OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Jurgen Kramer]

Hi,

I know this is a bit OT but because here are the kernel driver hackers
this might be the right place to ask.

I am looking for a couple of PCI Gigabit ethernet adapters to play
around with SAN/NAS stuff like iSCSI and HyperSCSI and the like. There
are variuos adapters around which work with Linux. My choice would be
based on the following:

- Relatively cheap, around $100/EUR100
- 32 bit/33MHz PCI compatible
- Low cpu usage
- Busmaster DMA
- Opensource Linux driver
- zero-copy capable
- etc.

What card is best? 3Com, Intel or National Semi based?

Thanks,

Jurgen

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Ben Greear]

Jurgen Kramer wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I know this is a bit OT but because here are the kernel driver hackers
> this might be the right place to ask.
> 
> I am looking for a couple of PCI Gigabit ethernet adapters to play
> around with SAN/NAS stuff like iSCSI and HyperSCSI and the like. There
> are variuos adapters around which work with Linux. My choice would be
> based on the following:
> 
> - Relatively cheap, around $100/EUR100
> - 32 bit/33MHz PCI compatible

Try the Netgear 302t, with the tg3 driver.

Works pretty good if you are not also running a bunch of other interfaces.
If you are running lots of interfaces, it will still work, but may spew
warning messages to the console (maybe it's been fixed...I saw this 1-2 months ago)

Ben


> - Low cpu usage
> - Busmaster DMA
> - Opensource Linux driver
> - zero-copy capable
> - etc.
> 
> What card is best? 3Com, Intel or National Semi based?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jurgen
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
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> 


-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>       <Ben_Greear AT excite.com>
President of Candela Technologies Inc      http://www.candelatech.com
ScryMUD:  http://scry.wanfear.com     http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Bill Davidsen]

On Fri, 20 Dec 2002, Jurgen Kramer wrote:

> I know this is a bit OT but because here are the kernel driver hackers
> this might be the right place to ask.
> 
> I am looking for a couple of PCI Gigabit ethernet adapters to play
> around with SAN/NAS stuff like iSCSI and HyperSCSI and the like. There
> are variuos adapters around which work with Linux. My choice would be
> based on the following:
> 
> - Relatively cheap, around $100/EUR100
> - 32 bit/33MHz PCI compatible
> - Low cpu usage
> - Busmaster DMA
> - Opensource Linux driver
> - zero-copy capable
> - etc.
> 
> What card is best? 3Com, Intel or National Semi based?

01:07.0 Ethernet controller: Alteon Networks Inc. AceNIC Gigabit Ethernet
  (Fibre) (rev 01)

Works for me, and I have a fait amount of other traffic on other NICs.

00:02.0 Ethernet controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] 79c970 
  [PCnet LANCE] (rev 44)
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557
  [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 08)


-- 
bill davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
  CTO, TMR Associates, Inc
Doing interesting things with little computers since 1979.

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Wes Felter]

On Fri, 2002-12-20 at 12:48, Bill Davidsen wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Dec 2002, Jurgen Kramer wrote:
> 
> > I know this is a bit OT but because here are the kernel driver hackers
> > this might be the right place to ask.
> > 
> > I am looking for a couple of PCI Gigabit ethernet adapters to play
> > around with SAN/NAS stuff like iSCSI and HyperSCSI and the like. There
> > are variuos adapters around which work with Linux. My choice would be
> > based on the following:
> > 
> > - Relatively cheap, around $100/EUR100
> > - 32 bit/33MHz PCI compatible
> > - Low cpu usage
> > - Busmaster DMA
> > - Opensource Linux driver
> > - zero-copy capable
> > - etc.
> > 
> > What card is best? 3Com, Intel or National Semi based?
> 
> 01:07.0 Ethernet controller: Alteon Networks Inc. AceNIC Gigabit Ethernet
>   (Fibre) (rev 01)

Good luck buying one of those for under $100, if you can find one at
all.

