Re: [netatalk-admins] AppleTalk crashes EEPro100 on a bonded etherchannel


Subject: Re: [netatalk-admins] AppleTalk crashes EEPro100 on a bonded etherchannel
From: Osma Ahvenlampi (oa@spray.fi)
Date: Wed Nov 25 1998 - 03:43:13 EST


Dejan Ilic <svedja@lysator.liu.se> writes:
> *) 3Com hardware support sucks. Multicasting is "1-bit" selected.
> Either on or off, no hardware filtering at all. You receive ALL
> multicasting trafic if you have it all.

Yep. All multicast filtering is done in software with all 3Com cards.

> *) Intel networking is better, something like it is able to separate a
> couple multicasting-channels in hardware, something like "3-bit" I
> think it was.

EEPro100 has a 64-address hardware multicase filter. However, the
Linux driver still has a problem that it crashes if it receives
traffic while being configured for >3 multicast addresses (the first
three fit into the first configuration frame, while the rest need an
extension frame). Workaround:

options eepro100 multicast_filter_limit=3

into /etc/conf.modules (or if your driver is built into the kernel,
the same option to the kernel).

> *) Their favorite is Digital Tulip-based cards (Dec-21something) that
> can be found in cheap cards from DLINK for example. If I remember
> correctly it is magnitude better in handling multicasting trafic
> compared both to 3com and Intel.

Other Tulip cards are SMC EtherPowers. Tulip has a 512-address
hardware multicast hash filter and 16-address perfect filter. I have
no personal experience with Tulip cards, so I can't say if the driver
works well.

Donald Becker's Linux Ethernet drivers page has good background
information for all cards Linux supports. See

<URL:http://cesdis1.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/>

and in particular,

<URL:http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/misc/100mbps.html>

-- 
Pound for pound, the amoeba is the most vicious animal on the earth.
Osma Ahvenlampi <oa@spray.fi>



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