[ On Monday, July 30, 2001 at 11:30:58 (-0600), Jim Bernard wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: excessive MII/CRC errors from tlp with Macronix card....
>
> I still need to set full duplex by hand, though.

Me too....

>   I get no such errors.  The network load here is generally quite light,
> but it has been stressed a bit doing duty serving a diskless macppc.  The
> card seems to be working well, though I haven't checked its performance.

I finally remembered the other little "networking" problem I have that
though it doesn't stress the network very hard, does put a definite load
on it and does measure drop-out and miscellaneous jitter-like problems
fairly well, and that's my little script to listen to streaming MP3
channels via NAS to my NCD HMX terminal.  I've just fired it up and have
been listening for the past little while (to www.kpig.com, FYI ;-).  I'm
no longer getting a crashing pile of static when too many drop-outs
happen (which means that the new PIPE code is definitely not at fault!).
However it is dropping out _way_ more often than before, and not
unsurprisingly whenever tlp0 complains about MII/CRC errors....

(in fact it's dropping out so often that listening is not really
worthwhile -- there are far too many interruptions, even though they're
on average about 5-10 seconds appart and usually only 1-2 seconds in
duration)

(FYI the NCD is on a hub with (other clients) on a port on the older
DECswitch 900EF, and the Macronix card's on the new VNswitch 900EX, and
I'm still using just a front-panel interconnect to connect the two
switches via 10baseT ports.)

> Maybe that "broken MicroWire interface..." message indicates the source of
> your problems?  But you might try a newer kernel, just in case that makes
> a difference.

Hmmm....  sounds possible, especially given that there do appear to be
packets lost (or at least significant "data jitter" introduced) when the
errors are reported.

I'll try to find another el-cheapo 10/100 card to try....  Though these
cheap cards suck worse than cheap 10baseT cards when running at 10baseT,
a properly working one should be an improvement when connected directly
at 100baseTX/FDX to my new switch.....

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

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Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>;   Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>