-- 
Wes Felter - wesley@felter.org - http://felter.org/wesley/

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Joel Jaeggli]

On 20 Dec 2002, Wes Felter wrote:
> > > What card is best? 3Com, Intel or National Semi based?
> > 
> > 01:07.0 Ethernet controller: Alteon Networks Inc. AceNIC Gigabit Ethernet
> >   (Fibre) (rev 01)
> 
> Good luck buying one of those for under $100, if you can find one at
> all.

just as some background nortel completed it's aquisition of alteon in 
early 2000. the acenic became the netgear ga620t along with a similar 3com 
card, these are no longer on the market. like packet engines (aquired by 
alcatel) the products and technologies these companies brought to market 
have largely disappeared or died within the respective corprate parents...

joelja

>
 
> 

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Joel Jaeggli	      Academic User Services   joelja@darkwing.uoregon.edu    
--    PGP Key Fingerprint: 1DE9 8FCA 51FB 4195 B42A 9C32 A30D 121E      --
  In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last
  resort of the scoundrel.  With all due respect to an enlightened but
  inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.
	   	            -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Dax Kelson]

I've been very very happy with the Intel PRO1000 MT desktop adapter. 
only $50 USD.

On 20 Dec 2002, Jurgen Kramer wrote:

> I am looking for a couple of PCI Gigabit ethernet adapters to play
> around with SAN/NAS stuff like iSCSI and HyperSCSI and the like. There
> are variuos adapters around which work with Linux. My choice would be
> based on the following:
> 
> - Relatively cheap, around $100/EUR100
> - 32 bit/33MHz PCI compatible
> - Low cpu usage
> - Busmaster DMA
> - Opensource Linux driver
> - zero-copy capable
> - etc.
> 
> What card is best? 3Com, Intel or National Semi based?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jurgen
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> 

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Eric Weigle]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 794 bytes --]

FWIW-

We've used three types of GigE cards; old Alteon AceNIC (Tigon 2),
Broadcom/Tigon 3, and the el-cheapo 32 bit Intel e1000s. The Tigon 3 gives
the best performance, but the difference (600Mbps vs 750Mbps 'real-life'
performance) is generally not worth the extra cost if it's only going to be
serving NFS or something-- you probably won't be able to detect the difference.

GigE is now commodity. Check out pricewatch.
	(http://www.pricewatch.com/1/211/3732-1.htm)


-Eric

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------
        Eric H. Weigle -- http://public.lanl.gov/ehw/
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither" -- Benjamin Franklin
------------------------------------------------------------

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 232 bytes --]

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Jurgen Kramer]

Thanks! I am going to try the Intel card.

RE: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Sampson Fung]

Can I just use a standard Cross Over UTP cable to link up two Intel
Gigabit card, just like Fast Ethernet does?

Sampson Fung
sampson@attglobal.net

-----Original Message-----
From: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
[mailto:linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Jurgen Kramer
Sent: Saturday, December 21, 2002 8:43 PM
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?


Thanks! I am going to try the Intel card.

-
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Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk]

yes, but be careful, as cat 5e is pretty tough when it comes to the 
connector specs

roy

On Saturday, December 21, 2002, at 06:28 PM, Sampson Fung wrote:

> Can I just use a standard Cross Over UTP cable to link up two Intel
> Gigabit card, just like Fast Ethernet does?
>
> Sampson Fung
> sampson@attglobal.net
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
> [mailto:linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Jurgen Kramer
> Sent: Saturday, December 21, 2002 8:43 PM
> To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
> Subject: Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?
>
>
> Thanks! I am going to try the Intel card.
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel"
> in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo
> info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>
>
> -
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Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[nick]

I belive this is incorrect.  A traditional ethernet crossover crosses two
pairs, as ethernet & fast ethernet use 2 pairs.  Gigabit ethernet uses all
4 pairs, and would need all 4 pairs crossed I assume.
	Nick

On Mon, 23 Dec 2002, Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk wrote:

