Archive for March, 2006

Realtek network cards with VIA chipset !

Saturday, March 18th, 2006

At work, we have cheap network cards for tests.
From the last command, cards are announced to be classic Realtek RTL8139D chip.

Strange realtek card

But when I put in Linux 2.(4|6) systems, I discover curious lspci message :

Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6105 [Rhine-III] (rev 86)
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 0105

And with pci-id 1106:3106 (rev 86), I found on PCI IDs database the reference :

3106  VT6105 [Rhine-III]
1186 1403  DFE-530TX rev C

On Linux, this chipset seems to be a VIA Rhine chipset and it works fine with via-rhine Linux driver. On Windows XP, card is recognized as Realtek card and works with Realtek driver. On OpenBSD, card works with vr driver…

MAC address confirms me that is Realtek card : http://www.coffer.com/mac_find/?string=00%3AE0%3A4C
Then I have VIA chipsets marked as Realtek Chipsets !
Perhaps a factory error…