Using 3 ISA Ethernet cards on one PC

[Bigdogbmx]

I hvae a problem setting up an old server which I want to use as a router when we get broadband so that we can have the 3 PCs in the house on one modem. Its a very old Acer server with dual P133s in and 160mb ram. The thing is that even though it has pleanty of ISA slots in I cant get more than 2 of the ethernet cards to work at one time. To be honest I cant even remember how I got the second running and even if it still does.
One card is an SMC which worked straight away as its plug n play but the other 2 3com ones are showing up as 'Legacy mode' with a yellow exclamation in windows, saying i need to free up resources. I disabled all serial and parralel ports in the bios but they still say they need resources. Is it likely to be an IRQ conflict thing? I have no experience setting these things up because Im used to PCI PnP setups. I also tried booting off the 3com setup disc but it says NTLDR is missing. The machine has 4 old SCSI-II drives in and one floppy drive which all seem to be in order. So basically if anyone has any idea where to go from here I would appreciate it. If you think the answer lies in another OS like coyotelinux thats cool I dont have to use windows on it, but when i tried Coyote it only allowed for the drivers for 2 NIC when i used the disc maker wizard.
i just realised Ive asked about 40 questions already so Ill shut up now.

 

[KaHNZa]

What operating system?

 

[Chris]

As there old cards you may need to manually set IRQ and I/O Address its usually done by jumpers on the actual card and it can be a bit of a pain, try hunting around in google for the exact model of card you have and see what you can come up with. failing that tell us and we will hunt around for you.

-Chris

 

[Bigdogbmx]

Cheers for the pointer chris ill search now.
Oh and the OS at the moment is win2k pro but I may well be switching to clarkconnect or coyote linux if i can work it out.

 

[KaHNZa]

Oh okay, just making sure it wasn't Win9x.

 

[Captain U]

I forgot where on the win2k cd NTLDR was but I know it's located on it.

 

[Bigdogbmx]

I forgot to add I tried putting NTLDR on the disc but it didnt fit, I deleted all the .txt files which I think are unnecessary but it still didnt fit. Why should I need that file to start up anyway? Im sure 3com wouldnt make a boot disk that didnt boot without another file.

 

[Supchaka]

Why are you trying to get all three cards to work? Are you saying 3 machines in addition to this server? When you say modem are you meaning dialup? Most older cards had diagrams directly on the PCB for changing Irq/addresses etc.

 

[Bigdogbmx]

Yeh 3 machines not inc. the server. And it will be an ADSL modem when we get teh thing. For now I just want the network setup ready for when it does come. Ill have a look tho on the cards as well. I never thought of that

 

[Supchaka]

So in your current state it sounds like you need 4 nics anyway... one in the server for internet, and the other 3 for the PC's. If you arent using a router/hub you also have to make sure you use crossover cables to connect the pc's to the server. Might be easier to just get a router/hub

 

[bdf24]

So in your current state it sounds like you need 4 nics anyway... one in the server for internet, and the other 3 for the PC's. If you arent using a router/hub you also have to make sure you use crossover cables to connect the pc's to the server. Might be easier to just get a router/hub

I'd just go with a switch (not hub). It will route all traffic to individual ports not congesting your network. I would'nt even bother with a router if your going to be running a gateway PC. I think it defeats the purpose.

From what I've heard it may take a little work to get the ISA cards to fly if you choose ClarkConnect. But it can be done. Not sure about Coyote Linux though. Never used it.

Do you know how to enable NAT in Win2k? If not here's a link to show you if you want to know. Here
I know your running Win2k Pro. I believe this works in pro and not just the server addition.