[comp.unix.i386] Ethernet interface recommendation please.

dale@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu (dale chayes) (12/10/89)

	I'm looking for a recommendation for an ethernet card to replace
the 3Com 3C501 card in my Dolch 386/20. I'm running ISC 2.0.1 and am
having significant problems (the OS looses all notion that it is connected
to a network eventually, requires rebooting to clear.)  (I'v not been
able to get any kind of resolution to this problem from ISC.)

	I understood when I bought the OS that a) there were some known 
performance problems when using this card, and b) I am on a busy network. I'm
not real worried about my "investment" in the 501 cards since they paid 
for them selves long ago and they work fin in PCs running NCSA telnet...

	However, before I buy new hardware, I'd like to know what I 
can expect. The goal is to have reasonable NFS and X11 performance. I've got
a 150 mb ESDI disk on a wd-1007 controller and 4mb of memory. No coprocessor,
(yet) I'm still watching the prices fall.

	I've been getting about 15 K bytes per second throughput (as reported
by ftp) between my Doch (3C501) and my local Masscomp or Sun.  I would like 
to see 50K bytes/sec which I don't think is unreasonable, but..... 

Thanks in advance.
Dale
-- 
Dale Chayes Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University
Route 9W, Palisades, N.Y.  10964	dale@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu
voice:	(914) 359-2900 extension 434	fax: (914) 359-6817

swatt@cup.portal.com (Steven Edward Watt) (12/12/89)

Dale@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu writes:
>	I'm looking for a recommendation for an ethernet card to replace
>the 3Com 3C501 card in my Dolch 386/20. I'm running ISC 2.0.1 and am
>having significant problems (the OS looses all notion that it is connected
>to a network eventually, requires rebooting to clear.)  (I'v not been
>able to get any kind of resolution to this problem from ISC.)

  I suspect this is a problem with the OS and not the ethernet board.

>[deletion about expected problems]
>
>	However, before I buy new hardware, I'd like to know what I 
>can expect. The goal is to have reasonable NFS and X11 performance. I've got
>a 150 mb ESDI disk on a wd-1007 controller and 4mb of memory. No coprocessor,
>(yet) I'm still watching the prices fall.
>
>	I've been getting about 15 K bytes per second throughput (as reported
>by ftp) between my Doch (3C501) and my local Masscomp or Sun.  I would like 
>to see 50K bytes/sec which I don't think is unreasonable, but..... 

  Using a Western Digital WD8003E board, I am able to pull about 44k-50k
to/from my SCO Unix system V.3...  To & from DOS.  almost 80k to/from ULTRIX.
My system is otherwise normal:  WD1006 1:1 ST506 hard disk controller, 19ms
120mb drive, etc...

  SCO also supports the 3c501, but I don't have any numbers on that one.

>
>Thanks in advance.

No problem.
>Dale
Steve Watt
...!claris!zok!wattres!steve       steve@wattres.UUCP (if you trust your UUCP
or  swatt@cup.portal.com                               router...)

-- I don't work for SCO, I think their products are moderately good, and
   unfortunately, I think they're the best in this market, currently...