Make a long story as short as I can, finally got cable. I dual boot (ok, it's triple actually) kanotix and win98SE. Had to set up my onboard ethernet adapter on an ECS K7S5A after all these years (old board, not the newer pro this a rev 3 or so). Used the driver on the CD for windows. Used rtl 8150 module on linux. No probs with linux. My provider's little java applet "test your speed" deal shows in the neighborhood of 8760kbps in linux. Windows wasn't even registering (and felt it). Couldn't bring up the router config in any browser on windows either so I set it up with linux (which is my main o/s anyhow).

Did a fresh install of windows since it was totally too old on there had only done restores of backup images in years now. Got an updated driver (sis900 with led's in the tray no less) and windows connection flies (relatively speaking) to what it was. It shows 4700kbps. Little more than half as fast as linux though I don't really discern a difference any more. And I can now get into the config for router if I wanted to from windows.

Any thoughts why the difference in speed? Has to be the adapter driver, no? Everything in windows is fresh and installed from scratch. It is hard to believe that a linux driver is giving better performance. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth but am now wondering if maybe the speed is misreported under linux. Advice?