onboard NICs to stay away from?

[Mark Hahn]

> Intel e1000 (gigabit) chipset: driver only seems to work as a kernel 
> module, but works fine

not so.  AA's patch contains non-module support that works.

> The e100 (100mbit, EtherExpress Pro?): has two drivers, on some newer 
> versions of the chipset you must choose the intel-provided driver, but 
> it works fine (I believe the two drivers are eepro and e100)

afaikt, versions of the e100/1000 that have been hacked to conform to
kernel standards are to be prefered.

> It seems to be generally accepted that realtek ethernet chipsets are not 
> terribly good, but I have no actual experience with them and don't 
> specifically remember any boards with onboard realtek ethernet

they are clearly not as smart as "real" nics, but the price is hard to 
dismiss.  they've traditionally given some duplex-detection problems
in less-tested configurations like HD 10bT