NJIT’s Network Interface Kit

This kit is available from the NJIT PC Store at the Student Mall. Call 973-596-2918 for the current pricing. The kit includes an SMC Ether EZ plug and Play adapter with hardware driver disk and the network interface cable.

Purchasing A Network Interface Card

NJIT Network Interface Kit

The kit may be purchased from the NJIT PC Store located in the Student Mall. We strongly recommend you purchase this kit. The kit contains an SMC Ether EZ card and the connecting cable. Students purchasing the Network Interface kit from the PC store may pay by credit card or personal check. If paying by cash, payment must be made at the Bursar’s Office window and present the receipt at the PC Store.

Your Own Network Interface Card

Though we strongly suggest you buy the recommended kit from NJIT, it is not required that you do. If your already have a Network card or wish to purchase your own, you may also connect to the Residence Hall network. The only requirement is that you purchase a 10 Mbs capable ethernet network interface card which supports 10-baseT through and RJ45 connector. You must also purchase a Network interface cable. These are available from the PC store.

If you are installing the card, you must also install the driver set for the card. When doing so use the drivers from the driver disk which come with the card. Try not to use the drivers which came with the windows disks. These drivers are often outdated. Follow the directions for the installation of the cards hardware driver in windows. Once the card is installed you will need to load the TCP/IP protocol stack. See: Installing the TCP/IP Protocol Stack for more information The University does not discourage students from purchasing their own ethernet cards, however, it is not liable or responsible for these cards if they do not work or are incompatible.

Special Note to Windows NT users

Windows NT does not support Plug and Play Devices Directly. You must install the "Plug and Play" service in order to support most LAN cards. Installing Plug and Play devices on an NT System may cause other devices to stop functioning.

Registering Your Network Interface with TeleCom

In order for your connection to be initialized, you must register you LAN card and computer system with TeleCom. Until your workstation is Registered it will only connect to key NJIT Network services. These services will allow you to configure your workstation and download needed software. Workstation Registration is now automated, please see the document titled Residence Hall Automatic Workstation Registration.

IP Address Assignment

When a computer connects to the Residence Hall network and by that to the Internet, a unique Internet (IP) address is required. An IP address and all configuration information is automatically assigned via DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). Each student is responsible for the IP address assigned to his/her computer. DHCP works on a timed lease basis. The length of the lease to a Residence Hall computer is two weeks. Every time windows is started on your computer the lease is renewed for another two weeks. If you leave your computer on constantly your lease will not automatically renew. In this case your computer will prompt you to renew its lease after one week. A lease expiring message will appear on your PC. Just answer YES to renew the lease. If you do not renew your lease you will loose it after one week. (Please note, if you have disabled DHCP messages, this lease notice will not appear and you will not keep your lease.)

In short, as long as you boot your PC at least once a week, or renew your lease, you will keep your IP address for the semester. At the end of the semester we will purge the DHCP database.