I had an IS&T person from work do a housecall and install a Netgear Ethernet PCI Card (FA311/312)in advance of getting a cable modem hook up. I had cable installed and computer freezes and crashes using Explorer, AOL, Outlook, etc. Soemtimes the compoter freezes as it boots up as well. I called cable (OptimumOnline) helpline and they said no new software was installed on their end it must be the ethernet card. I'm a novice and need to be walked through things step by step (like an Idiot's Guide). He suggested I reinstall the ethernet drivers. I'm pretty sure I did that but am still having the same problem. Any suggestions? Thanks

Did this PC bootup OK with the Netgear card installed - prior to the cable connection software etc. being added? Will it boot now - without cable connection physically present, although the cable-software will be present on the drive? If not in either case, then your IS&T chum needs to come back and have another go??? If it did boot OK and the card was recognised OK prior to the add in of cable, then I'm suspicious of the cable added software? Aren't you entitled to support from them - as part of the deal - especially during installation/setup of the account/service etc? Re (re-)installing the NIC... Have read of Jo Helmig's site at: http://www.wown.com (aka http://www.helmig.com) and go to the basics/cables section; part way down is the installation section and you might read it all - but specifically: http://www.wown.info/j_helmig/cardpci.htm Saves going through it all here? Initially you may be wise to remove (electronically speaking) the card (from the system info, i.e. you 'uninstall it; viz: Open Control-panel; open the System icon; open Device-manager; click on network adapters; hi-lite the Netgear card; click on Remove box; do just that - accept that you are removing it... Click OK and close out/shutdown. Reboot and '98 will/should announce it has found 'new' hardware and is installing it. Briefly... it will give the option to let it do it all automatically , or allow you to do it manually; let it do it for you? You can also let it provide drivers (if '98 already has them included) or you can specify that you have them on a floppy or CD, and provide the disk. Again Jo Helmig's info should help you get across it all in more detail? If the NIC didn't work OK before cable was added in... possibly the NIC is an inappropriate slot... The AGP slot and the PCI slot immediately adjacent/next to it share the same irq; the NIC will not work properly (if at all) if the AGP slot is also in use... The NIC must have at least one slot between it and the AGP card. This is also discussed on 'Jo Helmig's' site (trouble-shooting section). As for sharing the cable service... even just getting it to work OK? http://www.dslreports.com may be of help. Although a dsl site, most/all applies equally to cable.

To trvlr: * The PC booted up fine with the Netgear card installed - prior to cable. If I put the cable on standby, everything works fine as well. Also, cable did not install any software but rather just hooked up an outside modem. * Thanks for the info on Jo Helmig's site, I'm going to check it out and all of your suggestions this weekend. Other info: Last night, I did a scan disc, deleted some excess stuff and defragmented. I called the cable co. back and they asked me to check amtof resources free...it was 51% and they suggested that I may need more SDRAM (I have 128). I'm installing another 256 SDRAM this weekend and hopefully that may help...does this soudn like a possibility to you as well? Again, thanks so much for the quick rsvp!

I forgot to mention that after I defragmented, etc., The problem still exists...