The Ethernet-Howto covers what cards you should and
shouldn't buy; how to set
them up, how to run more than one, and other common problems and
questions. It contains detailed information on the current level
of support for all of the most common ethernet cards available.
It does not cover the software end of things, as that
is covered in the NET-2 Howto. Also note that general non-Linux
specific questions about Ethernet are not (or at least they should
not be) answered here. For those types of questions, see the
excellent amount of information in the comp.dcom.lans.ethernet
FAQ. You can FTP it from dorm.rutgers.edu in the directory
/pub/novell/info_and_docs/
This present revision covers kernels up to and including v1.1.91
The Ethernet-Howto is edited and maintained by:
Paul Gortmaker, Paul.Gortmaker@anu.edu.au
The primary source of the information for the Ethernet-Howto is from:
Donald J. Becker, becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov
who we have to thank for writing the vast majority of ethernet card drivers that are presently available for Linux. He also is the original author of the NFS server too. Thanks Donald! We owe ya one! :-)
Net-surfers may wish to check out the following URL:
As this guide is getting bigger and bigger, you probably don't want to spend the rest of your afternoon reading the whole thing. And you don't have to read it all. If you haven't got an ethernet card, then you will want to start with What card should I buy... to see what you should buy, and what you should avoid. If you have already got an ethernet card, but are not sure if you can use it with Linux, then you will want to read Vendor Specific... which contains specific information on each manufacturer, and their cards. If you are having trouble with your card, then you will want to read the specific information about your card mentioned above, and the troubleshooting information in the FAQ section . If you are interested in some of the technical aspects of the device drivers, then you can find that information in Technical Information
This document is not gospel. However, it is probably the most up to date info that you will be able to find. Nobody is responsible for what happens to your hardware but yourself. If your ethercard or any other hardware goes up in smoke (...nearly impossible!) we take no responsibility. ie. THE AUTHORS ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES INCURRED DUE TO ACTIONS TAKEN BASED ON THE INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THIS DOCUMENT.
This document is Copyright (c) 1994 by Donald Becker and Paul Gortmaker. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this document under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that this copyright notice is included exactly as in the original, and that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this document into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.
If you are intending to incorporate this document into a published work, please contact me, and I will make an effort to ensure that you have the most up to date information available. In the past, out of date versions of the Linux howto documents have been published, which caused the developers undue grief from being plagued with questions that were already answered in the up to date versions.
If you have questions about your ethernet card, please READ this document first. You may also want to join the NET channel of the Linux-activists mailing list by sending mail to
linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi
X-Mn-Admin: join NET
Furthermore keep in mind that the NET channel is for development discussions only. General questions on how to configure your system should be directed to comp.os.linux.help unless you are actively involved in the development of part of the networking for Linux. We ask that you please respect this general guideline for content.
Recently, a similar group of mailing lists has started on
the host vger.rutgers.edu, using the much more common
majordomo mailing list server. Send mail to
majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu to get help with what lists
are available, and how to join them.
Also, the news groups comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking and comp.dcom.lans.ethernet should be used for questions that are not Linux specific.
Much of this info came from saved postings from the comp.os.linux groups, which shows that it is a valuable resource of information. Other useful information came from a bunch of small files by Donald himself. Of course, if you are setting up an Ethernet card, then you will want to read the NET-2 Howto so that you can actually configure the software you will use. And last but not least, the contributions from the individuals and companies listed in Contributors is greatly appreciated as well. Oh yeah, if you fancy yourself as a bit of a hacker, you can always scrounge some additional info from the driver source files as well. There is usually a paragraph in there describing any important points.
For those looking for information that is not specific in any way
to Linux (i.e. what is 10BaseT, what is AUI, what does a hub do, etc.)
I strongly recommend the Ethernet-FAQ from the newsgroup
comp.dcom.lans.ethernet. Look on the FTP site
dorm.rutgers.edu in the directory
/pub/novell/info_and_docs/ or grab it from
the following URL:
Don't let the fact that it was last revised in 1993 scare you, as not much has happened to Ethernet since then. (Discounting the upcoming 100Base-whatever, of course.)
New versions of this document can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from sunsite.unc.edu, in /pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/* and various Linux ftp mirror sites. Updates will be made as new information / drivers becomes available. If this copy that you are reading is more than 2 months old, it is either out of date, or it means that I have been lazy and haven't updated it. This document was produced by using the SGML system that was specifically set up for the Linux Howto project, and there are various output formats available, including, postscript, dvi, ascii, html, and soon TeXinfo.
I would recommend viewing it in the html (via Mosaic) or the Postscript/dvi format. Both of these contain cross-references that are lost in the ascii translation.
If you want to get the official copy off sunsite, here is URL.
If minor additions and changes have been made, you can view the latest working copy from this URL.
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