mitton@nac.dec.com (Dave Mitton) (11/01/88)
There has been recent discussions about the consequences and possible causes of DEC LAN Bridges seeing packets with a source address of all FF's (ie: Broadcast). I asked around and determined the following: This is a known bug in the V2.0 DEBET microcode. It has been fixed in the V2.1 microcode ROMs. Currently, Field Service has not completed an FCO kit, but customers can request an upgrade (free if under service contract). If your local FS does not know of the problem, request that it be escalated to the Area FS office or the Colorado Springs Support Center. This problem was found previously and fixed in the V1.0 ROMs, but managed to become un-fixed in V2.0. The V2.x microcode contains other fixes and improvements (including LAN Traffic Monitor support) so it is worthwhile to upgrade. The version number can be observed with an RBMS command; READ BRIDGE CHARACTERISTICS (so I was told). Dave Mitton.
jmg@cernvax.UUCP (jmg) (11/03/88)
In article <8810312247.AA17706@decwrl.dec.com> mitton@nac.dec.com (Dave Mitton) writes: > This is a known bug in the V2.0 DEBET microcode. It has been >fixed in the V2.1 microcode ROMs. Currently, Field Service has not completed >an FCO kit, but customers can request an upgrade (free if under service >contract). If your local FS does not know of the problem, request that >it be escalated to the Area FS office or the Colorado Springs Support Center. > > This problem was found previously and fixed in the V1.0 ROMs, but >managed to become un-fixed in V2.0. The V2.x microcode contains other fixes >and improvements (including LAN Traffic Monitor support) so it is worthwhile >to upgrade. The version number can be observed with an RBMS command; >READ BRIDGE CHARACTERISTICS (so I was told). This is the first time that I have seen any DEC admission of this fault (sorry, feature) in LAN Bridges. We discovered it ourselves long ago (months), after which we learned that DEC knew about it. How many hours have been wasted by DEC customers finding this problem themselves I do not care to think! Perhaps Mr Mitton would care to comment on the other changes in the V2.1 ROMs which fix problems in ALL previous versions. They concern use of RBMS to constrain operation of the minimal spanning tree algorith by setting line/bridge costs. Anyone who has tried this in configurations involving redundant paths (for backup) will know what I mean. We have yet another LAN Bridge problem, but I will not confuse the situation by putting it into this posting. -- _ _ o | __ | jmg@cernvax.uucp | | | | _ / \ _ __ _ __ _| jmg@cernvax.bitnet | | | | |_) /_) | __/_) | (___\ | (_/ | J. M. Gerard, Div. DD, CERN, | | |_|_| \_/\___ \__/ \___| (_|_| \_|_ 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
goeran@ae.chalmers.se (Goran Bengtson) (11/04/88)
In article <8810312247.AA17706@decwrl.dec.com>, mitton@nac.dec.com (Dave Mitton) writes: > This problem was found previously and fixed in the V1.0 ROMs, but > managed to become un-fixed in V2.0. The V2.x microcode contains other fixes > and improvements (including LAN Traffic Monitor support) so it is worthwhile > to upgrade. The version number can be observed with an RBMS command; > READ BRIDGE CHARACTERISTICS (so I was told). We also got the information (from DEC) that the problem was fixed in V1.0 so we "downgraded" some V2.0 bridges. That didn't help us. The problem IS present in both V1.0 and V2.0 (sorry DEC). Let us hope that V2.1 really fix it... -- Goran Bengtson Email: goeran@ae.chalmers.se Dept. of Applied Electronics Chalmers Univ. of Technology Phone: +46 31 721825 (int) S-412 96 Gothenburg 031 721825 (nat) Sweden