Network/Ethernet cards

david nugent david at csource.OZ.AU
Wed Jun 13 21:04:57 AEST 1990


In <LARRY.90Jun11094254 at focsys.uucp> larry at focsys.uucp (Larry Williamson) writes:

>In article <473 at dptechno.UUCP> Leigh Stivers writes:

>   I am looking for a good ethernet card that will work with
>   Interactive I386 unix 2.0.2.  We have tried the Western Digital
>   EtherCard PLUS but it seems to have many problems and is not
>   reliable enough.

>We've been using the ethercard plus for nearly more than a year and a
>half, maybe nearly two. It has been a solid reliable card. It worked
>with 1.0.6, 2.0.1 and 2.0.2.

My impression (gained from experience with ISC 2.0.2) is that the
WD Ethercard plus is less reliable on faster 386's.  They seem to
work well at 25MHZ or less, but have occasional failures on a 33MHZ
machine.  

As I said, this is an "impression", as the problems I've had have
yet to be exhaustively diagnosed.  It may be related to ISC's tcp-ip
package, since it seems the problem seems to occur more when the
software is pushed over and beyond it's limits.  However, the
problem we do get (which is a kernel 0x0000000E trap, which then
reports "Parity error on add-on card.\nUnknown address") seems to
occur in sufficient frequency only to be annoying, rather than
one which causes any real hardship.

This occurs despite having changed the Ethernet card 3 times now,
and all other factors in the hardware setup have been eliminated.


david

-- 
  Unique Computing Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Aust.
  david at csource.oz.au  3:632/348 at fidonet  28:4100/1 at signet



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