Anyone else with ideas for SIS 900 ethernet?

[firebird777 0]

I have already posted something on this topic but just in case it is not seen here it is again. I have a laptop with the SiS 900-Based fast ethernet adapter, but I can only connect to the net through USB rather than an ethernet cable. Can someone help since it is doing my nut in?

Thanks

[Sampson 0]

Are you wanting to connect through the ethernet? Is that what you are asking? What is it that you have done so far? Many cable/DSL modems have both sets of connections - USB and ethernet. How have you tried to connect to connect the modem to the computer?

[firebird777 0]

I have installed an alcatel modem which connects through USB or ethernet. My flatmates laptop is able to work through both these connections but i can only connect through USB. (the USB driver files came from the modem package)

[clutch 1]

Do you have the latest drivers for this adapter?

[clutch 1]

I read the other version of this post, and saw that they were pinging each other. First, I would like to state that having multiple copies of a given post is a bad idea since people responding may not see each other's input. What could be done is simply post a link to your main topic.

 

So, are you two able to share files with each other? Are you both connecting to the modem via a switch/router? One thing to keep in mind is that some NICs will simply not work reliably (or at all) with some cable/DSL modems. My 3Com NIC in my laptop rarely works in hotel rooms, but it works fine on every hub and switch I have ever used it on.

[jmmijo 1]

This may or may not be something to look at but just in case please do. Getting the latest OEM drivers from SiS instead of the notebook manufacturer maybe a better idea as the latest drivers there are v1.17.

 

If you're running XP, home or pro, the OS autodetects the SiS 900 series ethernet, however it does not for some reason provide a proper MAC addres, other then all zero's which of course is bad. The only way to have a proper MAC address for this ethernet port is to install the device drivers and reboot the machine.

 

So, try installing the latest OEM drivers and see what happens

[clutch 1]

All zeros typically indicates an incomplete or bad flash of the BIOS. When I bought an SiS motherboard, the NIC was all zeros for the MAC and he helped me reflash it with the proper MAC address (a sticker on the bottom of the motherboard). Once it was reflashed, it would work fine with the default Windows drivers. The updated drivers from the Windows Update site weren't so great for me, as they would act strangely with the DHCP media sensing ability of Windows (that took a reg hack to fix it up).

[jmmijo 1]

Originally posted by Alec§taar:

Quote:

@Clutch: An excellent point & one I was not aware of either on the zeros in the mac address! Live & Learn & thus? Today's not a totally wasted day... one for the "mental notes" here!

 

@Jmmijo: Offhand, when you said you didn't know why SiS mobos had that problem/issue, is it because it is one of those motherboards that needs a driver in order to differentiate its MAC Address from ALL other mobos like it?

 

apk

 

It appears that some, perhaps all mobo's with SiS 900 series ethernet's may indeed exhibit this behavior. I'm thinking because it's a soft/hardware based PHY rather then a true hardware based ethernet

 

I've been building a huge amount of boxes around the Aopen MX46-533V mobo which is an SiS based mobo along with the 900 series NIC. Even though XP sees the ethernet during initial OS install you still have to install the v1.16 or later drivers for XP to resolve a proper MAC address for the nic, otherwise if you do an IPCONFIG /all you get an all zero address.