>Being a bit fed up with the buffer underruns and occasional bad packet
>lengths that I got with my power mac 8600's internal network adapter, I
>got a PCI based one.
>
>The SOHOware Fast, the one based on Macronix MX98715AEC which is a DEC
>Tulip clone [I had read this was a good clone, and that tulip in general
>was a good chip (man tlp)] [BTW what's up with the reference to de, which
>there's a man page for, but doesn't seem to be the recommended way to
>support tulips any longer]

Correct, de is the older driver. It is still around in case some 
obscure hardware doesn't like the tlp driver, then you can simply 
comment out the tlp & let the de take over.

>Well, Having built it [1.6] and all I was dissapointed to see the
>following behavior:
>
>ifconfig tlp0 media 10baseT		Works
>ifconfig tlp0 media 10baseT-FDX		Works but is not Full-Duplex
>ifconfig tlp0 media 100baseTX		Broken
>ifconfig tlp0 media 100baseTX-FDX	As above but is not Full-Duplex
>ifconfig tlp0 media Auto		Doesn't work
>The thing to note is that you can't just switch to 100baseTX*
>from 10baseT*, you must first switch to Auto, and then to 100baseTX*
>or you will detect no carrier (no link light).
>
>My Full-Duplex switch has a full-duplex light to tell me that the FDX
>modes arn't full-duplex.

A switch light cannot tell you if the card is in full-duplex mode or 
not. It can only tell you if the SWITCH is in full-duplex mode or 
not. According to Apple, locking the duplex setting violates the 
ethernet spec which is why, for ALL Apple internal NICs, if a switch 
is locked to FDX, the NIC will go into 1/2 mode, which will cause 
abyssmal network performance (duplex mismatch). If your switch is 
"smart", you may want to check its settings. If anything is locked 
down at the switch, it would certainly explain many of your issues. 
Also, trying a different cable is always appropriate (even if it 
worked with the other card).

Just my thoughts,
Mike
-- 
Bikers don't *DO* taglines.