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Date: Sun, 25 Feb 1996 14:06:25 -0700 (MST)
From: Stephen Fisher <lithium@cia-g.com>
To: Jim Shankland <jas@flyingfox.COM>
cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee,
        hardware@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: 3COM 509 NICs
In-Reply-To: <199602251939.LAA04980@saguaro.flyingfox.com>
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Speaking of which, last night when playing with the kernel compile on my 
home test machine I saw that it said 3c509 ethernet card support is still 
buggy.  I agree with this in that it only finds my 3c509 (the generic 
kernel) half the time when booting that machine.  I was about to grab a 
3c509 for my new server... a PCI card.. are the 3com PCI cards 3c509 or 
something else?

On Sun, 25 Feb 1996, Jim Shankland wrote:

> > Narvi stands accused of saying:
> > > 	A friend of mine wants to set up a FreeBSD box as a router 
> > > 	between 4 ethernets and planns to use 3COM 509 NICs. As I'm the 
> > > 	only one who has used FreeBSD round here, he asked me. So, can 
> > > 	anyone point out any troubles I will immedeately fall into? Will 
> > > 	the 3COM cards give any performance gains over NE2000 compatibles 
> > > 	(there is that unresolved reference to buggyness)?
> > 
> > I'd be inclined to suggest NE2000's.  PIO to/from the card notwithstanding,
> > the ed driver is very efficient, and NE2000 clones are very cheap.
> > 
> > Whilst I'm sure there are plenty of '509's out there working just fine,
> > there have been enough unhappy stories about them that I'd be discouraged.
> 
> Another data point:  I have precisely this configuration (4 3C509's in
> a FreeBSD box functioning as a router), and it has worked flawlessly.
> We keep those 4 Ethernets pretty busy, too.
> 
> Jim Shankland
> Flying Fox Computer Systems, Inc.
>