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To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject: question about "ed" driver performance on ASUS SP3G & 486DX4/100
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 1997 19:32:27 -0700
From: Mike Haertel <mike@ducky.net>
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I have two boxes, one based on the ASUS SP3G with a 486 DX4/100
processor, and another based on the ASUS P6NP5 with a 150 MHz PPro.
The 486 box has a 16-bit WD8013 based ethernet board, and the PPro
has an EtherExpress Pro/100.

I attempted to do an NFS install of FreeBSD 2.2.2 on the 486 box
using the PPro box as the server.  At appeared to detect the
ethernet board Ok, but it got hung when actually trying to copy
files.  After a considerable pain I concluded that it was dropping
the trailing packets (fragments), and the @#%@! UDP and/or
NFS protocol on the server was responding by attempting to
retransmit the entire packet again, and thus causing the trailing
packets to be lost again.  It seems that the PPro pumps the bits
out on the wire so fast that the 486 had no time to catch its breath.
Setting the maximum NFS read size to 2K or smaller allowed it
to work.  But slowly.

The same wd8013 ethernet card worked fine for a network install
to a Pentium/90 based Intel Xpress box.  I really have trouble
believing the 486/100 is so much slower than the Pentium/90
it can't keep up.

So: Is there anything special I should know about wd8013 cards
and ASUS SP3G's and/or 486/100's?  Or am I just plain out of luck?
In the latter case could anybody recommend a faster ISA ethernet
card that's widely supported by the free OS's?

Thanks,

	Mike