[K12OSN] Recommended Gigabit Network card?

[Joseph Bishay]

Hello,

On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 7:35 PM, Peter Scheie <peter at scheie.homedns.org> wrote:
> Generally, it is only the server that needs a gigabit card.  100Mb is
> usually sufficient on the client.  As for the clients, most machines of the
> last ten years have some sort of PXE option in the BIOS, sometimes referred
> to 'boot from LAN' or some such.  If the machines don't have that, but have
> floppy drives, you can also use a universal boot floppy; I think there's
> still a link to it on the K12LTSP wiki.  The downside is floppies can get
> lost, although some people just hide the whole floppy drive & disk inside
> the case where users can't get to them.  Nevertheless, a NIC with a boot
> prom is nice, and quicker than using a floppy; www.disklessworkstations.com
> has them for US $30.
>
> Peter

I have in fact been using the boot disks created from ROM-O-MATIC for
years - they do work great but as you said, get lost easily/kids
destroy them.

I am not entirely 100% sure I understand the relationship between the
BIOS settings and the network card -- am I correct in understanding
that if the "boot from LAN" option exists in the BIOS, then ANY
network card would work, or do I need both the "Boot from LAN" option
*and* a "PXE-capable" network card?

Thanks,
Joseph