Old school networking

So, I’m setting up a DMZ box for my MagicJack, with which my WRT54G wireless router doesn’t play nicely. It’s not easy to spare a box. I don’t exactly have a lot of usable computers lying around. Normally, I migrate from one primary computer to the next when the old primary dies. But, I have an ancient Gateway 2000 PC tucked into a corner that was retired for performance reasons… (Remember when Gateway 2000 sounded futuristic?) It has been offline for a looong while. We bought it in 1995, I think, and it was Everquest Kunark that killed the beast. But it’s the only remnant PC that still runs, so…

I extract it from its shallow grave. Plug in what’s available for video and try a boot. Ah, sweet blankness of the void. Noise but no boot. Bummed. Reseat everything. Find an old PS2 mouse and keyboard. Hey! It boots! Started to set it up. Found some OS discs, an unactivated license, and went to town. XP actually installed with no complaints, though it took forever. CD-ROM is a little flaky, and it’s not a burner, meh. The onboard USB ports work, which is a nice surprise!

But, hmm, no network jack LED. Could it be a dead port on the router? No, all the ports show no link. Bad cable? No, not that. Hmmm. I didn’t have to reseat the NIC to make it work, so didn’t change any settings, or even the jumpers. Hey! Jumpers! WTF? Oh! It’s the NIC! This is an ISA 3COM 3C509, one of the first NICs I worked with out of college. Do you remember those old NICs that wouldn’t respond after you unplugged a cable, until you restarted the computer? Yeah, it was one of them! OLD SCHOOL!

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