Problems with 3Com

I have about ten or twelve computers with a mixture of mostly PCs but a few
Macs, all supposedly connected on the network. Some of them even network
together! I Have a mixture of mainly notebooks but a few desktops (with
internal NICs or USB devices). Netgear, Buffalo, Linksys, D-Link, etc NICs.
All seem reasonably easily configurable or if not, the Technical Support
departments know their hardware's quirks and can tell you what is wrong.
(except possibly Netgear whose MA401 is very quirky and while it does work
with 98 or XP, it is only really happy with Linux: But their MA301 and MA111
work fine)

But I am having a problem with a 3com PC card, a 3crwe62092A with a curious
flat spring-out aerial. It has a gigantic 32 megabyte install exe file which
doesn't seem to comprise a configurable scanner. But the card installs, and
shows up in device manager without any exclamation marks. The card is
always properly recognised on boot and flashes pleasingly to show it is
working. It's extraordinarily limited utility usually even shows the
strength of the link and link quality. And you can even switch between
networks. But it is the only card I have never managed to get to connect
to the Internet. And it has an internal diagnostic utility which doesn't
allow you to do much but which has never shown it working, even when it is
showing a good link quality and signal strength!

On any computer I have ever installed it on. (I need hardly add that
whenever I have had this problem, I have always connected some alternative
NIC and they have inevitably worked immediately and without either problems
or configuration issues)

There is also a 500 kb update to the file which device manager seems to
think it doesn't need. Obviously when I can't get the card to work, I update
the driver. On no computer has that ever made the slightest difference.
There is also a firmware update which does nothing.

3Com seems to be the only NIC company which couldn't care less about
supporting its products and has actively refused to assist. Has anyone else
had these problems with either this company or this card OR found that
uninstalling the whole shooting match and installing some generic scanner
does the job if you can get the 3com card drivers themselves installed?

UPDATE:
If you unplug the NIC and plug in a Buffalo (as an example) card, even with
the 3Com utility running, you can connect to the Internet immediately and
without problems using the Windows XP internet connection utility.

If you then put the 3Com card back in, you can't connect at all: Either
directly or by rebooting and letting the card and utility set themselves up.
You get "DHCP SERVER ISN'T REACHABLE" followed by a BSOD

You then re-boot and find that this 3Com driver has somehow corrupted
NTOSKRNL and the whole computer won't start in any way or at all, either in
safe mode or normally: It get about three seconds past the 'choose OS
screen': Then stops.

I suppose I should report this to Driverguide.com and then report back if
3Com will cooperate in repairing the damage their driver and utility seems
to have done

"news.rcn.com" <news.rnc.com> wrote in message
news:MO6dnYGa5LqdmPTeRVn-jA@rcn.net...
>I have about ten or twelve computers with a mixture of mostly PCs but a few
> Macs, all supposedly connected on the network. Some of them even network
> together! I Have a mixture of mainly notebooks but a few desktops (with
> internal NICs or USB devices). Netgear, Buffalo, Linksys, D-Link, etc
> NICs.
> All seem reasonably easily configurable or if not, the Technical Support
> departments know their hardware's quirks and can tell you what is wrong.
> (except possibly Netgear whose MA401 is very quirky and while it does work
> with 98 or XP, it is only really happy with Linux: But their MA301 and
> MA111 work fine)
>
> But I am having a problem with a 3com PC card, a 3crwe62092A with a
> curious
> flat spring-out aerial. It has a gigantic 32 megabyte install exe file
> which
> doesn't seem to comprise a configurable scanner. But the card installs,
> and
> shows up in device manager without any exclamation marks. The card is
> always properly recognised on boot and flashes pleasingly to show it is
> working. It's extraordinarily limited utility usually even shows the
> strength of the link and link quality. And you can even switch between
> networks. But it is the only card I have never managed to get to connect
> to the Internet. And it has an internal diagnostic utility which doesn't
> allow you to do much but which has never shown it working, even when it is
> showing a good link quality and signal strength!
>
> On any computer I have ever installed it on. (I need hardly add that
> whenever I have had this problem, I have always connected some alternative
> NIC and they have inevitably worked immediately and without either
> problems
> or configuration issues)
>
> There is also a 500 kb update to the file which device manager seems to
> think it doesn't need. Obviously when I can't get the card to work, I
> update
> the driver. On no computer has that ever made the slightest difference.
> There is also a firmware update which does nothing.
>
> 3Com seems to be the only NIC company which couldn't care less about
> supporting its products and has actively refused to assist. Has anyone
> else
> had these problems with either this company or this card OR found that
> uninstalling the whole shooting match and installing some generic scanner
> does the job if you can get the 3com card drivers themselves installed?
>
>

