THE ACER ALN-320 FAST ETHERNET ADAPTER
Last updated: 3/6/2001

Low cost, bus-mastering, full-duplex, and fast describe Acer's ALN-320 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet adapter.

This board uses VIA's "Rhine" VT86C100A PCI Fast Ethernet controller and Davicom's DM9101F: 10/100 BASE-TX Single Chip Transceiver to provide a low-cost, PCI, Fast Ethernet adapter for workstations and small file servers.  The User Guide is a bit skimpy, but better than many I've seen for low-end board products.  Software is provided on a single floppy for NT, Novell, SCO Unix, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows 98, and includes FTP PC/TCP packet drivers,   Software installation for Windows 95/98 could be little easier, but is acceptable. Click here for my detailed installation instructions.  The board complies with IEEE 802.U and PCI 2.1 specifications.  32-bit Bus-mastering, full-duplex, and auto-sensing are supported.  The NIC has Link, Activity, and 100 Mhz LEDS.  It includes a lifetime warranty from a major manufacturer.  For the price, this is a good quality board with good lay-out and plenty of capacitors.  Electrolytics are marked 85°C (a little lower than what I'd like to see; but, what do you want for less than $20?  And it's what I find on most Ethernet adapters).  Packaging is quite good.  Once installed, I had no problems with the board and I am quite satisfied with it.

Larry