Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 16:31:34 -0600 From: Lee Crites <adonai@jump.net> To: Greg Barniskis <gregb@scls.lib.wi.us> Cc: "Ben Black" <black@squid.gage.com>, "Bradley Dunn" <bradley@dunn.org>, <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>, "AllenHyer" <allenh@wtrt.net>, "Lee Crites" <adonai@jump.net> Subject: Re: de ethernet driver stomps SMC 10/100 Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19970102223134.006d63d4@jump.net>
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At 14:33 02-01-97 -0600, Greg Barniskis wrote: >Ben Black wrote: >> as soon as I started using de0, the link light on >> the WebRamp for this box goes out. > >Same here. There is no indication anywhere in my card's packaging or >documentation that the card has a "new" chipset. The card itself has "REV >A" hot-stamped on it, while the main DEC chip on it says "21140-AC" and >there's a sticker on the card that says "Made in USA [B]". The "21140-AC" >seems fairly definitive (i.e. more than simply 21140). Can anyone offer >comparison to another working or non-working card? I ordered two cards, one for my FreeBSD box and one for my Win95 box. I did note that they came in different boxes, but since that is not unusual, I thought nothing of it. I simply swapped the two boards and all worked fine. Since the first one I took out of the box was the 'new' one, I used it's floppy to install the driver on the Win95 box. They appear to be downward compatible (the 'new' driver will run either one) that way. Anyway, this problem is taken care of for me, at least. I do have a few editorial comments about this, though. From time to time you have problems with ANY company. What tells the difference between a good customer support organization and a poor one is what happens with things really go awry. How do they handle the exceptions. Well, for my money, SMC failed. First, they send out a brand new version of their card without warning. While some may consider the yellow page sufficient warning, I don't believe so. I opened two boxes, took out two cards which looked nothing alike and within moments was without a clue as to which one was which. Yes, to a certin extent that was my fault. I should have done one at a time. But the problem shouldn't have been there in the first place. Second, when I tried to get help from them, all I got was a security guard. They closed up tight as a drum over the Christmas/New Years break without anyone there. While I understand this is a holiday and people want to be home with the fam, I also understand that it is just this kind of time when *most* system upgrades are done. Nobody seems to care that systems admin people miss the holiday. A company like SMC should have had people available to help. Period. Trying to bring my system up with their errant hardware cost me my holiday. Third, they should have had enough forsight to realize their uncompatible hardware was going to effect lots of people and taken steps to correct it before it happened. While they did correct the situation for *some* (Win95/NT for instance), they didn't for too many. (how many people on this list were stung by that one?) Fourth, *IF* they were going to start shipping something which was, by design, incompatible with their other drivers, they should have said something about this early enough that people could have made decisions concerning it BEFORE it was too late. Okay, you may say, nobody's perfect. That's right. I'm not either. That's why #2 is so important to me. While I'm not happy when someone screws up, I *really* get unhappy when they screw up and don't to anything to take care of it! Lee
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