Need help choosing wired NIC card.

Hello everybody,
I need your help and insight. I am running a desktop PC and my preferred distribution is Kubuntu. I am running version 7.04 right now and will probably upgrade to 8.04 in the near future. Everything works great with 7.04 but will probably upgrade to keep up with the times. I also dual boot with Win XP Pro.
My PC has the NIC card integrated on the Motherboard(hardwired). It has worked great in Linux and Windows without any tweaking what so ever, just plug and play. Just the other day it stopped working abruptly. I cannot get to the internet. I checked it in both Windows and Linux and it does not work in either system, so it isn't a config issue. I have ruled out a bad ethernet cable and modem, both are fine on another computer. So my problem is that the NIC has somehow gone bad. I have had the machine for 3+ years so I don't think replacing the motherboard would be a good idea due to hassle to pull everything out and that my warranty is most likely over. I think it would be better to just buy a new wired NIC card and drop it into one of the PCI slots.
So to my question - What wired NIC card should I get? I want one that is completely supported in Linux and Windows and is plug and play or requires very little set up. I don't know much about networking, what speed card should I get 10/100/1000 or something faster? I looked at Newegg and they have various brands. What brand should I get, Intel?

Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

Others may have opinions... but if you want something easy that you'll never have to get drivers for, 3Com 905-TX

http://cgi.ebay.com/3Com-3C905-TX-1...VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

Its a 10/100 NIC that works in damn near every os with native drivers I think all the way back to even Windows 95. Unless you have a gig network at home, don't bother getting anything faster than 100mbit.

 

Just get the cheapest one you can find. Really, you shouldn't need to spend more than $10 on an ethernet card. I have yet to find an ethernet card that does not work with Linux.

 

I agree, if it was wireless you'd have to think about it but with ethernet just get what you want.

 

Thanks, this helps a lot. Good to hear that you don't have to worry too much about brand. What about speed. I don't know a lot about networking, but should I get one that is 10/100 or 1000? I have basic broadband service(DSL) that connects to my modem(broadband company provided). I choose the lowest speed plan. I don't remember the exact speeds, but I think it is like 768 Mbp/s download/128 Mbp/s upload. I just don't want to get a NIC card and unnecessarily bottleneck myself, due to poor NIC card choice and not get the full speed. I want the fastest speed given by my broadband plan I mentioned above. Thanks.

 

Thanks everybody! I wanted to report back. I bought the NIC card that ChevyNovaLN recommended and it works perfect in Kubuntu 7.04. I just dropped it into my PCI slot, disabled the onboard NIC and Linux picked it up right away. No configuration was needed. Got it for $5.95! I am very happy, my machine had been down for a week. Next I will have to check it out in XP, but I am not so worried about that since I only use windows basically for gaming, though it should most likely be ok in Windows as well.

+rep Chevy

 

ha! I remember when those scorchingly fast 14.4 modems were fast and very expensive. Used to have a 300 baud modem at work in the mid eighties and I'd sit there and watch the text (letters) scroll from left to right as I connected to the back of the building lol