alawlor@dit.ie (11/10/89)
I have a problem that is going to become critical soon. Perhaps somebody out there can help me? I have a mixture of Ethernet cards, including 3C501s from 3Com, NE1000s from Novell, and Western Digital WD8003E. I have no problems using all three cards in stations on a 3Com Network. I do have a problem on my Novell Net. Basically, a station with a WD card will only talk to a WD card in the server, and a WD card in the server will only talk to stations with WD cards, while the 3C501s and the NE1000s will talk to each other quite happily. The WD8003E isn't normally listed in Novells SHGEN program, but the card comes with a disk that has the necessary drivers, which you copy onto LAN_DRV.001 (?) so that SHGEN can use it. Has anybody experienced any problems with mixing cards on a Novell net? Is this a H/W or S/W problem? Can it be fixed? Any help would be gratefully appreciated. Aengus.
rickm@oregon.uoregon.edu (Rick Millhollin) (11/15/89)
We have the same kind of mix of 3C501, NE1000, and WD8003E station cards talking to 3C505, NE2000, and NP600 server cards; all with no problems. However, I do believe that the shell driver software that came with the WD8003E had problems, and we had to get another version. Unfortunately, the fellow who got it is not here, and I don't know the source. I could make it available to you via FTP if you have internet access.
chapman@acf4.NYU.EDU (Gary W. Chapman) (11/15/89)
What you say is bizarre. There should be no interoperability problems. We have a 2.15 server with a WD board in the server; at workstations we have wd boards, 3com 3c501 boards, micom-interlan 5010 boards. No problems.
haas@cs.utah.edu (Walt Haas) (11/15/89)
Sounds like the driver that came with the WD card uses a different packet format. Can you get your hands on a Sniffer or something similar?
Robert.McNeill@p1.f437.n106.z1.fidonet.org (Robert McNeill) (11/15/89)
Do you have all your cards set to use 802.3 standard or do you take advantage of the cards capability of exceeding 100 meters. If so the manual for both the 3com cards and the WDC cards say the will only work with their own cards.
vanden@studsys.mu.edu (vandenberg) (11/16/89)
Concurring w/ other postings it sounds like your WD driver. You can download
the latest *.LAN and *.OBJ files from the BBS @ 714-756-8176 Their technical
support phone number is 800-777-4787. I think the parameters on the BBS are
8-1-n 24/12bps You will need pkarc to unarc the files you get from there.
In addition to the latest drivers they also have some help documents if you're
doing anything unusual. If you have any questions please let me know.
-------
Tom Vandenberg {..uunet..uwvax!uwmcsd1..}!marque!studsys!vanden
vanden%studsys@marque.UUCP {..uwvax..arpa..}!studsys.mu.edu!vandenalawlor@dit.ie (11/21/89)
In article <2855.2561AEC6@urchin.fidonet.org>, > Robert.McNeill@p1.f437.n106.z1.fidonet.org (Robert McNeill) writes: > Do you have all your cards set to use 802.3 standard or do you take > advantage of the cards capability of exceeding 100 meters. If so the manual > for both the 3com cards and the WDC cards say the will only work with their > own cards. The WD cards are all set to factory defaults (802.3 compatibility). The concensus of oppinion is that my drivers are at fault, so I'm trying to get them updated. Unfortunately, FTP isn't available in Europe, (well Finland seem to have something worked out, but my sys-admin says no), so it isn't too straightforward. Does anybody remember seeing a posting offering a FTP-SERVER service through MAIL recently? I'll summarise all responses so far in the next day or two. Aengus Lawlor Dept of Computer Science, College of Technology, Kevin St, Dublin 8. Ireland.
alawlor@dit.ie (Aengus Lawlor) (11/27/89)
This is a summary of the responses to my query re problems with WD8003E cards
in a mixed Network. The general consensus is that my drivers aren't up to
date, so I should get new ones. The responses included phone numbers for a WD
bulletin board,and offers to leave the drivers for FTP access. But FTP isn't
available from this side of the Atlantic, and I'm going to try and get the
drivers locally before I attempt a trans-atlantic Comms session to download
the latest versions. My dealer has been helpful, but specifically sold
the WD for 3Com lans (where thay work fine!), and if we had specified Novell,
would have supplied D-Link DE-001s (NE-100 clones). (He now no longer
supplies WD8003s as he has 3Com Drivers for the D-Link card.)
Thanks again to all who responded,
Aengus Lawlor,
Dept of Computer Science,
College of Technology,
Kevin St, Dublin 8.
