On Wed, Aug 09, 2006 at 02:26:37PM -0400, Lewis G Rosenthal wrote:
> More important (for these purposes) is what is between you and the server, John.


I have an ADSL 4-port router where my two main servers are connected. They
use old IBM 10Mbps ethernet cards. The laptop gets plugged into this
router.

> Hubs are half-duplex devices, whereas switches are (usually)
> auto-sensing. Older hardware, however didn't always implement full
duplex in the same manner, so it's possible that a single device can cause a packet storm due to dropped packet
> s, affecting (or effecting, as it were) the entire network. Better switches should detect such things and partition the errant client, but this may not be relia
> ble, even with newer hardware.
>
> Good troubleshooting steps:
>
> 1. Check the obvious (bad patch cable(s), jacks, power, etc.). don't overlook some unrelated software which may be stealing CPU cycles, either.

The laptop is new and is hardly running anything at all - just an OS/2 cmd
shell.



>
> 2. Isolate the client with the worst problem (if possible).
>
> 3. Disconnect the rest of the stations (or power them off).

The two servers work fine.

> 4. Lock the server and the workstation at 10Mbps half duplex and observe.

How do I tell if they are working at half duplex?

> 5. If all goes well with #4, the bump both to 100Mbps half duplex and observe.

10Mbps is the max.

> 6. Assuming #5 goes well, drop back to 10Mbps and switch to full duplex.
>
> 7. If #6 works without incident, go to 100/full on both, and finally auto.
>
> Soft cable faults can be difficult to find. Adapters set to auto can drop a lot of packets just switching back and forth between full and half duplex, whereas l
> ocking them down to half may result in better all around performance.

I suspect that problem is down to the driver and its configuration.

It has a Broadcom BCM4401 - a fast ethernet MAC chip according to PCI.

According to the docs:-

The official driver is not available for OS/2,
and the datasheet is not available to write drivers.

This driver is based on the source of Linux driver version 3.0.7,
which was provided on the Broadcom website.


Maybe I should contact the developer of the driver, although I think I
should ensure I have configured it correctly. I haven't set any options in
the NIF so all the defaults will apply. Maybe some need to be over ridden.

Any suggestions?

[B44A]