Subject: Re: gem (ERI/GEM/GMAC Ethernet device driver) has problems on macppc -current
To: None <current-users@netbsd.org>
From: Miles Nordin <carton@Ivy.NET>
List: current-users
Date: 10/21/2005 23:28:06
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>>>>> "ts" == Timo Schoeler <timo.schoeler@riscworks.net> writes:

    ts> when using the SMC _hub_ the machine automatically sets the
    ts> NIC to half duplex as it should be.

The Realtek cards' windows drivers also report half-duplex when
plugged into a hub and full-duplex when plugged into a switch.
However, no matter what they report, they behave as full-duplex.  They
simply lie.  It is a problem with this specific chip and windows
driver that I've observed frequently, but from the sound of it maybe
they're not the only ones.

    ts> yes, but usually in such an environment (colliding half and
    ts> full duplex setting) the transfer rates are very very
    ts> low. this is not the case here.

No sir, that has emphatically not been my experience with duplex
mismatches at all.  Here the problem has more than once gone unnoticed
for months, because in many cases performance is just fine, but then
when certain types of traffic and combinations of active NICs occur,
some users experience abyssmal performance.  What combinations and
which ones suffer isn't always intuitive.

    ts> er, sorry, i re-checked all my mails on this topic and i
    ts> really didn't 'poo-pooh' anyone

Right, understood, I was thinking not of your problem but of the
frustrations I've had with people in my house trying to convince them
their broken drivers and NICs are responsible for their problems, not
the network.  sorry for my bad presentation.

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