Hello,
BACKGROUND:
We currently have two AlphaServer 2100s running Digital UNIX 3.2c and
Console Firmware 4.2. The two systems are interconnected
(point-to-point) via a pair of DE500-XA Fast EtherWORKS PCI 10/100
using a UTP Category 5 cable with RJ-45 connectors. The mode, ew*0_mode,
is set to FastFD (Fast Ethernet (100baseT:100Mb/sec) Full Duplex).
It will be used to handle the NFS/NIS traffic for these multi-purpose
systems with over 18,000 accounts. Sounds great, except...
PROBLEM:
Unfortunately, we receive dozens of framing errors every
few seconds from both cards during testing (ftp genvmunix) period.
Many times the ftp transfers at 100Mb/s produces poorer results than at
10Mb/s -- as bad as 16Kb/s. I have noticed if I set the cards to 10Mb/sec,
then no errors occur and the transfer rates are consistent. DEC field
service has already replaced cards with the same results. I have also
tried three different UTP Cat 5 cables.
Anyone else have this configuration? Anyone else have a clue why 100Mb/s
mode is producing so many errors?
O'Reilly & Associates "TCP/IP Network Administration", page 272, claims
more than 100 input or output errors are not normal. I am getting
thousands of input and output (framing) errors.
If this can't be solved, then we will have to give another network
card, perhaps the PCI FDDI card (DEFPA-UA), a try. Anyone using the PCI FDDI
cards in a point-to-point network?
--
Regards,
Richard Jackson George Mason University
Computer Systems Engineer UCIS / ISO
Computer Systems Engineering
Received on Thu Sep 07 1995 - 20:23:10 NZST