> yes, but be careful, as cat 5e is pretty tough when it comes to the 
> connector specs
> 
> roy
> 
> On Saturday, December 21, 2002, at 06:28 PM, Sampson Fung wrote:
> 
> > Can I just use a standard Cross Over UTP cable to link up two Intel
> > Gigabit card, just like Fast Ethernet does?
> >
> > Sampson Fung
> > sampson@attglobal.net
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
> > [mailto:linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Jurgen Kramer
> > Sent: Saturday, December 21, 2002 8:43 PM
> > To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
> > Subject: Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?
> >
> >
> > Thanks! I am going to try the Intel card.
> >
> > -
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel"
> > in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo
> > info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> >
> >
> > -
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe 
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> 
> -
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> 

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Eric Weigle]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1324 bytes --]

> > > Can I just use a standard Cross Over UTP cable to link up two Intel
> > > Gigabit card, just like Fast Ethernet does?
> > yes, but be careful, as cat 5e is pretty tough when it comes to the 
> > connector specs
> I belive this is incorrect.  A traditional ethernet crossover crosses two
> pairs, as ethernet & fast ethernet use 2 pairs.  Gigabit ethernet uses all
> 4 pairs, and would need all 4 pairs crossed I assume.
According to spec, maybe, but in practice not necessary. Modern gigE cards
will run just fine over all sorts of pin-outs (even non-crossed over cables)

See 
http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/pro1000mt_desktop_adapter.htm

"automatically compensates for cable issues such as crossover cable, wrong
pin-out and polarity"

Or
http://www.intel.com/design/network/products/lan/controllers/82546.htm

"PHY detects polarity, MDI-X, 2 pair vs. 4 pair cables, and cable length
... No need to know the difference between crossover and non-crossover cables"

-Eric

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------
        Eric H. Weigle -- http://public.lanl.gov/ehw/
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither" -- Benjamin Franklin
------------------------------------------------------------

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 232 bytes --]

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Justin Cormack]

er, no. GigE over copper autodetects crossovers, so a standard cable
will work anyway. Actually this has been backported to some 100MB
switches now (presumably use same io interfaces) so crossover cables are
fast disappearing. You can even stick a non crossover cable between a
100MB pci card and a GigE one and it will work.

On Mon, 2002-12-23 at 14:50, nick@snowman.net wrote:
> I belive this is incorrect.  A traditional ethernet crossover crosses two
> pairs, as ethernet & fast ethernet use 2 pairs.  Gigabit ethernet uses all
> 4 pairs, and would need all 4 pairs crossed I assume.
> 	Nick
> 
> On Mon, 23 Dec 2002, Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk wrote:
> 
> > yes, but be careful, as cat 5e is pretty tough when it comes to the 
> > connector specs
> > 
> > roy
> > 
> > On Saturday, December 21, 2002, at 06:28 PM, Sampson Fung wrote:
> > 
> > > Can I just use a standard Cross Over UTP cable to link up two Intel
> > > Gigabit card, just like Fast Ethernet does?
> > >
> > > Sampson Fung
> > > sampson@attglobal.net
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
> > > [mailto:linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Jurgen Kramer
> > > Sent: Saturday, December 21, 2002 8:43 PM
> > > To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
> > > Subject: Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?
> > >
> > >
> > > Thanks! I am going to try the Intel card.
> > >
> > > -
> > > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel"
> > > in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo
> > > info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > > Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> > >
> > >
> > > -
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> > 
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> 
> -
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Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Jeff Garzik]

On Mon, Dec 23, 2002 at 05:28:11PM +0000, Justin Cormack wrote:
> er, no. GigE over copper autodetects crossovers, so a standard cable
> will work anyway. Actually this has been backported to some 100MB
> switches now (presumably use same io interfaces) so crossover cables are
> fast disappearing. You can even stick a non crossover cable between a
> 100MB pci card and a GigE one and it will work.

Yep.  This is called auto-polarity detection, FWIW.

