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Date:      Wed, 26 Dec 2001 03:46:15 -0500
From:      "Keith J" <kjohnso8@columbus.rr.com>
To:        "Tom" <tom@uniserve.com>
Cc:        "Peter Ong" <peter@haloflightleader.net>, "Robert Watson" <rwatson@FreeBSD.ORG>, "Nevermind" <never@nevermind.kiev.ua>, "Murray Stokely" <murray@FreeBSD.ORG>, <stable@FreeBSD.ORG>, <freebsd-qa@FreeBSD.ORG>, <bmah@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: 4.5 PRERELEASE - Call for testing
Message-ID:  <001301c18de9$c7ed5240$3602a8c0@columbus.rr.com>
References:  <Pine.BSF.4.10.10112251046120.81618-100000@athena.uniserve.ca>

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Well gee Tom.... if one end doesn't respond to negotiation... are you saying
the smart end will force a speed or duplex that can't possibly work? Lets
say I have an old 10Mbs ONLY card... are you declaring that it gets toasted
by auto-negotiate every single time?

It is well known that a major issue existed with some NIC's and switches a
few years back because the initial standards were not explicit enough. Some
in the industry took the directives to mean one thing, and others to be
different enough that "auto" was not reliable. Given that many FreeBSD users
collect hardware from a few years past, I applied this reasoning as a
possible culprit. I also mentioned several others, but you saw fit to remove
them... evidently to make your point about "todays state" of hardware.

If you want to call something "bad advice" please be specific as to the
aspects and why that is so... I find people that edit responses and then
hold court while passing judgement with blanket and terse responses to be
rather tiresome and out of character with the ideal of a free exchange of
knowledge. Bottom line, I have yet to see an expensive smart switch or
inexpensive switch insist on a 10/100 mode that could not be supported when
one end was "locked down". If this is not the case for you, please enlighten
us all with your "personal" real world experience.

On the other hand, if this is an issue with the semantics of auto-detect vs
auto-negotiate... well, I can't help it if industry can't be consistent in
their documentation. Perhaps I am going over the presumption line here...
but I don't think most home users here are people running trunking using
dot1q or Cisco isl to get their Mp3's... and for the record... even if one
"auto-detects" something as simple as 10/100 it still must "negotiate" the
balance of parameters, given that human intervention is not required...
hence it is defacto "automatic", and thus my characterization as
"auto-negotiate".

As far as trunking goes... auto-negotiate trunking doesn't necessarily tell
one what it finally settled on, or that it even settled on something.... and
is a whole other thread entirely.

It is always better to be parameter specific, and to that extent I do agree
with you - if one can explicitly lock down both ends so much the better, but
not all inexpensive switches can.... and my experience has told me it isn't
necessary.

Keith

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom" <tom@uniserve.com>
To: "Keith J" <kjohnso8@columbus.rr.com>
Cc: "Peter Ong" <peter@haloflightleader.net>; "Robert Watson"
<rwatson@FreeBSD.ORG>; "Nevermind" <never@nevermind.kiev.ua>; "Murray
Stokely" <murray@FreeBSD.ORG>; <stable@FreeBSD.ORG>;
<freebsd-qa@FreeBSD.ORG>; <bmah@FreeBSD.ORG>
Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2001 1:50 PM
Subject: Re: 4.5 PRERELEASE - Call for testing


>
> On Tue, 25 Dec 2001, Keith J wrote:
>
> ...
> > Another possibility is you do not have a Samba problem, but a network
> > problem with auto-negotiate. Some older 10/100 cards and switch
combinations
> > step all over each other. You should lock down one end to a specific
speed
> ...
>
>   That is bad advice.  Auto-negotiation is not auto-detect.  If you
> disable auto-negotiate at one end and specify manual settings, you must
> disable it on the other end too, and specify the SAME manual settings.
> Either use auto-negotiate everywhere, or use manual everywhere.  I would
> recommend using auto everywhere.
>
> Tom
>
>
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