> 
> Could someone running one of these 3COM cards tell me what the
> trick is?

Replace it with a real card..  :-)

> I have used these for quite some time with BSDI and have 
> found that we *must* put the 509 in EISA mode before using
> it in an EISA slot. Is the same true for NetBSD?
> 
> Still, it seems that the EISA (579) version should "just work".

I have a 3c579 with AUI/UTP, and have _never_ been able to get the AUI
port to work.  No matter what invocation of link0, link1 I use, it
doesn't work.  The UTP port works fine with 'ifconfig ep0 link0 link1'

I would like to replace mine with a SMC 10/100 EISA card, but I don't
think the drivers support it.

I would suggest a 3c509b card, running in ISA mode.

> The hardware is a:
> Tyan 1462 PCI/EISA motherboard.
> 48MB RAM
> 133mhz P5
> 
> Any hints on PCI/Pentium tweaks would be appreciated. This is
> my first go with NetBSD on anything beyond a 486 ISA.

Ditch the 3com cards and buy a SMC etherpower 10/100.  They are
about $200, and the 'de' driver works. 

-Andrew
-- 
============================ Real 32bit multi-tasking UN*X System
Andrew Gillham             | TCP/IP,NFS,PPP,4.4BSD-lite,multi-user
gillham@andrews.edu        | i386,sparc,alpha,mac68k,amiga,others
LAN/WAN/NW/UN*X specialist |   ---> http://www.NetBSD.org <---