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[nick]

Ahh, thanks for the clarification.  I wasn't aware of it, however I'd seen
hints in a few spec sheets that now make much more sense.
	Thanks
		Nick

On Mon, 23 Dec 2002, Jeff Garzik wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 23, 2002 at 05:28:11PM +0000, Justin Cormack wrote:
> > er, no. GigE over copper autodetects crossovers, so a standard cable
> > will work anyway. Actually this has been backported to some 100MB
> > switches now (presumably use same io interfaces) so crossover cables are
> > fast disappearing. You can even stick a non crossover cable between a
> > 100MB pci card and a GigE one and it will work.
> 
> Yep.  This is called auto-polarity detection, FWIW.
> 

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Daniel Egger]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 489 bytes --]

Am Mon, 2002-12-23 um 18.28 schrieb Justin Cormack:

> er, no. GigE over copper autodetects crossovers, so a standard cable
> will work anyway. Actually this has been backported to some 100MB
> switches now (presumably use same io interfaces) so crossover cables are
> fast disappearing. You can even stick a non crossover cable between a
> 100MB pci card and a GigE one and it will work.

Woah, new (actually useful) features; can you say "Apple"?

-- 
Servus,
       Daniel

[-- Attachment #2: Dies ist ein digital signierter Nachrichtenteil --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[David Lloyd]

Justin,

> are fast disappearing. You can even stick a non crossover cable
> between a 100MB pci card and a GigE one and it will work.

Thank Goodness -- I've worked in places where they INSIST on making
crossover cables the same length and colour as normal cables. Then you
go, "huh? samba/the network/the kernel" is not working until someone
with better eyesight finds the problem.

*death to crossover cables*


DSL

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Gerhard Mack]

On Wed, 25 Dec 2002, David Lloyd wrote:

> Thank Goodness -- I've worked in places where they INSIST on making
> crossover cables the same length and colour as normal cables. Then you
> go, "huh? samba/the network/the kernel" is not working until someone
> with better eyesight finds the problem.
>
> *death to crossover cables*

That's pretty lame of them but shouldn't the ethernet link light be a good
indicator that it's a cable problem?

fix: Dud cable->trash bin "oops was that a crossover? it wasn't marked as
one."

	Gerhard

--
Gerhard Mack

gmack@innerfire.net

<>< As a computer I find your faith in technology amusing.

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Michael Clark]

On 12/25/02 21:50, Gerhard Mack wrote:
> On Wed, 25 Dec 2002, David Lloyd wrote:
> 
> 
>>Thank Goodness -- I've worked in places where they INSIST on making
>>crossover cables the same length and colour as normal cables. Then you
>>go, "huh? samba/the network/the kernel" is not working until someone
>>with better eyesight finds the problem.
>>
>>*death to crossover cables*
> 
> 
> That's pretty lame of them but shouldn't the ethernet link light be a good
> indicator that it's a cable problem?
> 
> fix: Dud cable->trash bin "oops was that a crossover? it wasn't marked as
> one."

Or take a two second look holding both RJ45 connectors next to each other
connector side up. If the colours are in the same order on both - it's
straight through. First and third are swapped - it's a crossover cable.

Once you learn this simple trick, you'll never have a problem again -
just get used to spending the extra two seconds before using the cable.

~mc

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Jeff Garzik]

On Wed, Dec 25, 2002 at 11:23:25PM +0800, Michael Clark wrote:
> Or take a two second look holding both RJ45 connectors next to each other
> connector side up. If the colours are in the same order on both - it's
> straight through. First and third are swapped - it's a crossover cable.
> 
> Once you learn this simple trick, you'll never have a problem again -
> just get used to spending the extra two seconds before using the cable.

Works great for people without color-blindness...

	Jeff

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Sean Neakums]

commence  Jeff Garzik quotation:

> On Wed, Dec 25, 2002 at 11:23:25PM +0800, Michael Clark wrote:
>> Or take a two second look holding both RJ45 connectors next to each other
>> connector side up. If the colours are in the same order on both - it's
>> straight through. First and third are swapped - it's a crossover cable.
>> 
>> Once you learn this simple trick, you'll never have a problem again -
>> just get used to spending the extra two seconds before using the cable.
>
> Works great for people without color-blindness...

Depends on the type of colour-blindness, I suppose.  The colours used
in Cat-V are green, orange, blue and brown, from what I recall.  I
forget the various types of colour-blindness that exist.

