NIC identification

I need some way of identifying the make and model of a NIC via Win 98. I need to install divers but lost all info on the card and the OS can't find the drivers on the install disk.

I don't remember much about Win 98 specifically, but if there's a MAC address printed on the card (or if you can retrieve MAC address using something like "net diag") then you can at least get a start by looking up the manufacturer from the MAC prefix. Does Win98 identify it as anything?

(edit: Win 95...98...no matter)

open up the machine and look at the labels on the card.

if you go to start menu, select run and type winipcfg on a 98 machine you will get the MAC address of the NIC. On 2000 and NT, type ipconfig in a DOS box. I personally look at the card, identify an important looking IC (usually the great big fat one in the middle) and do an internet search. I also look at stickers on the cards that have serial-like numbers and do searches on them too. More often than not, the name of the Manufacturer is printed on the card anyway.
This reminds me of when I used to have a PCI soft-modem, ah, the joy I had trying to remember the name of the manufacturer of the modem when it came to reinstall time (was it Spasmotron or Wankotech? I can never remember). I've found in Linux it easier because people write drivers for chipsets instead of specific cards.

You can also search for FCC IDs at the FCC's web site. Try entering it a whole bunch of ways (whole thing, just the prefix, leave off numbers, etc.). Their search algorithm seems a little flaky.

I know that debug can be used to scope out memory contents. I've used it to find out the manufacturer of various cards without taking the thing apart.
Type:

debug

d [address] [range limit]

to get a listing of the memory contents at that location.
if you know the address of the card's ROM, you can find out what it is advertising to the system

If it's a PCI card then you can identify it from the PCI vendor and device ID.

Download Advanced PCI info and look it up here

- Trevor