Date: Tue, 27 Aug 1996 11:12:46 -0500 From: bdodson@beowulf.utmb.edu (M. L. Dodson) To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 3c509 Message-ID: <199608271612.LAA05155@beowulf.utmb.EDU>
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Included Message from Tony Harverson <tony@panacea.insight.co.za> Begins: Heya :) > We just got some ethernet cards at work. They are 3com Etherlink. It > has marked C509B. By looking at GENERIC there is "(buggy)" next to > the 3C509. I wonder if this note refers to the card or the support > for it (ie is the card bad?). I am also wondering if the "B" is a > newer model of this card and if anyone has tried with with FreeBSD > 2.1.5. The Buggy Refers to the Driver for the card.. The card itself is a known stable and fast network card. Personally, I prefer 3com to just about any other ethernet card (especially some ne2000 clones). Bear in mind tho, this is the BSD community labelling the driver buggy, not the DOS one - as such, buggy means it has a minor problem ;-) Seriously tho, according to a post I read on here a while ago, the problem is observed on cheap motherboards when warm rebooting (The Card is not initailised by the board). I have been using 3c509's in BSD boxes since 2.0 and have had nary a problem with them, being very pleased by their performances. T Included Message Ends I'm afraid I have had different experiences, specifically with 3c509s and 2.1.5R. An ftp install worked fine from one of the secondary US FreeBSD servers with a P5-100 PCI, otherwise stock, motherboard with a 3c509 (50-90 kb/s). However, after about a day, the network was hung, netstat -r timing out. Same thing happened after swapping in another 3c509. After changing to an old 3c507, system has been up for a week now with no network problems other than it being a dog when talking to Suns and SGIs. I would guess that this is the card not keeping up with the workstations, a known problem, at least in the past. I agree these cards are probably OK (or at least as OK as it gets) under Win/DOS. Due to the driver quality, I buy $25 NE2000 clones for noncritical ISA machines (and for home use), SMC cards for more critical ISA boxes and will buy DEC chip PCI cards for servers in the future. Bud Dodson -- M. L. Dodson bdodson@scms.utmb.edu 409-772-2178 FAX: 409-772-1790
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