[SOLVED]Ethernet nonfunctional, recommend new card?

[Reverend Tap]

EDIT: Looks like there was actually a coincidentally-timed connection problem elsewhere, wasn't the new card at all.

I'm running Mint 18 Cinnamon 64-bit. Can't give a full info dump on my machine as it is currently internet-incapable, but it's all available on my previous (related) thread: viewtopic.php?f=150&t=254577

The problem in the last thread was my computer periodically failing to connect to anything via ethernet. Using "service network-manager restart" in terminal would bring it back temporarily, and ultimately changing some options in the forcedeth driver for my network card solved the issue. Fast forward a couple months, and the problem came back; figuring the old network card was just going out completely, I went out and picked up this one: http://www.microcenter.com/product/4863 ... ernet_card

Plugged it in and it ran great, for about a day, at which time it abruptly stopped connecting to anything, and service network-manager restart didn't help. I then discovered that the new network card shows up as a Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411, which evidently cause a lot of grief in Linux. Plugged back into the old network card and went through the process of installing the correct Realtek driver, no improvement. The next morning I plugged back into the old card again to keep futzing with it, and it seems I can't connect with either card anymore. My assumption at this point is the old card is dead and the new one just won't play nice with my system; unless anyone happens to know of a viable fix, any suggestions for a new ethernet card to pick up?

[WharfRat]

Before ethernet connectivity was integrated on mother boards I always used Netgear cards.

Too bad you don't live close to me, I have a half dozen Netgear cards laying around.

It is very odd though that both cards abruptly stopped working

Is it possible it's the mb