joe@astph.uucp (Joe Broniszewski) (08/17/90)
We are going to install a 10BaseT network in the next few months and I need som advice on ethernet cards. We are running ISC UNIX 2.2. Please email me comments on your experience with these cards. Especially WD, 3Com, Interlan, and UB. Are there substantial advantages of having 16 bit cards over 8 bit? Are cards with lots of RAM worth the extra bucks? Thank you for your help. --- Joe Broniszewski (814) 234-8592x4 astph!joe@psuvax1 psuvax1!astph!joe Philadelphia Phillies
mikea@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Michael P. Andrews) (08/29/90)
We've used 3COM 3C505TP cards and they work fine with ISC UNIX (2.02 and 2.2). You can use the included 3C503 drivers. We don't use them on a 10BASET network (yet), we have a SynOptics LattisNet, which is similar in wiring, but uses some different voltages and signals. The 3COM 3C503-TP has several jumper options to configure the card for true 10BASET or a number of proprietary systems like ours. We've had no problems at all with the cards. We have used 3COM 3C505 (256K 16bit) with no problems, but there are no ISC drivers for them that I've seen. We use those with Novell and Sun PC-NFS The quirk with the RAM is that there's a 10-20 second delay on the initialization of the network card driver. I suppose the CPU on the card has to do a RAM checksum or somesuch. I have heard that the 505's have caused problems with UNIX, but I haven't personally had trouble (not using them with UNIX). We also have used Tiara twisted-pair cards in 8 bit and 16 bit versions. The cards themselves are OK, but the drivers are AWFUL!!!. The Novell drivers don't use DMA. The PC-NFS drivers freeze up after 30 seconds. We got the ISC 2.02 driver to work only because we had UNIX guru on site to patch their aborted install script. Upon calling Tiara tech support, you receive a response thus: Oh! you don't hav ethe latest driver - call our BBS. - I DID CALL YOUR BBS! - But the current driver is in a private area, here's how to upload it, BTW it's a beta release, it's not stabile.... I finally talked to a programmer how was amazed that we got the ISC driver to install and asked US how we did it!!!