This erroneous error message (which obviously doesn't mean what it says) can
be easily cured by booting off an install disc to the Restore Console and
running bootcfg /rebuild and following the instructions (followed if
necessary by chkdsk /r and possibly /p)

Don't know why the 3Com driver would do this or why the company wont respond
or assist when their driver both wont work AND causes this catastrophic
damage to a whole OS!

"news.rcn.com" <news.rnc.com> wrote in message
news:9-OdnS05Qd2kTvPeRVn-qQ@rcn.net...
> UPDATE:
> If you unplug the NIC and plug in a Buffalo (as an example) card, even
> with the 3Com utility running, you can connect to the Internet immediately
> and without problems using the Windows XP internet connection utility.
>
> If you then put the 3Com card back in, you can't connect at all: Either
> directly or by rebooting and letting the card and utility set themselves
> up. You get "DHCP SERVER ISN'T REACHABLE" followed by a BSOD
>
> You then re-boot and find that this 3Com driver has somehow corrupted
> NTOSKRNL and the whole computer won't start in any way or at all, either
> in safe mode or normally: It get about three seconds past the 'choose OS
> screen': Then stops.
>
> I suppose I should report this to Driverguide.com and then report back if
> 3Com will cooperate in repairing the damage their driver and utility seems
> to have done
>
> "news.rcn.com" <news.rnc.com> wrote in message
> news:MO6dnYGa5LqdmPTeRVn-jA@rcn.net...
>>I have about ten or twelve computers with a mixture of mostly PCs but a
>>few
>> Macs, all supposedly connected on the network. Some of them even network
>> together! I Have a mixture of mainly notebooks but a few desktops (with
>> internal NICs or USB devices). Netgear, Buffalo, Linksys, D-Link, etc
>> NICs.
>> All seem reasonably easily configurable or if not, the Technical Support
>> departments know their hardware's quirks and can tell you what is wrong.
>> (except possibly Netgear whose MA401 is very quirky and while it does
>> work
>> with 98 or XP, it is only really happy with Linux: But their MA301 and
>> MA111 work fine)
>>
>> But I am having a problem with a 3com PC card, a 3crwe62092A with a
>> curious
>> flat spring-out aerial. It has a gigantic 32 megabyte install exe file
>> which
>> doesn't seem to comprise a configurable scanner. But the card installs,
>> and
>> shows up in device manager without any exclamation marks. The card is
>> always properly recognised on boot and flashes pleasingly to show it is
>> working. It's extraordinarily limited utility usually even shows the
>> strength of the link and link quality. And you can even switch between
>> networks. But it is the only card I have never managed to get to
>> connect
>> to the Internet. And it has an internal diagnostic utility which doesn't
>> allow you to do much but which has never shown it working, even when it
>> is
>> showing a good link quality and signal strength!
>>
>> On any computer I have ever installed it on. (I need hardly add that
>> whenever I have had this problem, I have always connected some
>> alternative
>> NIC and they have inevitably worked immediately and without either
>> problems
>> or configuration issues)
>>
>> There is also a 500 kb update to the file which device manager seems to
>> think it doesn't need. Obviously when I can't get the card to work, I
>> update
>> the driver. On no computer has that ever made the slightest difference.
>> There is also a firmware update which does nothing.
>>
>> 3Com seems to be the only NIC company which couldn't care less about
>> supporting its products and has actively refused to assist. Has anyone
>> else
>> had these problems with either this company or this card OR found that
>> uninstalling the whole shooting match and installing some generic scanner
>> does the job if you can get the 3com card drivers themselves installed?
>>
>>
>
>