On Thu, 30 Mar 2000, Hubert Feyrer wrote:

> I just plugged a BicMac ethernet card into my SS5 running 1.4.2A, and
> wonder how to get it doing 100MBd. I've told the switch it's connected to
> doing autosensing and also tried hardwiring 100baseTX, but no difference.
> The other side is fine with 100MBd.

I've the same setup running 1.4.1 at home, and it works okay; I'm not sure
what the problem could be (1.4.2 change?).  Can you verify this via an
applique to another 100MB ethernet port, cutting the switch out of the
loop?  I've had problems with cheap/malfunctioning switches before (not to
imply you've a cheap switch...).

Another note is that while it may be 100MB, the card doesn't appear to
perform that well for me.  It gets just over what my 10BT le0 interface
gets in terms of throughput, about 1.1mb/sec (using a large FTP for
reference, not scientific - just a guestimate).

[snip]

> "ifconfig be0" shows:
> 
> be0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
>         media: Ethernet 100baseTX (10baseT half-duplex)
>         status: no carrier
> 
> Why does it still say "(10baseT half-duplex)" in parantheses, and why does
> the status always say "no carrier", though the network is up?

This appears to be the norm with regards to the no carrier - I have it
into a switch at 100MB half-duplex, and I see "no carrier" on the
interface 24x7.

> Also, is the funny klicking from some relais(?) on the card normal when
> running ifconfig?

The clicking is an actual relay which does some swapping of lines.  Kind
of worrying, but also kind of cool.  It's normal AFAIK, and it happens
whenever I reset the card's media or go into/out of promiscuous
mode.  It's actually rather satisfying sometimes to change the interface
and hear it literally click into place :-)

Hope this helps,

-Jon
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