ISA nics and DOS TCP/IP

[Ethan Dicks]

On 12/11/06, Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> wrote:
> If you'd spoke up sooner, I had 3 on eBay a few weeks back.  They were
> rotting here, and I wanted them out.  The were PE3's

The PE3s are nice - I use one with an old Zenith laptop (w/dual pop-up
720K floppies) and Kermit for a portable terminal (the PE3 is for when
I want to access hosts over Ethernet instead of serial - Kermit comes
with a TCP stack - just add packet driver).  I know the PE3s can be
parasitically powered over a PS/2 or AT keyboard connector; I'm not so
sure the PE2s are low enough power to do that (I have a pigtail lead
from the PE3 power jack to a M/F PS/2 passthrough connector - very
handy).

All this discussion of Linux aside, at the moment, AFAIK, the PE3 is
stuck in the era of DOS and packet drivers (so DOS, Win3.1, etc.)  I
think it still works with Win95, but there is no XP driver, rendering
them somewhat useless for most modern consumers, keeping the price
down.  Jim, I'm curious what you got for them on eBay since they do
lack widespread utility with modern machines.  ISTR seeing them at
Dayton in the $5-$10 range, typically on table with PCMCIA cards and
what-not, but perhaps they are old enough to be in they "curious and
getting scarce" category.

-ethan