cards with OS X Drivers

OS X 10.2 Asante card reports:

" I have an AsanteFast 10/100 Fast Ethernet (PCI) Adapter model 690 that was working under 10.1.5. It stopped working after 10.2 was installed and actually crashed my machine. Asante just released updated drivers and everything works great!
Darryl Payne
Site Developer
Stone Oak Web Design "

I checked their main web site and found www.Asante.com/support/index.html#osx had an OS X 10.2 driver for their 590, 690, 696 as well as some Gigabit cards

OS X 10.1.x Asante reports follow:
(Note - For the AsanteFast 590 card, a reader sent a link to the first 1.0 _beta_ drivers for it at https://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers/asantefast590.html. However there may be a later driver since the above page has a April 2001 date.)

" I'm using the Asante Fast PCI 590 card in my G4/500. I had to download "unsupported" OS X 10.1 drivers from the asante support site, but it's worked beautifully ever since. I'm just now upgrading to 10.1.2 so hopefully nothing breaks when I do....
www.asante.com/products/adapters/index.html cheers,
Michael "

" Xlr8yourmac,
I've got a two Ethernet setup for OS X - one BMAC built in and 1 Asantefast PC590 Ethernet card. This Mac serves as both a firewall (using ipfw) and router (natd) for my home network.

The 590 appears to be a generic Tulip card (the DEC 210x0 family) - I wouldn't be surprised if their driver worked on other Tulip-based cards. My PC's Linksys card and the Asante card are identical in layout and in chips, except for the chip in the dead center, which has a Linksys label on one and Asante label on the other (same chip, different label). Then again, Asante may check for their built in manufacturer code, in which case it wouldn't run any other Tulip cards...

Mac OS X drivers are available from www.asante.com/support/index.html under the Mac OS X heading.
-Alex-
p.s. I actually tried to port if_de (FreeBSD's Dec Ethernet driver) for about 2 weeks before just buying a Mac card that had kernel extension (KEXT) drivers. I probably could have succeeded if I rebuilt xnu (the Darwin kernel), but the way I chose, converting the driver to a KEXT (without really understanding it), was an exercise in futility. On the other hand, I learned a lot of mostly useless info on the 210x0 family :)"

" Asante EtherFast 590 PCI (10/100 Rev B.) works with OS X 10.1 and OS X Server 10.1.

Sticker on the back of the PCI card:
AsanteFAST 590 PCI
P/N 61-20590-02
(driver install required)

They have a release version of the driver for OS X < 10.0.4, and a beta driver for OS X > 10.1 (seems to work fine on my dual/450)
-Colin
(FYI, P/N on the PCI card itself: 6804057409 Rev: A4. This is not needed info to download the drivers, just an FYI)"

" I'm using an AsanteFast 10/100 in my beige G3/233 desktop. It just needed the latest Asante drivers. You need to be careful; they have three different versions on their site and only the one from 8/31/01 seems to work correctly.
Once that's done, the card is visible in the Network control panel (or whatever they're called in X).

I have the built in 10Mb attached to my DSL, and use the Asante for internal (LAN) networking, including printer sharing from my wintel laptop.
David "

" I'm using an Asante Fast 590 with the OSX driver from the website (I used the driver for the 590, my card says it is a 590 but the model number doesn't match anything on the website).

Beige G3 233 DT (OC'd to 292)
OS 9.2 / OS 10.1.2
512MB Ram
30GB Western Digital HD
ATI Nexus Video
Firewire PCI (vendor name escapes me now)

OSX driver needs to be installed as a root user, SUDO command does not work. If you tried it as a sudo, login as root, throw the driver away, reboot and then reinstall under the root account. Works great in OS9 and OSX.
Works fine for me.
Shawn "

" Here are the specs to my system which uses an AsanteFast 10/100 PCI Ethernet Adapter revB (AsanteFast_590.kext version 1.0.0):
Beige G3 desktop rev A
Upgraded to a 450 Mhz zif cpu
448 MB ram
Mac OS X 10.1.2 (SP48)
Maxtor 15 GB Internal HD (replaced original)
ATI Nexus 128 video card
Orange Micro USB/Firewire PCI card
Iomega Zip 100 SCSI external
Toshiba DVD-RAM SCSI drive external
Sony CD-RW CRX1611 internal (replaced original CD-ROM Drive)

Note:
I have my Mac connected to a 10/100 Asante Router via the AsanteFast ethernet PCI card for internet access and file sharing between other networked Macs. I also have my Mac connected to a Netgear 10Mb hub via the Mac's built in 10Mb ethernet for printing to an Apple LaserWriter 8500 using AppleTalk. Both connections operate simultaneously without any problems! Assante has been out front with Mac OS X support and has good Mac support on it's other products as well. My experience with them has been wonderful.
David Pe–a "

" I have a couple of 10/100 cards running under OSX. Both in older unsupported boxes.

