\HELP\FAQ.TXT FA310TX frequently asked questions Version 1.3 Updated June 9, 1998 1. Drivers and Installation Procedures 1.1 The installation guide that comes with my adapter card shows only the Windows 95 installation procedures. What about installation guide for my Windows NT system? And what about SCO and Novell? Installation procedures for environments other than Windows 95 can be found on the installation disk under the HELP directory. For example, instruction for Windows NT 4.0 is located in \HELP\WINNT. Alternatively, you can view the instruction by typing A:\HELP to view the installation procedures of the various environments. 1.2 Where can I get the latest version of the drivers? Latest versions of the drivers as well as software distributed with our products are available on the support web page ( http://netgear.baynetworks.com/support/ ). 1.3 Is driver available for my operating system? We provide drivers for most of the operating environments. Below is a driver list of what the FA310TX adapter card supports. Windows 95 (NDIS 3.1 driver) Windows 98 Windows NT 3.5 Windows NT 3.51 Windows NT 4.0 (NDIS 4.0 driver) SCO Unix SCO OpenServer Linux Novell NetWare DOS ODI client Novell NetWare OS2 ODI client Novell NetWare Server 3.11 Novell NetWare Server 3.12 Novell NetWare Server 3.2 Novell NetWare Server 4.x Novell NetWare Server 5.0 Novell NetWare client32 for Windows 95 Novell NetWare client32 for DOS and Windows 3.X Packet Driver (FTP PC/TCP) NDIS 2 for DOS (LANtastics) 1.4 Does the FA310TX work with linux? We do not provide technical support for linux environment. However, the driver source code is provided starting from FA310TX Driver Set 4.0. The following web site contains more information on the Linux for the DEC 21140 and the PNIC family of controller chip. http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/index.html#pci. 2. Cable and other Hardware Questions 2.1 I have put the card into one of the slots of my PC, but it is not being recognized by the PC. Why? You should make sure the card is plugged into a PCI slot. The PCI slot is shorter in length compared to the ISA slots. You must also make sure the PCI slot supports BUS MASTERING. Some PC will have support for bus mastering on only one of the PCI slots. This information can be obtained from the manual of your PC. 2.2 Why doesn't the Full Duplex LED on the FA310TX light up when I am connected to the network? This may be due to one of the following reasons. 1) If you are connected to a network device that doesn't support full duplex, the full duplex LED will not come on. Hubs, either 10M or 100M, do not support full duplex. You will need a device which supports full duplex such as a the Netgear FS104 Fast Ethernet Switch. 2) If you are using the generic DEC driver which comes with Windows, the full duplex LED may not come on. This can happen if you have C6 version of our card and have not followed our installation instructions to install the Netgear driver. The card will still function in full duplex mode, but the FDX LED will not light up. You can verify the driver by right clicking My Computer and choose Properties, at the Device Manager tab, click on the Expand sign (the plus sign) of the Network adapters, you have the wrong driver installed if you do not see Netgear FA310TX Fast Ethernet PCI Adapter displayed. To rectify this situation, remove the DEC driver and install the Netgear driver following the installation procedure included with your adapter card. 3) If the network adapter fails to negotiate a full duplex link with the network device, the LED will not light up. Depending on the implementation method of the auto- negotiation feature of the network device, it may not send out auto-negotiation signals under certain circumstances (for example, when it is set manually to run at a certain speed). This will cause confusions to the card that sets itself to half duplex. This can be fixed simply by allowing auto-negotiation to happen on both ends. 2.3 What is the maximum distance between my PC and the hub? A simple interpretation of the IEEE specification is 100 meters using Cat 5 cables. 2.4 The cable length between my PC and the hub is within 100 meters, but I still cannot establish a link (the link LED fails to come on). Is there a problem with my hub, switch or the network adapter? You can check the health of your network devices and network adapter by connecting them using a short ready-made Cat 5 cable (preferably a pre-tested one that is available from most computer shops). If a link still cannot be established, then there may be a problem with the card. Otherwise, we have a cable problem. The most common problem encountered is of the quality of the cable. Since we are sending very high frequency signals down the wire, a good quality cable is mandatory. You should verify your cable is from a reputable manufacturer, especially if you are planning to install a long cable. Another common problem is faulty crimping of the RJ-45 connectors at either end of the cable. You should check the color-coded configuration as well as loose connectors. If these steps do not solve the problem, you may have to ask for professional help to test your cable using a cable tester. 