Old PCI network still usable?

K

konsole

Member
I have a couple old PCI network cards that I bought like 15 years ago. I bought them back then so me and a friend could hook our computers together and play games, but I havent used them since. I've kept them as backup in case the networking on my motherboard craps out I could hook one of these cards up to a spare PCI slot.

Do you think these would even be compatible with the newer operating systems? They have their drivers for as far back as Windows 3.11 on floppy disk but I imagine the drivers are also floating around the web somewhere, or maybe the newer windows will have built in drivers? I wouldnt ask this if they werent PCI and I'm sure they are very basic in design
 
If they are truly that old then I highly doubt they would work with Vista or 7, may work with xp though. What model numbers are they?
 
I haven't tried PCI network cards with Vista or Win 7, but I don't see why they wouldn't work... like you said, it would be a matter of getting the right drivers.

I have some pretty old network cards, and I run them in Linux just fine.
 
I have an 11 year old NIC (don't recall the brand, but I purchased it in 2000, at the same time that I got my Slot A Athlon 600MHz!) and Windows 7 recognized and installed it no problem. Can't hurt to try?
 
ya I just got the chance to test them and vista recognized them and installed the drivers. I wish video cards could be used with just as much effectiveness 15 years later ;-)
 
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