Hardware ReviewsNew Media LiveWire 10/100 PCI Card As many folks know, computer network cards using a swift Fast Ethernet connection have dropped in price and are now an inexpensive way to hook up two computers. Still, we were pleasantly surprised by the LiveWire card, a very inexpensive 10/100 (Ethernet/Fast Ethernet) PCI card from New Media. No doubt about it, this is a basic network card. Nevertheless, the performance was solid and the price is excellent. We found it for $12.49 + shipping at buy.com. Overview
The LiveWire card comes in a 5x8-inch box with details on the card, its performance and driver support printed on the outside. Inside you'll find the PCI card, a registration card (you can also register online) and a wallet-size four-page manual. The card itself uses a PCI connection to your computer motherboard and is small (about three times as tall as the network jack on the back). It has two LEDs on the metal bracket. One lights green to indicate a positive link to another device on the network and the second LED flashes green to indicate when data is being transmitted or received. Unlike what we see on many other cards, there is no light to indicate when the card is running in full duplex mode (meaning data is sent and received at the same time) nor is there light to indicate when the card is running at Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) speed. Frankly, we don't spend a lot of time peering around the back of our computer to see these lights, so we don't consider that any real loss. Overall, there is simply nothing that stands out about this card and package, but nor is there anything particularly troubling. Of course, anyone who wants more information on setting up their card or their network, will want more than the absolute minimal information included in the instruction "leaflet." Installation Installation under Windows 98 was fairly smooth. The manual provides only minimal instruction, which frankly weren't that helpful. The manual suggests inserting the installation diskette and running the install.exe file. Of course, under Windows 98 installation progresses in a way that doesn't allow for that installation method. To begin installation, we turned off the computer, found an empty PCI slot in our motherboard and easily inserted the card and tightened the screw on the metal bracket. We then restarted the computer and the familiar "New Hardware Found" dialog box and wizard popped up. The wizard searches for software drivers and we checked the box for floppy drive and inserted the diskette included with the card. Unfortunately, the installation routine did NOT find the appropriate driver because we had to point the wizard to the specific Windows95/98 folder on the diskette. Once we did that, the installation route installed a driver generically named "PCI Ethernet Controller." As usual, the install routine also needs files from Windows installation CD. Finally, we clicked "Finish" in the last dialog box and clicked "yes" to restart the computer. We then manually inserted the details for TCP/IP networking protocol setup and then started on our testing. Performance Our main performance test, at this point, involves two reads and two writes of a 60 megabyte file between our two test machines. We do the tests using ONLY TCP/IP protocol in our network properties and then remove TCP/IP and install only IPX protocol. The results are shown below in the average seconds required to completed copying. As you can see, the LiveWire held up quite well against the D-Link we use as the control in our tests.
We also subjectively tested the card in a three machine LAN game and found that it performed quite well. It did not create any pauses in the games, even under heavy network play. In short, we found the LiveWire to be a good performing card. Technical Support The included wallet-size instruction leaflet did not include any details on technical support for the card, although it did state a life-time warranty on the card. The box, however, does include the web site address and there you can find drivers, an e-mail address and telephone number (toll call) for phone support during regular business hours. Summary Overall, this appears to be a good card for the money. Folks new to networking may want a better manual with more comprehensive discussions of how to actually get a network setup and to the point where you can share files and peripherals. But, if you don't need that type of support, this is a good, inexpensive card. Grade = A- Details
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