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• The Network Card

  This is a network interface card you put in your computer. It is referred to as a NIC card. It can be an ISA or PCI card and provided you have a slot available in your computer, either type will work well. PCI is recommended for two reasons, ease of configuration in Window95 and with PCI, you can get 100 Mbit cards at a slightly higher price which are much faster.
  
  I won't get into the specifics of installing the card, just follow the directions that come with it. Most cards are plug N play so that they should configure themselves automatically in Windows95 or NT.
  
  If things don't work there are a couple of things to check. The first is the little lights on back of the card, generally next to the jack in which is plugged the cable. The important one is the link light which signifies two things: One, Windows95 has properly "initialized" the card and two, you have a "live" network connection. This light though is not 100% accurate in determining a working connection so don't rely on it as "proof positive." It can be fooled. Still not working? Another check is using the setup utility that usually comes on the "driver" disk, which is generally packaged with the card. This "setup" utility must usually be run from DOS as Windows95 loads drivers that confuse the result of the tests.. Booting your computer to DOS (restarting your computer in DOS mode), the "setup utility" can be used to test all the card functionality including the cable connection but your cable must be plugged into "NIC" card in the computer and into the wall or hub for the test to work. It also helps if the hub is turned on (batteries not included… or needed by hub). If you have problems with the cable test, go grab the hub and bring it to the computer so that you can have a direction connection from the computer to the hub, eliminating the interior house cabling or wall connector as being possibly faulty.

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