2.5 When I run the diagnostic program, it reports failure. Is there any problem with my card? You should first make sure you have NOT performed the test in a DOS box under Windows. Running the program in that mode will produce inconsistent and unreliable results. You should boot your PC into MS-DOS mode to run the diagnostic program. If the program still reports failure under MS-DOS mode, then you may have a faulty card. For additional information on the diagnostic program, please refer to the DIAG.TXT file in the driver diskette. 2.6 Does the FA310TX support BOOTROM? If so, what is the specification? BOOTROM is not supported by FA310TX. 3. IRQ and other conflicts 3.1 When I am installing the FA310TX, I run into IRQ conflict. Can I change the IRQ setting and how? IRQs (Interrupt Requests) are communication channels which allow hardware devices such as an adaptor card to talk to the processor. Some devices require setting jumpers for the IRQ. All PCI adapters use a software approach and let either the operating system or the BIOS to assigning the IRQ number. If you run into IRQ conflict, it is usually that your system resources is running low. You may have to disable some of the devices which you are not using such as the USB port or the IDE port on your older sound card in order to free up IRQs. 3.2 After the FA310TX is installed, my system takes a lot of time to shutdown. What can I do to fix it? We have seen a number of incidents of this symptom and found various problems with the interactions of the operating system and device drivers during shut down. Since there are many devices being manufactured for the PC, it is impossible to compile an exhaustive compatibility test. It should be safe to power off the computer after a couple of minutes. If you are adventurous, you may try one of the following: 1) Try removing the NETBEUI protocol stack if you don't need it by going to Network Neighborhood, click Properties and select NetBEUI and click Remove and OK. 2) Try using the Real Mode NDIS driver by going to Network Neighborhood, select Netgear FA310TX Fast Ethernet PCI Adapter and choose the Driver Type tab, click the Real Mode (16 bit) NDIS driver check box 3) If you have a HP Pavilion system, remark the CD drive line in your CONFIG.SYS by adding the word REM at the beginning of the line. 3.3 My display goes blank after I have the FA310TX installed? When I remove the FA310TX, everything works find. What can I do to fix it? We have seen some hardware compatibility problems on some versions of the Abit Motherboard with the older version of FA310TX. If you encounter this, check to see if you have this type of motherboard and version C1 or C2 of the Netgear FA310TX. If so, check with your motherboard supplier or send us an email. 4. Connecting and Sharing 4.1 Can I connect two computers together without using a hub? If you only have two systems that you want to get them connected together to do some file and printer sharing, you can save the cost of buying a hub by connecting the adaptor cards using a crossover cable. Crossover cables, which are different from the normal UTP cables in their pin configuration, are available in most computer shops. If you want to make one yourself, the cable should be wired as below. 1 <-> 3 2 <-> 6 3 <-> 1 4 <-> 4 5 <-> 5 6 <-> 2 7 <-> 7 8 <-> 8 4.2 I have two computers connected without problems. However, I can't seem to be able to access the files and the printer. In order to share resources such as files and printers on a PC with other users on the network, you must configure the PC to do so. Below is a step by step guide to get that set up in the Windows 95 environment. 1) Make sure a protocol is installed. This is the protocol used by the two computers to talk to each other. We'll use the NetBEUI protocol that should have been installed as the default when you install your network card. To confirm, you can click the right mouse button on the Network Neighborhood icon on your desktop and choose Properties. You should see NetBEUI displayed. Repeat this on the other computer. 2) Tell Windows that you want to share resources on a computer with others. On the computer you want to have resources shared by others, right click on the Network Neighborhood icon and select Properties. Select File and Print Sharing services. Check the I want to be able to give other access to my files and the I want to be able to allow others to print to my printers boxes as you see appropriate. 3) Tell Windows what resources you want shared. Go to Windows Explorer, right click on the resources (such as printers, drives and folders) you want to make available to the network and choose Sharing. Select Shared as and type in name you want this resource to be identified on the network (e.g. CDRIVE for your disk drive and LASER for your laser printer). You can also specify access rights and passwords for the resource using the same dialog box. 4) Assign drive names and printer ports by mapping them. At this point, on the other PC, you should be able to see the shared resources by browsing the Network Neighborhood. Right click on the resources will allow you to assign drive names and printer port. You can find additional information on how to set up a network in our Network Starter Guide and File and Print Sharing Setup.Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.