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Date:      Sat, 14 Nov 1998 20:16:41 -0600
From:      David Kelly <dkelly@hiwaay.net>
To:        Dave Bodenstab <imdave@mcs.net>
Cc:        questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Are collisions normal on a local net 
Message-ID:  <199811150216.UAA28559@n4hhe.ampr.org>
In-Reply-To: Message from Dave Bodenstab <imdave@mcs.net>  of "Thu, 12 Nov 1998 21:54:06 CST." <199811130354.VAA11666@base486.home.org> 

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Dave Bodenstab writes:
> Is this normal or do I have something wrong with my setup?  Could it be
> something with the fxp driver or hardware trying to go at 100M instead of
> 10M?  I notice that the fxp driver can be ifconfig'ed with a media type
> and options... I tried -media 10baseT/UTP but it didn't seem to affect
> anything.

I've been searching for the Really Good Collision URL I once had filed 
away. Seems it didn't survive housecleaning one day. But it was at SGI 
if that rings any bells.

In that SGI article it was suggested that as much as a 200% collision
rate should not cause worry. It was pointed out an early collision
happens in the first 64 octets, so a backoff and retry doesn't cost much
bandwidth. Late collisions are after this 64 octet window and are a bad
thing suggesting a collision with another host too far down the wire.
That's a real eye opener when one starts worrying about the length of
wire over which the speed of light isn't fast enough (I know about
velocity factors, typically 60% but possibly 80% in some coaxial cables,
so Big Fat Hairy Deal, its only 60% of C).

One other thing SGI mentioned is that different ethernet hardware used
in various SGI system report collisions differently. I've noticed my
3com card at work (forgot model, uses the vx driver) almost never
reports a collision. OTOH the 8-port hub its plugged into may have its
collision light on solid.


--
David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@nospam.hiwaay.net
=====================================================================
The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its
capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system.



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