1) AsanteFast 10/100 they even have a driver on there website, but I didn't need it (?)

2) Also I have a generic DEC based 10/100 card that was plug and play (IC# 21140)...
Keep up the great work,
Marty "

" AsanteFast 10/100 PCI Fast Ethernet
Downloaded OS X Drivers (Non-native to system)
7600 G3 300 (Powerlogix + OWC Zif)
Tested 10.0 -> 10.1.2 Works great

I was getting 1-2 MB/s in OS 9, now I get 2-4 MB/s in 10.1.2! "

" Hi,
The Asante 10/100 pci card worked with OS 10.0 when i tried it mid last year, in my G4 400. (the built in ethernet port failed !). OSX drivers were a download from asante
cheers Andrew B.
Mac Guru Consulting"

" We are using a couple Asante FriendlyNET 10/100 PCI cards in our B/W G3 OS X Server. I have also used the same card with an upgraded PowerMac 8500 running OS X 10.1.2 with XPostFacto. Seems to work just fine...

The model number on the box: ASANTE FAST 10/100 PCI (COMPUSA) [99-00590-11] They had drivers (beta) for 10.1 and later
Rich W.
Micro-Comm, Inc. "

(Added Dec 16th, 2002 - OS X 10.2 drivers noted)
" A couple of days ago, Realtek has released 10.2 drivers for their RTL 8139 chipset:
www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?series=16&Software=True#16Others

I have a D-Link DFE-690TXD cardbus adapter for my G3 PowerBook whose Ethernet port is dead, but unfortunately, did not get it to work yet. According to Realtek (the readme talks about PCI cards) it should also work with cardbus adapters.
For me no success yet (w/PCCard), but you might want to update your page
Cheers,
-Christian"

" Hi,
the cards with a Realtek chip on board have at least OSX beta drivers
www.realtek.com.tw/htm/download/driver.asp
Best regards
Aleksandar "

" I use a cheap realcom PCI network card bought at a local pc-shop for less than 20 EURO. It uses a Realtek chip for which OS X 10.1 drivers were available at:
ftp://152.104.125.40/lancard/drivers/8139/rtsmacx(110).zip
See info at:
www.realtek.com.tw/htm/download/driver.asp
And thx for the great site.
Greetings
Walter. "

" I have a Beige G3/300 desktop (not exactly tip top for OS X compatibility) which I use a Danpex ADP 1100 10/100 Fast Ethernet Card in. This card uses the Realtek RTL8139 chipset. Using the Realtek RTL8139/810x 1.10b drivers, this card works great in both OS 9 and OS X.

The only tricky part is downloading the drivers from the ftp site. Sometimes it has issues connecting.
Got the OS X drivers from VersionTracker (driver/link no longer valid).
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions. Brendan W. "

" I have heard realtek has a beta OS X driver on their site, although I do not own any of their cards. Hope this helps some.
check this link out
www.virtualinformation.com/drivers/EthernetSupport.htm#MAC I saw 10.0.4 drivers on there, as well as beta 10.1 drivers
John W. "

" Last November I bought a RealTek NIC from a company on eBay. I must say that the card has worked flawlessly under both OS9 and OSX. I use it to transfer large DV files from my PM/7500/G3/450 to my PM G4/400. It is a RealTek 8139 NIC/OS9 driver v3.00, OSX driver beta/OS's are OS 9.2.2 and OSX 10.1.2 build 5P48. The drivers are a bit tough to find on the web page(realtek.com)
-Bob "

" After much research, I found that there are few chipsets that work with OSX. Out of the box, I think OSX supports (besides built in ethernet), DEC 21x4 and Intel 8255x based chipsets. However, RealTEK (who makes chipsets for many of the cheaper cards) has released drivers for OSX 10.1 which still work in 10.1.2 and Server.

