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Date:      Sat, 24 May 1997 10:15:47 +0100 (BST)
From:      Doug Rabson <dfr@nlsystems.com>
To:        Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
Cc:        chuckr@Glue.umd.edu, FreeBSD-Hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: 3COM stuff
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.95q.970524101244.331I-100000@herring.nlsystems.com>
In-Reply-To: <199705240810.RAA05616@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au>

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On Sat, 24 May 1997, Michael Smith wrote:

> Doug Rabson stands accused of saying:
> > > 
> > > NFS on those cards is _BAD_.  If at all possible, do an FTP install.
> > > If you must use NFS, make sure the rsize parameter is _small_ - I
> > > recommend 1024 as a general rule.
> > 
> > In theory, NFS over TCP should be usable with these cards.
> 
> This is why?  I would have thought that an 8k read would result in 8k
> of packets, unless the window is somehow reduced through magic
> knowledge of the card's receive capabilities...?

TCP will break down the 8k result into MTU sized packets and will also be
able to re-send in MTU sized packets if one is lost.  The problem with the
3c503 is that NFS reads will send a burst of about 6 packets back-to-back
which overflows the buffers.  When the request times out, it re-sends and
gets back another burst which overflows again.  In TCP, the re-sending
happens at a lower level and should work better with the limited buffering
of the card.  TCP will treat the buffer overflows as network congestion
and back off.

--
Doug Rabson				Mail:  dfr@nlsystems.com
Nonlinear Systems Ltd.			Phone: +44 181 951 1891
					Fax:   +44 181 381 1039




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