On Oct 22, Olaf Seibert wrote
> We're using a NetBSD machine (polder) as a file server, with Samba. For
> some reason, this is a lot slower than a NT machine (wormer) we also
> have, and FreeBSD (purmer).  A small table might give an indication of
> what sort of differences I'm talking about:
> 
> [...]
>
> Hardware is diverse:
> 
> wormer:	 NT 3.50, Pentium 166, SCSI disks, pci ne2000 clone
> bijlmer: NetBSD 1.3.2, 486 66, SCSI disk, 3c509 ethernet
> polder:	 NetBSD 1.2.1, Pentium 133, SCSI disks, 3c509 ethernet
> purmer:	 FreeBSD 2.2.7, AMD-K6 300, IDE disk, NE2000 PCI Ethernet
> 	 (RealTek 8029)
> 
> connected with a 10 Mbit/s ethernet (coax).
> 
> [...]
>
> Why o why is NetBSD so slow here? I am positively dieing to get rid of
> that stupid NT box, it's causing so much trouble (not to mention
> expenses), but it does serve files quickly...
> 

I would tend to blame the 3c509 for this. I've got tons of problem with them,
because of their really small fifo. Could you try another ethernet
board (ne2000 are good, but a DMA-capable board would be better for
a server).
In a general manner, I now tries to avoid 3com networks adapters (althouh
their other networks products seems good).

--
Manuel Bouyer, LIP6, Universite Paris VI.           Manuel.Bouyer@lip6.fr
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