[comp.sys.xerox] PUP - Ethernet

joycem@KESTREL.ARPA (06/03/88)

I'm having some trouble getting my xerox 1109s, 1186's and
VAX/VMS/DEI to talk.  Most of the machines are talking fine.
One of them is having trouble.  When I enter the command

(PUP.ECHOUSER '0#7#)

on the machine in question, I get the following response.

!+!.!+!.!+!.!+!.!+!.

Can anyone tell me what this result indicates?  All of the
necessary software seems to be correct.

Joyce Musselman
joycem@kestrel

briggs.pa@XEROX.COM (06/03/88)

See page 31.34 of Vol 3 of the Interlisp Reference Manual for the description of
PUP.ECHOUSER.

! 	printed when a packet is sent
+	printed when an echo packet is sucessfully received
.	printed when an echo packet has not been received after INTERVAL ms.
?	printed when a packet is received, but is is neither an echo packet nor an
error packet
(late)	printed when an error [I think they mean echo...] packet is received,
after the echo request timed out.

So, "!+!.!+!.!+!.!+!.!+!." says you are getting an answer to  every 2nd packet.
Not very good.

                                                            \nick

schmidt@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (06/03/88)

	I presume you've tried (RESTART.ETHER) and looking at the trace
you get with (PUPTRACE T) turned on?  Loss of every other packet sure
sounds like a software problem to me.  
	If you really suspect hardware, you could trade the Options board
(1108) or IOP board (1186) with another machine and see if that helps.  (These
are the boards with the ethernet hardware.)  Note that swapping IOP boards
swaps ethernet addresses, so you want to switch 'em back when you're through.
--Christopher

joycem@KESTREL.ARPA.UUCP (06/03/88)

I figured that !+!.!+!. meant every other packet was being dropped. 
I just did know what would cause that to happen.  Only one machine
was having this problem.  It turns out the problem was a bad cable.  
The cable was replaced and now all the machines are back on the net. 
Thanks for all the advice.

...Joyce Musselman

yeager@ARDVAX.STANFORD.EDU (Bill Yeager) (06/03/88)

My first suspicion would be the transceiver/tap. It looks like packets
are being dropped. Does this happen between ALL of you machines or
just one or two? I'd suggest the following simple test:
	
	o Run PUP trace at both hosts and see if all of the packets are
	  being received at the destination.(SET NTIMES TO 20 in the
	  PUP.ECHOUSER call so that an entire trace can be seen at
	  both machines).

	If you have a 3rd party ether trace system, then you could watch
	the entire dialogue and see what is going on.

Bill