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From: storm@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca (Marc Wandschneider)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: [Summary:] What Ethernet card are YOU using?
Date: 2 Jul 1993 16:25:12 -0400
Organization: School of Computer Science, McGill University, Montreal
Lines: 267
Message-ID: <2125j8$4vf@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: binkley.cs.mcgill.ca
Moo!
For those of you who are interested, the following is a list of
all the replies I have received to date on my "What Ethernet
card are YOU using?" post.
If you have an ethernet card, please take the time to send in
the following form, and your card will be added to the list.
If you are working on a driver for a non-standard card (ie
non-NE2000 or WD8003 compat card), please drop me a line with
any information, and I will add your information to this list.
Card Name:
Manufacturer:
Model #:
Type:
Cost:
Vendor:
Performance:
OS:
Problems:
You Are: {Email addr if possible}
The list, so far, is basically a thunderous thumbs up for the
SMC (Super) Elite 16 series of cards, and a crushing thumbs
down for the NE-2000 Card (and it's clones).
Toodlepip!
Marc 'em.
Here is the list so far. Please note that the "You Are" field
was hindsight, so most of these don't have it:
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Card Name:Elite 16
Manufacturer:SMC
Model #:8013
Type: Thin
Cost: $130
Vendor:
Performance: 200 KB/s
OS: 386bsd
Problems: Isn't recognized on warm boot-the power must be
cycled
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Card Name: super elite16
Manufacturer: western digital
Model #: elite16
Type: available in all types, I use the thin/thick version
Cost: ~$135
Vendor: Datel Systems, San Diego Ca.
Performance: ~450 KB/s
OS: Both NetBSD and 386BSD, There is an enhancement that allows 16 bit
mode, and the above figures reflect that patch being installed.
otherwise the speeds drop by about 35%.
Problems: Works out of the box, but might need dos to set the software
configuration (Its been awhile, I don't remember if the hardwired
defaults work with net/386BSD).
I use this on two different machines and it has been real stable.
I regularly do full builds of /usr/src via nfs with no problems.
You Are:^--Bob Crowe bob@speakez.com
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
My advice to you is don't bother with anything but an SMC 'Ethercard Elite/16'.
The boards from 3Com and other vendors are much slower. With my 'ed' device
driver, the SMC Elite-16/WD8013 have no problem at all doing full ethernet
bandwidth. I have one of just about all of the popular ethernet boards for the
PC - so I think I'm in a pretty good position to give advice.
My device driver is in beta at the moment, but is looking excellent and I
plan a wide-scale release in less than a week - and of course I'll give out
advance copies to people who ask.
-DG [ Dave Greenman ]
[Ed's note: Sorry folks---Forgot to save this guy's address... :-(]
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Card Name: 3c503 (etherlink II)
Manufacturer: 3com
Model #: 3c503
Type: {Thick/Thin/Twisted Pair/other}
thick to tp-transceiver or thin (10baseT at school and thin at home,
where i have my bsd machine hooked up to a dos machine with a 3c501).
Cost: used: $100, new about $175
Vendor: some guy on campus
Performance: acceptable. around 200k/s on our really busy campus net, and
about 100k/s at home, but that is the fault of the 3c501.
OS: netbsd (used with 386bsd as well).
Problems: Had to play games with it in august when 386bsd only supported the
thin port (was an easy change though, just one line in the driver).
I've also used an SMC/WD 8013 in the same machine (and other machines
running linux, i386mach and dos) and have had a lot of problems with the
cards losing their settings (they are software configurable) or just
doing weird stuff (on my roommates machine, a generic 486 running
linux/dos, we would have to reset the machine twice for the card to get
recognized).
I'd reccomend it over the WD8013 for that reason. And even though the
WD8013 is a 16-bit card and the 3c503 is a 8-bit card (you can get
16-bit versions though), there seems to be no noticable difference, at
least on our network.
alex
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Card Name: Ethercard Plus
Manufacturer: SMC
Model #: Elite 16
Type: Thick/Thin, {Thick/Thin/Twisted Pair/other}
Cost: 175 CDN
Vendor: local
Performance: around 300K bytes per second between 486-50 & 486-33
OS: bsd386 (patch 0.2.2) to DELL v4 2.2
Problems: none - just use the recommended IRQs and ports
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Card Name: 3Com 3C503
Manufacturer: 3Com
Model #: 3C503
Type: Coax, but I'm using a Twisted Pair tranciever.
Cost: I bought it used, $70. Retail is $200
Vendor:
Performance: Hmmmmmmm...Pretty fast, not the fastest from what i've seen.
OS: NetBSD, No Extra drivers, There is a special ''aui'' flag that must be
issued in the ifconfig statement if you use the external tranciever,
(i.e. ifconfig <ip> netmask <netmask> broadcast <broadcast> aui
Problems: Not really, just the aui thing. I thought for a while that the
driver was flaky, but it seems stable, (my other hardware is what's
flaky)
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Card Name: Elite16
Manufacturer: SMC (they bought out Western Digital)
Model #: 8013 EWC
Type: AUI/Thin/UTP
Cost: No idea, departmental machine
Vendor: SMC (they bought out Western Digital)
Performance: 150 Kb/sec average, up to 250 Kb/sec peak.