I currently use a CompUSA branded card, which is just a RealTEK 8139 based card. I believe many of the ~$20 cards use the same chipset, such as the ones from Linksys and others. I chose the CompUSA one because the RealTEK 8139 is a perfectly fine 10/100 card, and it cost $14.99 at CompUSA. You can actually find them for close to $5 at some online stores, esp if you go to pricewatch.com and search Realtek or realtek 8139. The drivers also support the RealTEK 810 based cards.

Hope this helps, $15 for a 10/100 ethernet card, and then a hop over to versiontracker.com/macosx [see above for multiple links to RealTek drivers.] and a search for "realtek" will provide you with an excellent and cheap solution, I use this setup to turn my beige g3 into an excellent Server and router with OSX Server. My cable modem plugs into the built in port, and the new NIC plugs into a 10/100 network switch along with some other machines and an airport base station.
-vasu "

" The farallon cards which are now Proxim have drivers included in OS X

PN593-TP - included in Mac OS X, tested at Farallon
(PN593-C - not supported)
PN893-TP - included in Mac OS X, tested at Farallon
PN995-TX - included in Mac OS X, not tested at Farallon
PN996-TX - included in Mac OS X, tested at Farallon

I use the PN996 with OS X and have not had any problems. Regards,
Joe "

" I have a Farallon 10/100 Card (model PN996L-TX) and it works out the box with the Apple built-in drivers. I believe this is due to the Farallon card using the same DEC ethernet controller (TULIP) as some cards that Apple shipped (such as the 4-port ethernet card in some older server configs).

Farallon has changed its company name but I have seen some of these cards recently at Fry's so they might also be available at outpost.com.
Tyler B."

" I have a Farallon FastEtherTX 10/100+ that works natively in OS X with my PowerTower Pro 225 with the original processor and a Sonnet G4 400 (in one of the upper 3 PCI slots, never tried it in the lower three with the G4 installed)...tested it with every revision of OS X through 10.1.2...works fine on the Windows network at work.
Geoff P.
MIS/Network Technician "

" I'm using the Farallon FastEtherTX 10/100 PCI card in a 7500/604e/225 system that has Mac OS X 10.1 on it (installed using UnsupportedUtilityX from Ryan Rempel/OWC). It is supported natively by the OS-- no driver installation necessary. I've found this card to be a great performer under both 9 & X, preferable to several other brands.
Hope this helps!
Fred "

" I have a couple of Apple brand 10/100 cards that I have purchased over the last year that apparently work fine in OS X. Matter of fact, I am connected via that card as I write this. Details follow...

CARD: Apple 10/100 Ethernet Card
DRIVER: I assume the Apple Ethernet Driver in OS X, (haven't loaded any specific drivers).
SYSTEM: Graphite 733MHz G4 Digital Audio
OS X VERSION: Mac OS X 10.1.2 (SP48)

I have included a PDF manual of this Ethernet card...
Bart "

" The Apple branded PCI 10/100 cards work on any version of the MacOS X or 9 without any drivers at all. They are very fast, reliable, and the only ones I use in my Macs. You can find them on eBay or somewhere like MacResQ.
Josh "

" Well, the one I've had best results with is the Apple 10/100 card, as supplied with the Beige G3's in some configurations. This assumes you have OS X 10.1 or higher installed. The card will function (sort of) with any X release, though with slow performance and strange "stalls" while transferring files. 10.1 magically cleared all that up, just when I'd about written the card off.

This is a little strange, because the card had a reputation as a lemon under OS 8 and 9. NOTE: I'm referring to the full height card, with the black Apple sticker on the ROM chip. There was a very rare, late model "short" Apple 10/100 card (like 2" tall) that doesn't seem to work at all under OS X. This one has a white "Mac OS" sticker on the ROM.

I've also tried the AsanteFast 10/100 in Rev C and D versions; even with their posted OS X driver, the performance was spotty, and the OS (if the internal port wasn't disabled) would still send data through the internal port - even if I set the preference to the Asante.
-Scott Schuckert "

Kingston 10.2 reports:

" I have a beige G3 and a 9600 both now running OS X 10.2, and both have extra NIC cards installed and running perfectly. One has a Kingston KNE100TX and the other has an Apple Fast Ethernet card. These cards are supported without any drivers at all.
Also of note: The Kingston KNE110TX in my 8500 will not work with any version of OS X, at least as far as I can tell.
Adam M. "

Note - previous Kingston reports are from 10.1.x

" I am currently using a kingston kne 100 tx card. it has a digital 21143 chip, which is natively supported by mac os x/server. the card is running now in an 9600/200 loaded with a g3 card under mac os x server.
greetings willi "

" I'm using a CometLabs Ethernet adapter for the Apple Macintosh with their drivers for Mac OSX on an Apple G4/733. Tried the new 590 AsantŽ card without any luck.
Cheers
Antonio C. "

I asked for a link to the Comet web page for drivers. (And the model number of the card.) Note that other Asante 590 card owners (see above asante section) noted the card working.

