Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!yarrina.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.hawaii.edu!ames!hookup!solaris.cc.vt.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!quanta.com!rsww From: rsww@quanta.com (Ross S. W. Walker) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Linux network code vs. FreeBSD Date: 4 Dec 1995 00:17:13 GMT Organization: Quanta Communications, Inc. Lines: 42 Distribution: world Message-ID: <49tem9$eqd@tempis.quanta.com> References: <492rq6$r6g@uriah.heep.sax.de> <49ga27$g3i@tempis.quanta.com> <49j2eb$46i@kadath.zeitgeist.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: quanta.quanta.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Peter Seibel (seibel@mojones.com) wrote: : In article <49ga27$g3i@tempis.quanta.com> Ross S. W. Walker, rsww@quanta.com : writes: : >What net interface are you using. If the answer is the 3com 3c509/3c579 : >then there is you're broken frames. The buffers on these cards are too : >small for the performance of the network layer. Try a SMC Etherpower and : >see if the problem clears up. : Hi. I'm about to buy a Pentium which I'm going to run FreeBSD on (thanks to : all the folks who helped me choose between FreeBSD and Linux) and use as a web : server. I was going to get the 3Com 3C509B-COMBO ethernet adapter so the above : makes me nervous. I don't know much about ethernet, so what should I be : looking for in an ethernet card, given what I'm going to be using the box for. : -Peter Peter, I purchased the 3c579 cards a way back and, while they are ok, they will suffer from buffer overruns which can hinder total performance. These days the best way to go is PCI ethernet that uses the Digital chip set. Beside the latest cards from DEC there are also the latest SMC Etherpower?sp and a couple of others. The SMC cards are what I'm looking at they're cheaper then DEC's (I believe) and they have adequate buffers so they don't suffer from 3com's problem. The Digital chip-set is also faster then 3Com's parallel tasking, which could have been pretty good had they had the buffers to deal with sustained throughput. The 3com's are still decent for workstations that don't have to deal with sustained throughput though. Cheers, Ross Walker -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | /\/ | Ross S. W. Walker (rsww@quanta.com) | \/\ | | | |\ | finger rsww@quanta.com for PGP key _____________________________ | |___|/ | | Quanta Communications, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------