OS: 386bsd-0.1, patchkit 0.2.2, 0.2.3 and now 0.2.4
Problems: None, once I'd got the IRQ settings correct. A very nice card.
You Are: Warren Toomey
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Card Name: EtherCard PLUS
Manufacturer: SMC
Model #: Elite16 Combo
Type: Thick,Thin,&TP
Cost: $215
Vendor: ??
Performance: 300-400KB/s with new ed0 driver on 25MHz 386 using ttcp to Sun
SparcStation SLC (way better than the NE2000-clone I had been
using 'till last week)
OS: 386bsd + David Greenman's ed Ethernet driver, but it would work
with the we driver
Problems: No problems after I ran the diagnostics program to properly
set the board to use the AUI interface...
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Card Name: Card_I_found_in_the_cabinet
Manufacturer: Western Digital?
Model #: WD8003
Type: thin
Cost: $0.00 (found it in the equipment cabinet :)
Vendor: ?
Performance: Looks good to me
OS: 386bsd Worked with the supplied we driver.
Problems: Stopped working after applying patches 100 and 112. Started
again when I removed them.
Card Name: Card_I_borrowed_from_the_guy_in_the_next_office
Manufacturer: Western Digital?
Model #: WD8013
Type: thin
Cost: ?
Vendor: ?
Performance: Seems to be a little faster than the othe one.
OS: 386bsd Worked with the supplied we driver.
Problems: Soft reboot makes the card "disappear." This is a known
problem described in the FAQ and is related to using the card in
16 bit mode.
Hope this is useful. I still lust for a driver for my
EtherExpress 16 card :)
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Card Name: Etherlink II
Manufacturer: 3Com
Model #: 3C503
Type: {Thick/Thin}
Cost: used - $50
Vendor: net
Performance: ftp transfers on local net up to 230k/s
OS: {NetBSD/386bsd}
Problems: {Did it work right from the start} yes.
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Card Name: EtherLink II/16
Manufacturer: 3Com
Model #: 3c503-16
Type: {Thick/Thin/Twisted Pair/other} Thin/Thick
Cost: {approx if you don't remember} ~ $150 w/bulk discount
Vendor: Direct purchase from 3Com I think
Performance: Peak of ~ 80 K/s on semi-busy net.
OS: Both NetBSD and 386BSD
Problems: Easy as Pi! [not one problem... but I only ran this card for 2
months, till the PC it came out of was resurrected]
Card Name: WD 8003E
Manufacturer: Western Digital [now made by SMC]
Model #: 8003E
Type: {Thick/Thin/Twisted Pair/other} Thin/Thick
Cost: {approx if you don't remember} $50 used
Vendor: misc.forsale.computers...
Performance: VERY fast for 8 bit card [up to 250K/s on semi-busy net]
OS: NetBSD
Problems: Card has goofy configuration, but if you read the docs, and have
the setup disk, you should be OK [I needed to set the card to
software configurable, and set the parameters with the setup
program on the setup disk]
Card Name: NE2000
Manufacturer: Eagle [subsidiary of Novell]
Model #: NE2000
Type: {Thick/Thin/Twisted Pair/other} Thin/Thick
Cost: {approx if you don't remember} [no clue, it's in my PC at work]
Vendor: [no clue..]
Performance: This card is a PIG! I get about 5 K/s with NT, and about 10K/s
with BSD... But it cost me nothing, so I complain not...
OS: NetBSD
Problems: None, other than speed...
You Are: Rafal Boni r-boni@uiuc.edu
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Card Name: EtherCard PLUS Elite16
Manufacturer: Western Digital
Model #:
Type: Thick and tp, I think. I'm using thick.
Cost:
Vendor:
Performance: Seems to be very good, I get 4-500 kB/s when transfering
Files to the pc (486/33, ide disk) with ftp.
OS: Kernel built from vanilla NetBSD-0.8 sources
Problems: Behaved bad (dropped _lots_ of incoming packets)
before I added 'option "WD8013"' to my kernel config file.
Card Name: ZOT-N101E, "ne2000 compatible"
Manufacturer:
Model #:
Type: Thick/Thin, I'm using thick.
Cost:
Vendor:
Performance: Very bad to ok, see below.
OS: Kernel built from vanilla NetBSD-0.8 sources
Problems: With the kernel untouched I got only 20-30 kB/s to the
pc with ftp. I did _not_ have the usual irq 2 conflict with
video card problem (same behavior when using another irq).
The patch that semi-solved the problem is to change TCP_MAXWIN
down to 1024 in /sys/netinet/tcp.h. With this patch I got
ca 200 kB/s when ftp'ing to the pc. This patch probably is a bad
thing when using tcp over connections with long delays, though.
You Are: Mats Lofkvist (d87-mal@nada.kth.se)
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Wandschneider Montreal, Canada
If Milli Vanilli were to fall in a forest,would somebody make a noise for them?