Some cards, particularly ones from East Asian countries, may not have a manufacturer's name on them, so even if the manufacturer provides a website with drivers, you don't know where to look. All computer devices sold in the United States must have an FCC Number, which indicates it was tested for electronic emissions. http://www.driverzone.com/fcc_id_search.htm is a website where you can enter the first three characters of the FCC ID number, and it will tell you the manufacturer of the card. I had a NIC (Network Card) with an FCC ID of NDD9591309801

so I entered NDD and clicked Search

and learned that the card was manufactured by Edimax Technology in Taiwan.

If I wanted to enter the entire Product Code I could find the record for that exact card, however usually this does not provide any additional information useful in finding drivers for the card.

There was a sticker on the card with the number 9130.

I used Google to search for Edimax Technology and I located their web site. Clicking Download and scrolling down I found an entry for EN-9130TX/A/L which is a PCI 10/100 mbps Fast Ethernet Card.

Clicking on the Zip V3.7 I got a Download Box, and I clicked Save

and I had a copy of a zip file with the driver on my hard disk. Clicking on the PDF link I also got a copy of the manual for the card

I then tried to find a driver for a Compaq card. The FCC ID number confirmed it was a Compaq card,

but I tried going to http://www.compaq.com/support/files/ but immediately it took me to http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/ (since HP bought out Comdex), and I could not find the Compaq part number in the HP Web Site.

Another way to locate drivers is with DriverGuide.com You must register to use DriverGuide.com

and once you register they will email you a logon and password, but they will tell you that you can use the Username: temp and the Password: 512 until you get your permanent Username and Password. You then login

And you have several ways to search for your driver.

I used the Search Wizard

Selecting Network Adapter

and then selecting C for Compaq

And scrolling down to Compaq

I saw the Most Popular Downloads For Network Adapter / Compaq

Clicking on #9 Compaq netteligent 10/100 I got

I clicked Download This File and downloaded the Compaq driver to my Hard Drive.

Besides

• DriverGuide.com and
• DriverZone.com which helped us identify the manufacturer from the FCC ID number, there is also
• DriverSearch.com, and
• Network-Drivers.com, which has a good list of links to vendor sites, one of the best driver sites is
• WinDrivers.com but it now charges $29.95 for a One-year Membership. A One-day Access Pass is available for $4.95 but that still is more that the other sites charge.

I already had a driver for the Edimax EN-9130TX/A/L, but just to illustrate the third way to search for a driver I used Google to search for 9130tx driver. If I just searched for 9130tx I would have gotten a number of websites wanting to sell me one of the cards, but by adding the word driver I emphasize the fact that I want a driver for the card.

The first link on the result from the search was a site that had a driver for the card. It was not the Edimax website, but rather http://www.network-drivers.com/drivers/37/37216.htm

Clicking on the link for the file

I get taken to our old friend DriverGuide.com

And clicking on Download this file I am given a chance to get a free trial for a toolkit (but I had problems downloading that toolkit), or I could just choose to start the driver download immediately.

That gave me two windows (one on top of the other). Clicking Save on this one caused it to close,

exposing the bottom one, which monitors the file as it is being downloaded.

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