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Date:      Wed, 19 Jul 2000 18:14:56 -0700
From:      "Lawrence Cotnam Jr." <larry@pkunk.net>
To:        <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>, <freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Trouble with 3Com 3C509 NIC
Message-ID:  <MKEOLDIJFGDJKDLHGFEGEEEJCBAA.larry@pkunk.net>

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Hi.  I'm using FreeBSD 4.0-RELEASE.  I've been having a bit of a nightmare
here with my FreeBSD server and its 3COM 3C509 network card.  It's a AUI/BNC
variety, currently using AUI with a MAU transceiver to 10base-T.

Basically what I experience, is if I put the MTU at 1500 (default), I get
serious stalling when initiating large FTP transfers on my LAN between a
Windows computer and the server.  This also affects my Samba server.  My
solution to this has been to drop the MTU down to 1000, which gets rid of
the stalling problem and giving me fairly good network performance
(600k/sec), but then I get a whole new and much worse pair of problems.
During heavy network traffic, via FTP or Samba, two things occur... the
collision light on my HUB becomes SOLID.  Second, this part is intermittent,
the server run out of buffer space and my server's network layer comes to a
screeching halt for about 10 minutes.  Has anyone experienced anything like
this?

NMBCLUSTERS in my kernel configuration is currently set at 4096.  I'm
considering increasing it to 10240 to see if it at least addresses the
running out of buffers problem.  But this is just a Band-Aid to a more
serious problem, I think.  Ultimately, I'm sure replacing the NIC with
something else might be the best solution, but I'd like to see if there's
any sort of software/driver solution I can apply before buying a new NIC.

Helpfully, I'll include other configuration information about my LAN.  It's
running on a 5 port linksys workgroup hub.  Two machines are connected (the
server, and my Windows workstation), and an ADSL bridging modem (Alcatel
1000.)  The server is a ProTech Single Board computer running a Pentium-166
with 64MB RAM.

Please CC replies to my email as I do not subscribe to either of these
mailing lists.  Any help or suggestions would be very appreciated.

Lawrence Cotnam Jr.
(775) 337-2536
email: larry@pkunk.net



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