" I just tested a X-NET 3000RCM 10/100 card in a PM9600 with OS X 10.1.2. Downloaded drivers from Realtek, www.realtek.com.tw for their 8139 chipset. The drivers are in beta state with version 1.1.
There's also drivers for Mac OS 8.5 -.
Stefan B. "

(For direct links to Realtek drivers, see the Realtek section above.)

" I've had good success with the MacSense cards based on the RealTek RTL8139/810x chipset. RealTek provides a generic driver set even though MacSense no longer supports the card.

Thanks for your hard work!
Ted S.
www.randomworks.com/ "

Dlink 530TX+ NIC card and 10.2: [BTW - one reader later said this card didn't support deep sleep.]

"Just a note;
On the Dlink 530TX+ ethernet card that had drivers that worked in 10.1.x (Driver version 1.1.0 Beta) Those drivers no longer work under 10.2 My inquiries to Dlink as to updated drivers resulted in a cryptic "watch the web page" spiel.
Just as a warning to anybody with one of those as a second e-net card.
Roger
Update - 10.2 Compat. Driver (Realtek):
"Thanks to your reviews, I found a working driver for my D-Link NIC (DFE-530TX+) and 10.2!!!
Realtek, apparently, has been working hard, even if D-Link hasn't. The driver at their ftp site: ftp://152.104.125.40/lancard/drivers/8139/rtsmacx-8139(111).zip works perfectly.
I restarted though, and the following message came up, which I had never seen before . (the security warning dialog - often means the driver/file does not have proper permissions. Select the "fix and use" option) I clicked on Use, and it seems to work fine. "

Note: Dlink reports below are from OS X 10.1.x, not 10.2

" First let me say that I have been a big fan of your site for years; I have been visiting almost daily for the last 3+ years. You and the crew are a great resource for the Mac community; I love how you show how we can push the envelope with both Mac and PC hardware without having to settle.

The reason I am writing is that I just hapenned to have one of those DLink-530TX+ 10/100 card lying around (unopened for the last year or so) and had to know if I could get a multi-link multi-homing system up and running. I downloaded the DLink drivers
(ftp://ftp.dlink.com/NIC/dfe530tx+/Driver/DFE530TX+_MacOSX_driver_110beta.hqx). Once they were decompressed, double-clicking the package file would launch the Installer app but nothing else would happen, even after 5 Mins. I sent DLinks tech support folks an email about the problem.

A search on good old DejaNews @ google led me to Realtek, the Taiwanese company who must be the OEM for these DLink cards. These are part of the 8139/810x line of NIC cards.

The Realtek drivers:
Mac OSX 10.0x driver ftp://152.104.125.40/lancard/drivers/8139/rtsmacx%28100%29.tar Mac OSX 10.1 driver ftp://152.104.125.40/lancard/drivers/8139/rtsmacx(110).zip
This driver installed like a normal OSX package but did require a restart. Once I was back up and running, just went to the Network control panel and was informed there was new HW (Screenshot didn't get saved somehow). Was able to select either of my 2 enet interfaces now ( NetwkGigaUp.jpg.sit Screenshot) but I couldn't get my modem to renew the DHCP lease by switching the configuration from manual --> DHCP (I had already switched the enet cable from gigabit ethernet to 10/100). I eventually had to POPO my cable modem to get it to pick up a new ip for the DLink card (Netwk10-100Up.jpg.sit SS).
Once I had the new ip on the 10/100 connection. I was able to connect, browse and write this email. I haven't done any testing on this but I thought I would get the word out about the DLink driver problems and the Realtek success.

