[OFF-TOPIC] 4 ports ETH cards

[OFF-TOPIC] 4 ports ETH cards

[Fabbione]

Hi all,
	sorry for the offtopic msg.

Can someone point me to a 4 ports fast/eth card solution for linux?

I found some cards based on the DEC 21*4* chips but when
I asked for more details I got a strange answer from the reseller
like that this card is able to work only half-duplex and the chip has
only one mac-address for the 4 eth cards (really strange).

Thanks a lot
Fabbione

Re: [OFF-TOPIC] 4 ports ETH cards

[J . A . Magallon]

On 05.29 Fabbione wrote:
> Hi all,
> 	sorry for the offtopic msg.
> 
> Can someone point me to a 4 ports fast/eth card solution for linux?
> 
> I found some cards based on the DEC 21*4* chips but when
> I asked for more details I got a strange answer from the reseller
> like that this card is able to work only half-duplex and the chip has
> only one mac-address for the 4 eth cards (really strange).
> 

Adaptec has the DuraLAN product (aka starfire). Look in their web page.
Drivers are included in the kernel; for more info, look in:
http://www.scyld.com/network/starfire.html

-- 
J.A. Magallon                           #  Let the source be with you...        
mailto:jamagallon@able.es
Linux Mandrake release 8.1 (Cooker) for i586
Linux werewolf 2.4.5-ac3 #1 SMP Mon May 28 19:37:02 CEST 2001 i686

Re: [OFF-TOPIC] 4 ports ETH cards

[Dan Hollis]

On Tue, 29 May 2001, Fabbione wrote:
> I found some cards based on the DEC 21*4* chips but when
> I asked for more details I got a strange answer from the reseller
> like that this card is able to work only half-duplex and the chip has
> only one mac-address for the 4 eth cards (really strange).

This sounds like it's not a 4 port card, but a 4 port hub-card. (Eg a card
with integrated 4-port hub)

-Dan

Re: [OFF-TOPIC] 4 ports ETH cards

[Fabbione]

Hi Dan,
	yes it's more or less like this. I got many mail explaining me.
I will forward the most interesting to you.

Thanks
Fabio

Dan Hollis wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 29 May 2001, Fabbione wrote:
> > I found some cards based on the DEC 21*4* chips but when
> > I asked for more details I got a strange answer from the reseller
> > like that this card is able to work only half-duplex and the chip has
> > only one mac-address for the 4 eth cards (really strange).
> 
> This sounds like it's not a 4 port card, but a 4 port hub-card. (Eg a card
> with integrated 4-port hub)
> 
> -Dan

-- 
 Fabio Massimo Di Nitto
 Debian GNU/Linux Testing/Unstable Kernel 2.4.3
 Office for the Complication of Otherwise Simple Affairs
 PROUD TO BE MICROSOFT FREE!

Re: [OFF-TOPIC] 4 ports ETH cards

[Harald Welte]

On Tue, May 29, 2001 at 09:52:41AM +0200, Fabbione wrote:
> Hi all,
> 	sorry for the offtopic msg.
> 
> Can someone point me to a 4 ports fast/eth card solution for linux?

D-Link DFE-570 has a reasonable pricing and is well supported by the 
tulip driver

> I found some cards based on the DEC 21*4* chips but when
> I asked for more details I got a strange answer from the reseller
> like that this card is able to work only half-duplex and the chip has
> only one mac-address for the 4 eth cards (really strange).

nah. And even if so, you can always change the mac-address using ifconfig.

What the guy most likely wanted to say, is that there is only one EEprom
containing all mac adresses for the four tulip chips, which I have seen
on multiple boards

> Thanks a lot
> Fabbione

-- 
Live long and prosper
- Harald Welte / laforge@gnumonks.org               http://www.gnumonks.org/
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Re: [OFF-TOPIC] 4 ports ETH cards

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Wed, May 30, 2001 at 06:34:16PM -0300, Harald Welte wrote:
> On Tue, May 29, 2001 at 09:52:41AM +0200, Fabbione wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 	sorry for the offtopic msg.
> > 
> > Can someone point me to a 4 ports fast/eth card solution for linux?

> D-Link DFE-570 has a reasonable pricing and is well supported by the 
> tulip driver

	Just got three of these suckers and I'm about to order a bunch
more (happy camper)...

> > I found some cards based on the DEC 21*4* chips but when
> > I asked for more details I got a strange answer from the reseller
> > like that this card is able to work only half-duplex and the chip has
> > only one mac-address for the 4 eth cards (really strange).

> nah. And even if so, you can always change the mac-address using ifconfig.

	Each D-Link card has four MAC addresses (sequential).  I doubt
other manufactures are any different.

> What the guy most likely wanted to say, is that there is only one EEprom
> containing all mac adresses for the four tulip chips, which I have seen
> on multiple boards

	What the guy was doing was having a bad case of optical rectitus.
That would be typical of a "reseller" (AKA Salesman).  Most would not
even have a CLUE that the cards were based on the tulip chipset / driver.

	Because the D-Link cards were less than half of the nearest
competitor [ < $180 vs > $360 for others and Compac was > $2400! ] I
ordered only three not knowing for sure if they would work.  Turned on
the tulip driver and them suckers fired right up.  Now I know they work,
stock, right out of the box, and I can order a bunch more for the lab
I'm working with.

> > Thanks a lot
> > Fabbione
> 
> -- 
> Live long and prosper
> - Harald Welte / laforge@gnumonks.org               http://www.gnumonks.org/

	Mike
-- 
 Michael H. Warfield    |  (770) 985-6132   |  mhw@WittsEnd.com
  (The Mad Wizard)      |  (678) 463-0932   |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
  NIC whois:  MHW9      |  An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471    |  possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!

