Latest status, NetGear FA311+6.2?

[Dave Ihnat <ignatz dminet com>]

Gentlefolk,

I picked up a 5-pack of NetGear FA311 NICs for a good price a couple
of days ago.  I hadn't looked them up beforehand--it was a "deal"
purchase--but the box _did_ say it supported RedHat Linux 6.2.  Cool,
sez I.

I should know better, given the perversity of the universe.

Now, I've wrestled with their drivers, read past discussions on the
groups, and find the concensus is it can be made to work, but it isn't
a gimme.  The two solutions at this point seem to be (a) diddle the
NetGear driver code and makefile to successfully generate a loadable
module--the stock code/makefile from the NetGear site won't--or (b) use
the scyld driver, which seems overly complicated to me, since I _also_
have to buy into their driver model (requiring two additional modules, if
I read correctly.)  [Note that for numerous reasons, the third solution--
upgrade to 7.1 and use the native chip support driver--can't be done at
this time.]

Is this a fair assessment of the current state of these NICs and RedHat 6.2?

TIA,
-- 
	Dave Ihnat
	ignatz dminet com