-- 
 /                          |
[|] Sean Neakums            |  Questions are a burden to others;
[|] <sneakums@zork.net>     |      answers a prison for oneself.
 \                          |

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[daveman]

On Wed, Dec 25, 2002 at 05:33:47PM +0000, Sean Neakums wrote:
> commence  Jeff Garzik quotation:
> 
> > On Wed, Dec 25, 2002 at 11:23:25PM +0800, Michael Clark wrote:
> >> Or take a two second look holding both RJ45 connectors next to each other
> >> connector side up. If the colours are in the same order on both - it's
> >> straight through. First and third are swapped - it's a crossover cable.
> >> 
> >> Once you learn this simple trick, you'll never have a problem again -
> >> just get used to spending the extra two seconds before using the cable.
> >
> > Works great for people without color-blindness...
> 
> Depends on the type of colour-blindness, I suppose.  The colours used
> in Cat-V are green, orange, blue and brown, from what I recall.  I
> forget the various types of colour-blindness that exist.
Well, if all else fails, you could always pick up a cable tester. They can tell you lots of nifty stuff, like data transfer quality as well as pinout. Good for the less obvious cable problems, like a broken strand.

--David

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[John Bradford]

> Well, if all else fails, you could always pick up a cable
> tester. They can tell you lots of nifty stuff, like data transfer
> quality as well as pinout. Good for the less obvious cable problems,
> like a broken strand.

If you have a spare double RJ-45 wallplate, you could make a
wallmounted cable tester, with some LEDs and a 9v battery.

John.

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Bill Davidsen]

On Fri, 27 Dec 2002, John Bradford wrote:

> > Well, if all else fails, you could always pick up a cable
> > tester. They can tell you lots of nifty stuff, like data transfer
> > quality as well as pinout. Good for the less obvious cable problems,
> > like a broken strand.
> 
> If you have a spare double RJ-45 wallplate, you could make a
> wallmounted cable tester, with some LEDs and a 9v battery.

I would hope a decent cable tester would test for effects at useful
frequency. The frequency of a battery is too low to reveal some problems.

-- 
bill davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
  CTO, TMR Associates, Inc
Doing interesting things with little computers since 1979.

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Filip djMedrzec Zyzniewski]

On Mon, Dec 30, 2002 at 09:22:54PM -0500, Bill Davidsen wrote:

> I would hope a decent cable tester would test for effects at useful
> frequency. The frequency of a battery is too low to reveal some problems.

"Frequency of a baterry"? What the hell is that? Baterry provides direct
current, not alternating one... Tester provides it's own testing signals.

bye,

Filip Zyzniewski

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[Bill Davidsen]

On Tue, 31 Dec 2002, Filip djMedrzec Zyzniewski wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 30, 2002 at 09:22:54PM -0500, Bill Davidsen wrote:
> 
> > I would hope a decent cable tester would test for effects at useful
> > frequency. The frequency of a battery is too low to reveal some problems.
> 
> "Frequency of a baterry"? What the hell is that? Baterry provides direct
> current, not alternating one... Tester provides it's own testing signals.

Clearly I need to add a smiley for the humour-impared.

The original post you clipped implied that all you needed was a pair of
RJ45 sockets and a battery, which would do continuity testing only.

-- 
bill davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
  CTO, TMR Associates, Inc
Doing interesting things with little computers since 1979.

Re: OT: Which Gigabit ethernet card?

[John Bradford]

> > > I would hope a decent cable tester would test for effects at useful
> > > frequency. The frequency of a battery is too low to reveal some problems.
> > 
> > "Frequency of a baterry"? What the hell is that? Baterry provides direct
> > current, not alternating one... Tester provides it's own testing signals.
> 
> Clearly I need to add a smiley for the humour-impared.
> 
> The original post you clipped implied that all you needed was a pair of
> RJ45 sockets and a battery, which would do continuity testing only.

Which is exactly what was *required* - we were talking about
identifying crossover and non-crossover cables, which is why I
suggested the battery and LED in a spare wallplate solution, which
works perfectly.

:-)

John.