A couple of interesting things about this driver:

1. Installer actually asked in which partition I wanted the driver (I expected it would install automatically since it is a kernel extension)
2. 212 KB uncompressed archive but installer said it needed 100MB free space. (RealtekInstaller1.jpg.sit SS)
3. My ISP actually put my 10/100 connection on a different subnet from the gigabit NIC (??).
4. Even though the DLink and Realtek archives had the same README file included, the formats of the archives were completely different (Realtek = zip file, PC layout of archive, tarred package was two folders deep ; DLink = sit file, package archive - not that it worked)

Feel free to edit this for content, etc. Thanks again for your site and keep up the great work. Regards,
Charlie S.
My setup info:
Dual G4/450 256MB RAM, 45GB Maxtor 7200 + 20GB IBM 5400 (stock)/Radeon AGP
OS 10.1.2 (5P48)
Iomega 16x/10x/40X Burner
USB/SCSI adapter (this one warrants a separate email- interesting) for Umax 2400S scanner"

(The first Dlink report.)

" I recently installed a D-Link DFE-530TX+ in a clients PowerMac 6500/250 (that oddly didn't come with built-in eithernet.) Picked the card up at Best Buy for $20 before a $10 rebate. They have Mac drivers on the site for OS 8.6-9.04 (but they seemed to work fine with 9.1 as well). And I also noticed they offer Beta drivers for OSX. So for $20 (or less), that's a test drive you might want to take.
support.dlink.com/products/view.asp?productid=DFE-530TX+
David S. "

" There is support builtin to OS X for a couple of network cards. I had a lightning accident with my built-in port and am using a card labeled ZNYX [ZYNX?] SA0025. I think any cards based off DEC DC21040/DC21041/DC21140 chips will work. You may want to do a little more research before shelling out dough, though, because this area is not my specialty.

Love the site, keep up the good work. I always visit sponsors through your links.
Kent "

" The discontinued ZYNX ZX345 10/100Mbps PCI Ethernet card has worked fine with all versions of OS X, which we use in Beige G3 units (Rev. 2 and 3). It is totally transparent to the Apple Enet drivers. You'll recall that this is the card Apple used when 100Mbps Ethernet was an option on earlier Power Macs.

However, we have not done any lengthy network testing, as OS X/SoftRAID support is not yet working, so we can't see our RAID volumes (nor can our clients see theirs), which prevents OS X from being used in a production role.
-Rod "

" The discontinued Zynx 3xx PCI cards run with Mac OS X with no additional drivers. This was also true of MacOS 9.x. They used exactly the same ethernet chip as was used with in the G3 B&W and later.

I happen to have a few of them from days past and use they within MacOS X without incident.
mark "

Later Macs with 10/100 use the networking in the Uni-N chip I think. The first G4/AGP (rev A fall 1999) used an Intel 10/100 NIC chip (I owned one), but the later ones enabled NIC in the Uni-N for 10/100 - but the Gigabit Enet Macs use a separate NIC chip (heatsink over it however so I can't see the brand/PN# of it).

(From the July 2nd, 2002 main news page)

"There are OSX drivers available for the SMC 1211TX NIC from the SMC Europe website. These appear to be more effective than the RealTek drivers mentioned elsewhere on the OSX PCI Network Card web page. [past article here.] Using the RealTek drivers, my connection dropped out after a few seconds. Using the SMC drivers, I'm now running my G3-upgraded 7300 as a router under OSX :)
Here's the URL of the drivers:
www.smc-europe.com/english/support/driver_manual/adapter/1211.html
Regards,
John Cunningham "

A reader noted the above drivers do seem to be an improvement in his system:

" As a followup, I had been having problem with my realtek-based 10/100 ethernet card in my 9600 running OS X. The connection would disappear after a few minutes, sometimes after receiving as few as 1 packet (according to Network Utility).

I tried the SMC 1211TX driver from SMC Europe's site mentioned on the page on Tuesday 7/2/02, and the card seems to be working fine. I copied a few large archives over the network to my B&W, and they arrive uncorrupted. I'll test the throughput when i can replace the power transformer on my 10/100 switch. I've had to fall back to a Netgear 10/100 hub, so that would affect any testing of raw throughput.
Thanks again for the site,
Jason G. "

(older reports follow) This SMC card owner originally reported it not working (no drivers) but see the update below where he notes using RealTek drivers (links above) that worked.