Re: [OFF-TOPIC] 4 ports ETH cards

[Jeff Golds]

"Michael H. Warfield" wrote:
> 
> On Wed, May 30, 2001 at 06:34:16PM -0300, Harald Welte wrote:
> > On Tue, May 29, 2001 at 09:52:41AM +0200, Fabbione wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > >     sorry for the offtopic msg.
> > >
> > > Can someone point me to a 4 ports fast/eth card solution for linux?
> 
> > D-Link DFE-570 has a reasonable pricing and is well supported by the
> > tulip driver
> 
>         Just got three of these suckers and I'm about to order a bunch
> more (happy camper)...
> 
> > > I found some cards based on the DEC 21*4* chips but when
> > > I asked for more details I got a strange answer from the reseller
> > > like that this card is able to work only half-duplex and the chip has
> > > only one mac-address for the 4 eth cards (really strange).
> 
> > nah. And even if so, you can always change the mac-address using ifconfig.
> 
>         Each D-Link card has four MAC addresses (sequential).  I doubt
> other manufactures are any different.
> 
> > What the guy most likely wanted to say, is that there is only one EEprom
> > containing all mac adresses for the four tulip chips, which I have seen
> > on multiple boards
> 
>         What the guy was doing was having a bad case of optical rectitus.
> That would be typical of a "reseller" (AKA Salesman).  Most would not
> even have a CLUE that the cards were based on the tulip chipset / driver.
> 
>         Because the D-Link cards were less than half of the nearest
> competitor [ < $180 vs > $360 for others and Compac was > $2400! ] I
> ordered only three not knowing for sure if they would work.  Turned on
> the tulip driver and them suckers fired right up.  Now I know they work,
> stock, right out of the box, and I can order a bunch more for the lab
> I'm working with.
> 

I've been working with these boards for a couple months and thought they
were great.  However, now it turns out that they won't fit into our
systems too well (a little too long).  Does anyone have knowledge of
another brand that has a (slightly) smaller form factor?  I did some
checking on Pricewatch but wasn't able to find anything that fit our
needs.

TIA,

-Jeff

-- 
Jeff Golds
jgolds@resilience.com

Re: [OFF-TOPIC] 4 ports ETH cards

[Martin Josefsson]

On Wed, 30 May 2001, Michael H. Warfield wrote:

[snip]
> 	Just got three of these suckers and I'm about to order a bunch
> more (happy camper)...

yes the Dlink DFE570-TX is a very nice card indeed.

[snip]
> 	Because the D-Link cards were less than half of the nearest
> competitor [ < $180 vs > $360 for others and Compac was > $2400! ] I
> ordered only three not knowing for sure if they would work.  Turned on
> the tulip driver and them suckers fired right up.  Now I know they work,
> stock, right out of the box, and I can order a bunch more for the lab
> I'm working with.

I use those cards in all routers here and they work extremely well.
But I don't use the standard vanilla tulip driver that's in the official
kernel. I use an optimized version that handled high traffic volumes much
better, it decreases the interrupt-load quite a lot. (this driver is about
to be merged with the standard tulip driver IIRC)
I havn't had any problems with these cards so I can really recommend them.

/Martin

RE: [OFF-TOPIC] 4 ports ETH cards

[George Bonser]

> I've been working with these boards for a couple months and thought they
> were great.  However, now it turns out that they won't fit into our
> systems too well (a little too long).  Does anyone have knowledge of
> another brand that has a (slightly) smaller form factor?  I did some
> checking on Pricewatch but wasn't able to find anything that fit our
> needs.
>
> TIA,
>
> -Jeff

The Adaptec Quartet64 boards worked ok for me with 2.2 and the Starfire
driver.  Not sure if they are smaller (shorter) than the D-Link but they
sure are a lot shorter than the old Tulip-based Adaptec quad boards. They
are a bit pricey, though.

Re: [OFF-TOPIC] 4 ports ETH cards

[Fabbione]

First of all I would like to say thanks to everyone.
I didn't expect so many answer in so few time ( I got
most of them directly in my mailbox)

Anyway I've ordered right now the D-Link DFE-570 that
seems the one with the best price/quality ratio so I
can test it on the "battle field".

Best Regards
Fabio

-- 
 Fabio Massimo Di Nitto
 Debian GNU/Linux Testing/Unstable Kernel 2.4.5
 Office for the Complication of Otherwise Simple Affairs
 PROUD TO BE MICROSOFT FREE!

Re: [OFF-TOPIC] 4 ports ETH cards

[poptix]

> 	Because the D-Link cards were less than half of the nearest
> competitor [ < $180 vs > $360 for others and Compac was > $2400! ] I

I have to comment on this one, the Compaq cards (NC3131 and NC3134) are ~$210
and come with two ports, upgradable with another 2 port module (daughterboard)
you have a choice of 2 more 100mbit ports ($233) or 1 gigabit port ($500),
perhaps you were under the influence of drugs, or the salesperson was.
(btw, it uses the eepro100 driver, which, in my experience, is very stable.)


					Matthew S. Hallacy


> -- 
>  Michael H. Warfield    |  (770) 985-6132   |  mhw@WittsEnd.com
>   (The Mad Wizard)      |  (678) 463-0932   |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
>   NIC whois:  MHW9      |  An optimist believes we live in the best of all
>  PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471    |  possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!