[comp.unix.aux] EtherPort II device drivers

hisaw@nevada.edu (DAVID HISAW) (06/12/91)

Does anyone know where I can find a device driver for the old Excelan
EtherPort II card.  I tried contacting Shiva Tech. support since they
now have rights to the EtherPort product line to see if they could
help me but have not heard back from them.  If I'm not mistaken
someone posted a few months back stating they had written a compatible
driver and that it was available via anon FTP.  Could anyone help me
out?  I'm running A/UX 2.0.1

sysmark@aurora.physics.utoronto.ca (Mark Bartelt) (06/13/91)

In article <1991Jun11.190618.20252@nevada.edu>
hisaw@nevada.edu (DAVID HISAW) writes:

| Does anyone know where I can find a device driver for the old Excelan
| EtherPort II card.  I tried contacting Shiva Tech. support since they
| now have rights to the EtherPort product line to see if they could
| help me but have not heard back from them.

Dayna Communications (801/531-0600, 801/972-2000) sells one for $49.95
plus shipping.  They support only the later-model EtherPort II boards,
though.  The original boards were long, and used one vendor's ethernet
chip, whereas the later boards were short, and used some other vendor's
ethernet chip.  (I once knew who the chip sources were, but I've since
forgotten.)  If you have an old-style long EtherPort II board, you're
out of luck.  Or, more accurately, semi-out_of_luck.  Dayna has (or at
least had) a program where if you had an old (long) EtherPort II, you
could send it to them and buy their board (the DaynaPort) for 50% off.

The company itself struck me as a bit flaky (organizationally, that is):
When I first ordered the driver, nobody told me that there *were* two
different flavours of EtherPort boards (I certainly didn't know), nor
that they supported only one flavour.  In fact, ours was an old one.
So we went ahead and ordered one of their boards, which we're now using.
It took five or six phone calls over the course of a couple months just
to get the confirming paperwork that I needed to submit for reimbursement
at my end (I'd charged it to my credit card, to expedite delivery).

Technically, though they seem OK:  Their driver works just fine with the
board we got from them.  Since we don't have any of the newer EtherPort
products, I can't confirm that the Dayna driver works equally well with
them, as they claim.  No reason to suspect otherwise, though.

If you hear of anyone who provides an A/UX driver for the *old* EtherPort
boards, I'd certainly be interested in hearing about it.

Mark Bartelt                                                 416/978-5619
Canadian Institute for                              mark@cita.toronto.edu
Theoretical Astrophysics                            mark@cita.utoronto.ca

liam@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (William Roberts;) (06/18/91)

In <1991Jun12.174952.2567@helios.physics.utoronto.ca> 
sysmark@aurora.physics.utoronto.ca (Mark Bartelt) writes:

>| Does anyone know where I can find a device driver for the old Excelan
>| EtherPort II card.  I tried contacting Shiva Tech. support since they
>| now have rights to the EtherPort product line to see if they could
>| help me but have not heard back from them.

>Dayna Communications (801/531-0600, 801/972-2000) sells one for $49.95
>plus shipping.  They support only the later-model EtherPort II boards,
>though.  The original boards were long, and used one vendor's ethernet
>chip, whereas the later boards were short, and used some other vendor's
>ethernet chip.

Intel 82586

>If you hear of anyone who provides an A/UX driver for the *old* EtherPort
>boards, I'd certainly be interested in hearing about it.

This situation is plainly ridiculous. Until such time as someone's legal 
department asks me to cease and desist, you can get that A/UX 1.1 version of 
the EtherPort driver software by anonymous FTP:

Host:  redstar.dcs.qmw.ac.uk [138.37.64.4] 
File:  archive/aux/epdriver.1.1.Z
Size:  9825 bytes (compressed tar file)

NB: 
* Our DNS may not be correctly set up - please mail me if you have any problems
  with this. 
* It is only the A/UX 1.1 version of the driver, so it won't support EtherTalk
  Phase 2 (NFS etc are OK though).
* It only works for the old-style ETherPort II card (the full length one)
* The tar file unpacks directly into place in subdirectories of /etc. There
  is no nice, neat installation script (they never poroduced one).
--

% William Roberts                 Internet:  liam@dcs.qmw.ac.uk
% Queen Mary & Westfield College  UUCP:      liam@qmw-dcs.UUCP
% Mile End Road                   Telephone: +44 71 975 5234
% LONDON, E1 4NS, UK              Fax:       +44 81-980 6533

jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov (Jim Jagielski) (06/18/91)

In article <3372@redstar.dcs.qmw.ac.uk> liam@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (William Roberts;) writes:
}In <1991Jun12.174952.2567@helios.physics.utoronto.ca> 
}sysmark@aurora.physics.utoronto.ca (Mark Bartelt) writes:
}
}>| Does anyone know where I can find a device driver for the old Excelan
}>| EtherPort II card.  I tried contacting Shiva Tech. support since they
}>| now have rights to the EtherPort product line to see if they could
}>| help me but have not heard back from them.
}
}>Dayna Communications (801/531-0600, 801/972-2000) sells one for $49.95
}>plus shipping.  They support only the later-model EtherPort II boards,
}>though.  The original boards were long, and used one vendor's ethernet
}>chip, whereas the later boards were short, and used some other vendor's
}>ethernet chip.
}

I'm told by Dayna that since they no longer sell the cards, they are no longer
selling the drivers! Since I was told that (over 3 months ago) I've made avail-
able the old Dayna drivers via anon-ftp on my Mac (jagubox)... they will remain
until Shiva has written THEIR drivers, which I would then urge people to buy
(if Shiva is as underhanded as Dayna and SELLS them :( )

}
}>If you hear of anyone who provides an A/UX driver for the *old* EtherPort
}>boards, I'd certainly be interested in hearing about it.
}
}This situation is plainly ridiculous. Until such time as someone's legal 
}department asks me to cease and desist, you can get that A/UX 1.1 version of 
}the EtherPort driver software by anonymous FTP:
}
}Host:  redstar.dcs.qmw.ac.uk [138.37.64.4] 
}File:  archive/aux/epdriver.1.1.Z
}Size:  9825 bytes (compressed tar file)
}

Also available on my Mac too... 'Course, the drivers don't allow EtherTalk.
Also, my "version" has a simple installation script which checks for the
correct "bnet" module before installing the drivers...
--
===========================================================================
#include <std/disclaimer.h>
                                 =:^)
           Jim Jagielski                    NASA/GSFC, Code 711.4
     jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov               Greenbelt, MD 20771

"If we increase the size of the penguin until it is the same height as a man
 and then compare the relative brain size, we know find that the penguin's
 brain is still smaller. But, and this is the point, it is larger than it WAS!"

MUGGC@CUNYVM.BITNET (AGS) (06/20/91)

you can edit the apple ae6 installation script quite easily to work with

the ep driver.

alex smith
cuny->gsuc->music