Ireland.
PS. I will post a followup when I eventually get this sorted out. Aengus.
=============================================================================
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
I have experienced a similar situation with, of all things, IBM
PC LAN cards and IBM Token Ring cards in a mixed LAN. Seems
to be a software problem when running something called PC Chalkboard.
Otherwise, things run okay.
Can you send messages from one station of one type to all other
type stations? If you can do that then the problem is with the
app rather than the NOS.
Ron Kline
Arts and Sciences Computing
U of Washington
===========================================================================
From: David Nerenberg <david@cwlim.INS.CWRU.edu>
Organization: Case Western Reserve Univ. Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)
I have not had the same results. I have always been able to mix all
the card you listed and a few more on the same Novell net. Perhaps your
driver is corrupted. I will put my driver onto cwlim.ins.cwru.edu and
you can FTP ti anonymously if you like. I won't be able to put it on until
at least late thursday or friday, so give me some time. Good luck...
Dave
===========================================================================
From: Tom Allebrandi <ta2@acci.com>
We are mixing cards right now. Our house lan is based purely on
Interlan NI5210's. We are staging a lan for a client that is purely
WD8003E's. Right now, everything is hung off of the same wire - and
everybody is talking to everybody else. We have both workstations and
servers with both kinds of cards.
However, I do seem to remember some noise about making sure that the
WD8003E's are talking >> 802.3 << instead of Ethernet. Novell nets
normally use 802.3.
Shoot me some mail if you need more help. I'll get the straight story
from the guy who's working on the lan that contains the WD cards...
--- Tom
Tom Allebrandi | Advanced Computer Consulting,Inc Charlottesville, VA
804 977 4272 | VMS User's Network Working Group -- The DECUS UUCP people
Bix: ta2 | Internet: ta2@acci.com | Bitnet: ta2%esther@virginia.edu
| UUCP: ta2@esther.uucp (...!uunet!virginia!esther!ta2)
===========================================================================
From: Brian Meek <brian@xlnvax.excelan.com>
Organization: Excelan, Inc., San Jose, Califonia
You can download new WD drivers from the NetWire forum on CompuServe,
(Go NOVA) or call the Western Digital BBS (714)756-8176, 2400-N-8-1.
You also should verify that none (or all) of the shell and server drivers
have been configured for ethernet (using Novell's econfig utililty).
I'm sure you are having WD driver related problem.
Good luck with it,
brian meek
===========================================================================
From: vanden@studsys.mu.edu (vandenberg)
Organization: Marquette University - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Concurring w/ other postings it sounds like your WD driver. You can download
the latest *.LAN and *.OBJ files from the BBS @ 714-756-8176 Their technical
support phone number is 800-777-4787. I think the parameters on the BBS are
8-1-n 24/12bps You will need pkarc to unarc the files you get from there.
In addition to the latest drivers they also have some help documents if you're
doing anything unusual. If you have any questions please let me know.
Tom Vandenberg {..uunet..uwvax!uwmcsd1..}!marque!studsys!vanden
vanden%studsys@marque.UUCP {..uwvax..arpa..}!studsys.mu.edu!vanden
===========================================================================
From: chapman@acf4.NYU.EDU (Gary W. Chapman)
Organization: New York University
What you say is bizarre. There should be no interoperability problems.
We have a 2.15 server with a WD board in the server; at workstations we
have wd boards, 3com 3c501 boards, micom-interlan 5010 boards. No
problems.
===========================================================================
From: rickm@oregon.uoregon.edu (Rick Millhollin)
Organization: University of Oregon
We have the same kind of mix of 3C501, NE1000, and WD8003E station cards
talking to 3C505, NE2000, and NP600 server cards; all with no problems.
However, I do believe that the shell driver software that came with the
WD8003E had problems, and we had to get another version. Unfortunately, the
fellow who got it is not here, and I don't know the source. I could make it
available to you via FTP if you have internet access.
===========================================================================
From: haas@cs.utah.edu (Walt Haas)
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept
Sounds like the driver that came with the WD card uses a different
packet format. Can you get your hands on a Sniffer or something similar?
===========================================================================
From: Robert.McNeill@p1.f437.n106.z1.fidonet.org (Robert McNeill)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:106/437.1 - The Soldier's Bored, Missouri City TX
Do you have all your cards set to use 802.3 standard or do you take
advantage of the cards capability of exceeding 100 meters. If so the manual
for both the 3com cards and the WDC cards say the will only work with their
own cards.