Date: Wed, 19 Jun 1996 23:06:13 +0200 (MET DST) From: Luigi Rizzo <luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> To: kuku@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de (Christoph P. Kukulies) Cc: freebsd-hackers@freefall.freebsd.org Subject: Re: pcbridge woes (is it FreeBSD?) Message-ID: <199606192106.XAA04166@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> In-Reply-To: <199606191727.TAA14537@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de> from "Christoph P. Kukulies" at Jun 19, 96 07:27:01 pm
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> We have an ethernet branch being separated via a 286 based PC running > the well known pcbridge product. which one: the original one by Vance Morrison, or my ROMable version (2.77) ? Also, there is a newer version (3.XX), developed under FreeBSD, which only runs on a 386+ but is a bit improved (read on). pcbridge 3.XX is available from my home page. pcbridge 2.77 is available from ftp.iet.unipi.it > I didn't like that solution peculiarly and it more frequently now is > causing headaches. One major reason why it was introduced was the fact that > the DOS/Win machines otherwise would be slowed down by the heavy > network traffic (I was told) - I didn't see that in fact myself, but maybe. Both versions can only buffer one packet at a time, and block until they deliver the packet. Actually, my version has an adaptive timeout so that it makes a slightly better use of buffers and avoids waiting for too long when there is much activity. the original pcbridge with WD8013 (or clones using the 8390 controller) tended to lock up under heavy traffic. In my experience SMC8013 cards (now discontinued :(, they used the 83690 controller) are much more reliable. We have about 10 bridges in our faculty, with 2..5 cards using pcbridge 2.77 and running flawlessly since mid 1993 (apart from 3 SMC8013 boards -- out of ~30 -- which broke) Version 3.XX is much improved because it uses the available memory as packet buffers, so that there are no busy waiting and even busy networks do not cause drops or trashing in the bridge. > Now I established a samba printer via FreeBSD (2.2-current) to a DOS/WfW311 > box laying behind that PCBridge. What happens is that the DOS box > cannot be reached anymore after a few network transfers have been made, > say, a print job has been transfered. Then the machine cannot > be reached via ping any more. Booting the box sometimes helps, as well > as rebooting the bridge. But the picture is fuzzy. > The funny thing is that other machines (Linux as well) still can reach the box. > > I'm really puzzled. OK, I'm working into a direction to make this PCBridge > go away just because it is always causing trouble but I still wonder > what the cause for this could be. Check the following: - a malfunctioning board. This is the most frequent cause of troubles I had. - cables; - a hash table collision in the bridge; - the FreeBSD system being too fast and causing some boards to lock up; - any other bridge or repeater in the middle ? I spent two weeks to find out that the DECbridge90 acts very strangely. Luigi ==================================================================== Luigi Rizzo Dip. di Ingegneria dell'Informazione email: luigi@iet.unipi.it Universita' di Pisa tel: +39-50-568533 via Diotisalvi 2, 56126 PISA (Italy) fax: +39-50-568522 http://www.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/ ====================================================================
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