Hardware ReviewsSoho Basic NIC200T
This has got to be one of the least expensive network interface cards (NICs) around. Mine came free with the purchase of any hub at CompUSA during a recent promotion. Not bad. Interestingly, when the clerk rang it up and I asked what the normal price was, she said the computer had the regular price as $0. I've since seen them for $15-20..so this is still one of the cheapest cards around. Overview What do you want from a network card that has "basic" in the name. For this money, you get a NIC, a diskette and the box. No manual. No instructions (other than 4 pics and bullets on the back of the box). No support phone number. However, you do get a web site and e-mail address and I can vouch that the company tech support does respond to e-mail and fairly quickly. If you know you want a basic ISA 10Mbps card and don't need any help, this might be the card you want -- particularly if "free" appeals to you. Installation Installation under Windows 98 was fairly smooth. Even though it comes with a driver diskette, the readme file clearly says that the card will use the Windows 95/98 standard drivers for a "NE2000 Plug and Play Ethernet Card." If you point the "Add New Hardware Wizard" to the a: drive with the diskette in, you might think it is reading the drivers from there. But, in fact, it will ask for your Windows CD-ROM and install the drivers from there. Performance Our main performance test, at this point, involves two reads and two writes of a 30 megabyte file. On all four tests, the Soho Basic averaged 36.725 seconds.
Summary Want a free card? This is probably a good one. But if you want a manual, some troubleshooting tips and a phone number to call for tech support, you'll have to spend a few more dollars. Grade = C+ Details
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