From: "Jeff Buehler" <jeff at buehlertech dot com>

> The real issue (in my mind) is whether or not the RealTek cards flake out 
> under pressure - in my experience they do, but it seems that there are 
> quite a few others who have had good luck with them.  That's great, but I 
> would still want to get a RealTek card out of the way if I was having 
> network problems just to remove it from the troubleshooting loop.

Part of the problem is that RealTek is a chip, not a card.  And the chip 
ain't great.  But some cards are even worse.  That said, swapping a card 
changes the card platform, the cpu load, and the power requirements.  I 
still say swapping a power supply will solve more problems that just a card. 
However, you are right in that eliminating known trouble spots helps in 
finding a problem.  It is why I have several spare intel nics.

                        Lee