Merlin,

I've had mixed experiences under Solaris x86 with 3C905B-TX cards in the
past - 100Mbs/FD gave the performance levels you quote, but 100Mbs/HD
worked more-or-less fine. This was on a Pentium-II 450 machine,
configured using the 3Com provided disk.

We've since bought a stack of Intel EtherExpress PRO/100 B cards, all of
which work, and configure just fine.

I'm not sure if you're seeing the same problem, and would also be
interested in hearing other folk's experiences of the EEpro cards...

Dan.

> Hi,
> 
>     I am new to NetBSD.  The whole installation and system configuration
> (except for the NIC card) was smooth and the system seems to working very
> well.   Can't believe I haven't looked at NetBSD before.   Makes me wonder
> what other good stuff I've missed...
> 
>     Below is a summary of cards I have tried.  It would be nice to use
> the card that came with the machine (NC3120).   However if someone could
> recommend a 100Base card that performs well with NetBSD, that would be just
> as good.
> 
> thanks,
> merlin
> 
> System: Compaq Deskpro Pentium-II 400
> OS:     NetBSD 1.1.3
> 
> NIC Card       Comments
> -------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Compaq NC3120  recognized by OS as Intel EtherExpress PRO 10+/100B
>                system locks up with sysinst -> configure network
> 
> 3Com 3C509B    good performance (800+K/s)
> 
> 3Com 3C905-TX  works but performs poorly ~85 K/s.
>                Read something about the driver not being able to effect
>                card settings.  Used config utility to lock it down at 100/FD.
>                No change in performance.
>                Built kernel from 19990315 snapshot.
>                That got it up to ~200 K/s.
>                Went back to the 10Base card and 1.1.3
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 

--
Daniel Brown, Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, 12, Union Road,
Cambridge, UK, CB2 1EZ.  Tel. +44 1223 336014  Fax. +44 1223 336033