Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!chinacat!uudell!Kepler.dell.com!mjhammel From: mjhammel@Kepler.dell.com (Michael J. Hammel) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc Subject: Re: packet drivers losing packets or getting confused? Message-ID: <18092@uudell.dell.com> Date: 11 Apr 91 18:08:36 GMT References: <5426@eastapps.East.Sun.COM> <17713@uudell.dell.com> <1991Apr6.173657.47299@cc.usu.edu> Sender: news@uudell.dell.com Reply-To: mjhammel@Kepler.dell.com (Michael J. Hammel) Organization: Dell Computer Corp. Lines: 36 In article <5426@eastapps.East.Sun.COM>, geoff@bodleian.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top) writes: > Quoth jrd@cc.usu.edu (in <1991Apr6.173657.47299@cc.usu.edu>): > # Heavy traffic is kind of vague. I have no trouble monitoring with > #either package when the packet rate reaches 500 pkts/sec around here, on > #a WD8003E board in a Dell 310 386-20. As we know only too well, real SUN I missed this followup somehow. Ah well. "Heavy traffic" could be loosely defined as a substantial increase in the number of packets being seen by either of my two monitors (Netwatch or the Beholder). Both deal quite nicely with TCP/IP packets, it appears, but when I start up the NFS-based traffic (UDP/IP) it saturates (at least in comparison to the TCP traffic I was running) the wire and the monitors stop reporting traffic information. I don't really think its a matter of UDP vs. TCP, though. Something about the packet drivers is not working (judgement call; I can't prove that yet). > #machines are reputed to shorten the normal small breathing space > #between packets to a smidgeon, and hence the reputation SUN machines have. I'd never heard this, but it wouldn't apply in my case anyway. My test network contains about 15 systems, all Dell Systems, all running either Dell UNIX V4 or Dell's updated version of ISC's 2.0.2 w/TCP 1.2 or 1.1.2. No Suns around (at least in this testbed). > WD8003Es fall over all the time under load, and not just from Suns. Thanks for the clarification on the Suns. However, my problem deals with both WD8003EBs and 3Com 3C503s. Thats why I felt it was a packet driver problem. Michael J. Hammel | mjhammel@{Kepler|socrates|feynman}.dell.com Dell Computer Corp. | {73377.3467|76424.3024}@compuserve.com #include | zzham@ttuvm1.bitnet "We choose to do this not because it is easy but because it is hard." J.F.K.