" I bought a SMC EZNET 10/100 card for my Beige G3. It came with drivers for OS 9, but never had X drivers (I checked the site), so it doesn't work....
Adam
he later wrote
After reading all the reports of success with generic ethernet cards and the Realtek drivers, I installed them, and now my SMC EZ-NET 10/100 DOES function fully in OS X. Please take out my previous post on your sub-page, since this card does now work.
Adam
If it weren't for this site, I would have never gotten this card working and spent more money buying an Asante... THANKS "

" Great site.
After reading the reports of others with the SMC Ethernet card not working , I tried an experiment. I loaded the Realtek OSX drivers. Now not only is the card come up on the available ports in OSX.1.2 but now functions correctly with Appletalk file sharing thru an Asante hub to a Quicksilver 867 on 9.2.2 or OS X. Bravo!
PM 7600 / Xlr8G4/400/ 448MB / Adaptec 2940UW2/ Keyspan USB
Neil S. "

Cards Reported as Not Working in OS X

Another SMC owner report (but see the above SMC report where a reader said the RealTek drivers worked for his SMC card.]

" Hi,
I bought an SMC 10/100 card from PCWorld (UK) last week. I installed it on a Beige G3 333 Tower running 9.2.2 and 10.1.2.

ASP in 9 and 10 saw it, but it didn't appear in Apple talk. The card came with drivers for 9, which when installed all worked fine. However, still nothing in 10! I haven't emailed them about this yet, I heard somewhere that Apple needed t fix an issue with Active Ports in Network. What do you know?

Also, any links to ways to share my broadband from my G3 to the rest of my LAN would be great! I tried IPNetShareX but it did nothing at all! I'm yet to try geeRoute.

All the best, and my thoughts are with you regarding your recent loss.
Best regards,
Hamish R. Edinburgh, Scotland. "

Hopefully Hamish will see the update above and try the RealTek drivers.

Using Onboard Ethernet + PCI Ethernet Cards: Here are reader reports on using a PCI NIC card and the onboard Ethernet simultaneously in OS X. (Also includes comments on Multi-port PCI card use.)

" We are running OS X Server 10.1.2 and using 2 Asante FriendlyNET 10/100 cards with the onboard ethernet in a BW G3/500. One card is dedicated to the internal network, one is for the mail server and another is handling the web server. Works just fine.
Rich W.
Micro-Comm, Inc. "

" I am currently running the Asante 10/100 card in a dual 800 G4 running Mac OS X Server 10.1.2 along with the onboard Gigabit Ethernet. It took me a while to get the drivers for the Asante card installed, but now it works great. I have both running similtaneously connected to two completely separate networks. Both networks access the web server installed on it constantly, and we have had no problems.
-David B. "

" I'm using the built in ethernet of my Beige G3 to connect to a cable modem and an Apple 10/100 card for my internal network using Brickhouse for Firewall and NAT configuration.

I'm running Mac OS X Server 10.1.2, but any version of Mac OS X should work. All you need to do is configure the additional interfaces in the network control panel. You could use as many cards as you have slots for, and then you could even have multiple addresses on each interface. Our mail server has both a static outside and a DHCP assigned private IP on the same ethernet interface.
Josh
he later wrote
Just a follow up to my previous e-mail...
Some of the members of Apple's Mac OS X Server mailing list have started a FAQ at www.macserve.net/info/osxsfaq/.
One of the few sections that are live so far is the compatible NIC link. "

" 9600 running OS X Server 10.1.2
Added an Asante Fast 10-100 card. I was going to add the driver, but I'd swear that I never did. The system worked without it.

Anyway, the dsl comes in through the built-in 10 base t port, and the Asante goes out to a switch to share the dsl with my network.

Previously, I was running plain old OS X, and I did load the beta Asante driver. That was functionally the same setup; it shared the dsl, using both built-in and pci ethernet ports.
Cheers,
Angus "

" I don't know if this is applicable to the reader's intent, but the D-Link 570TX 4 Port Ethernet card is fully supported in MOSX and MOSXS (same card Apple used to OEM in their servers) and works perfectly on all G3 Macs from the '98 beige all the way to at least the new 933QS. I have no reason to believe it would not also work in a xx00 Mac, but I have not personally tried it.

It's pricey at $160+, but it gives you up to five active ports (including the integral NIC) allowing for drastically simplified zoning (as compared to BIND) and distributed line load, especially for NetBoot.

We've had only a short time to play with the beta drivers for the 530TX, but so far, in general, they seem to play nice with existing NICs in older beige G3 and PCI boxes (whose 10 Base T speeds needed the augmentation of a faster card at the price of a precious PCI slot). They do seem to work much better (no surprise) in an inboard PCI slot, as opposed to being inside a PCI expansion chassis, whereas the 570TX can deal with any slot you give it.
HTH
Cheers
Frederico "