Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!munnari.oz.au!basser!ultima!hades!greyham
From: greyham@hades.OZ (Greyham Stoney)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: Memory requirements for 386/ix
Message-ID: <487@hades.OZ>
Date: 11 Dec 89 16:35:09 GMT
References: <828@rsiatl.UUCP>
Organization: Ausonics Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia
Lines: 36

in article <828@rsiatl.UUCP>, jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. De Armond) says:
> With 20 users I presume you are connecting these in through an Ethernet?
> I hope so.  4 or 5 users on TTY logins is pushing it pretty far on this
> 20 mhz machine.  If you are installing Ethernet, you must use an intelligent
> card such as the Interlan unit supported by ISC.  I've used this card and
> can report that it performs very well.  In general, you want to avoid
> creating interrupts on the PC bus.  I've determined that it is almost 
> essential to have intelligence in anything that handles a datastream.

Make sure you get the Intelligent card though. The Interlan NI5210 (which is
a "dumb" card) does NOT work with NFS; we've tried and tried, and always
met with failure. We haven't tried the intelligent card (as John evidently
has, with much success); all I can say is that the NI5210 don't work.
Interactive have confirmed this as follows:

% From pyramid!oliveb!ism780c!ism780b!386ixsup@murtoa.cs.mu.oz Thu Nov 23 19:36:39 1989
% Date: Wed, 22 Nov 89 14:37:09 pst
% From: 386/ix Support <386ixsup@ism780b.oz>
% Message-Id: <8911222237.AA04225@ism780b.isc.com>
% To: greyham@hades.seg.ausonics.nucleus.oz
% Subject: Re: NFS problems
% 
% There are known problems running NFS with that particular
% ethercard. The problem was in Interlan's TCP driver. They
% have forwarded a new driver to us that fixes several such
% problems, but which is so slow as to be impractical. They
% are now trying to resolve that issue.
% 
% In sum, we suggest any other card than the NI5210.

							Greyham.

-- 
/*  Greyham Stoney:                            Australia: (02) 428 6476  *
 *     greyham@hades.oz  - Ausonics Pty Ltd, Lane Cove, Sydney, Oz.      *
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