100mbit nic: intel or 3com?
Victor Julien
I want to build a debian based router/gateway/fileserver/mailserver for a
home network with 12 clients. It will be quite low budget as the server is a
Pentium 166Mhz. I want the network to be 100mbit fullduplex, so I want to buy
a Nic for the server. Which one is best for maximum performance and
stability? Intel, 3com, SMC or just a cheap Realtek? I think the nic should
be using the cpu as little as possible...
Thanks for your advice,
Victor Julien
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John Cichy
IMHO (and this might get me flamed), 3com. I have tried a lot of other cards
and I have found that 3com's are well supported (by both linux and doze) and
just seem to keep running. 3com's are usually more expensive then the others,
but I feel the extra cost is worth having less aggravation.
John
Harris, Jason
Everone *says* they have world class 10/100 cards, but how many really talk
to each other at that speed reliably ? When I am doing an daily backup
transfers the line runs ~ 85-90 MB for an hour, I've had too many cards drop
down to 10 or half duplex (eh!) or re-autonegotiate every couple of minutes
or so. Some cards just don't do 100 or f/d at all with certain devices on
the other end.
Intel nics are ok; they are scads better than realtek (don't get me started
on those) linksys or dlink cheapies. 3coms will save you some extra hair
pulling when your 100MB or 1000MB network is suddenly performing like a
10/half-duplex network running a windows server. 3com has some low-ends;
I'd stay away from those too. I would stick with 905B or above.
What are peoples experiences with switches ? For the office where the co.
pays, I would have to recommend cisco for the same reasons. But for the
soho or home network, cisco is not cost feasible. How well do small
switches scale ? How many devices/traffic to saturate ?
Jason Harris
Matthew Sackman
> Hi,
>
> I want to build a debian based router/gateway/fileserver/mailserver for a
> home network with 12 clients. It will be quite low budget as the server is a
> Pentium 166Mhz. I want the network to be 100mbit fullduplex, so I want to buy
> a Nic for the server. Which one is best for maximum performance and
> stability? Intel, 3com, SMC or just a cheap Realtek? I think the nic should
> be using the cpu as little as possible...
>
> Thanks for your advice,
>
> Victor Julien
Well I'm a poor student... so I started with Netgear FA311's which are
terrible and gave me a *LOT* of agro -> steer well clear (hint: they drop
packets).
I've now got a pair of realtek's which are a damn site better, but I still
have problems with enbd under high load, which I suspect are attributed to
them. Plus when one machine is under high load, an ssh can take up to 15
seconds to connect.
I don't know any of the more expensive ones - can't afford them myself.
At work we use Intel and 3com nics in the big machines and realteks in
the small machines. Switches are 3com, SMC and Intel.
HTH,
Matthew
--
Matthew Sackman
Nottingham
England
BOFH Excuse Board:
positron router malfunction
Cameron Kerr
>Hi,
>
>I want to build a debian based router/gateway/fileserver/mailserver for a
>home network with 12 clients. It will be quite low budget as the server is a
>Pentium 166Mhz. I want the network to be 100mbit fullduplex, so I want to buy
>a Nic for the server. Which one is best for maximum performance and
>stability? Intel, 3com, SMC or just a cheap Realtek? I think the nic should
>be using the cpu as little as possible...
Are you going to sending lots of little messages, or are you going to
be doing a lot of bulk transfer.
For lots of little messages, a PIO based card (such as a 3Com 905) will
serve you well.
For bulk transfer, you really want to be dealing with DMA, so an Intel
EtherExpress Pro100 (or anything based on the Tulip chipset) will do you
well here.
Setting up DMA transfers takes significant CPU time, which is why I ask,
as doing a PIO transfer in CPU for a short message can take less time than
setting up the DMA just for a short message.
But either way, either of these cards should see you well, you might not
get to tax either card a great deal with you 166MHz system, so a cheap
rtl8139c based card (using the 8139too kernel module) might do you well
anyway, and save you an extra $60 (NZD), ~$25 dollars US. You can use this
saved money to bump up your RAM.
Cameron Kerr
--
camero...@paradise.net.nz
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~cameronk/
Brian McGroarty
> On Fri, Feb 01, 2002 at 05:40:52PM +0100, Victor Julien wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I want to build a debian based router/gateway/fileserver/mailserver for a
> > home network with 12 clients. It will be quite low budget as the server is a
> > Pentium 166Mhz. I want the network to be 100mbit fullduplex, so I want to buy
> > a Nic for the server. Which one is best for maximum performance and
> > stability? Intel, 3com, SMC or just a cheap Realtek? I think the nic should
> > be using the cpu as little as possible...
>
> terrible and gave me a *LOT* of agro -> steer well clear (hint: they drop
> packets).
>
> I've now got a pair of realtek's which are a damn site better, but I still
> have problems with enbd under high load, which I suspect are attributed to
> them. Plus when one machine is under high load, an ssh can take up to 15
> seconds to connect.
The realtek supposedly has a really wonky and expensive DMA scheme
that makes performance similar to a PIO card. Tulip-based cards are
very cheap as well, and may serve about as well as the 3Com and Intel
cards.
Matthew Sackman
> On Fri, Feb 01, 2002 at 10:48:21PM +0000, Matthew Sackman wrote:
> >
> > I've now got a pair of realtek's which are a damn site better, but I still
> > have problems with enbd under high load, which I suspect are attributed to
> > them. Plus when one machine is under high load, an ssh can take up to 15
> > seconds to connect.
>
> The realtek supposedly has a really wonky and expensive DMA scheme
> that makes performance similar to a PIO card. Tulip-based cards are
> very cheap as well, and may serve about as well as the 3Com and Intel
> cards.
Thanks for that, I didn't know that you could get cheap Tulips. Since
some manufacturers arn't too upfront about chipsets, do you know any
particular makes/models that are tulip chipsets?
Matthew
--
Matthew Sackman
Nottingham
England
BOFH Excuse Board:
Too much radiation coming from the soil.
Igor Mozetic
> pays, I would have to recommend cisco for the same reasons. But for the
> soho or home network, cisco is not cost feasible. How well do small
> switches scale ? How many devices/traffic to saturate ?
We have both 3com (905B) and Intel (EExpress Pro100) and both run fine.
There is only one catch with Cisco switches - they don't autonegotiate
with 3com, so one has to set the switch ports to 100Mb/FullDuplex.
-Igor Mozetic
Cameron Kerr
>> What are peoples experiences with switches ? For the office where the co.
>> pays, I would have to recommend cisco for the same reasons. But for the
>> soho or home network, cisco is not cost feasible. How well do small
>> switches scale ? How many devices/traffic to saturate ?
>
>We have both 3com (905B) and Intel (EExpress Pro100) and both run fine.
>There is only one catch with Cisco switches - they don't autonegotiate
>with 3com, so one has to set the switch ports to 100Mb/FullDuplex.
Really???!!! Is this a targetted incompatibility? There is no good reason
why autonegotiation would work with one type, and not another. The only
way to tell if a NIC was from 3Com, would be to check its MAC address. I
wonder if it would work if you change the first three octets of the MAC
address of the NIC, as this would prove they Cisco are playing silly
buggers. (The first three octets of a MAC address identify the
manufacturer.)
--
Nathan E Norman
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On Sun, Feb 03, 2002 at 11:35:26AM +1300, Cameron Kerr wrote:
> On Sat, 2 Feb 2002, Igor Mozetic wrote:
> >We have both 3com (905B) and Intel (EExpress Pro100) and both run fine.
> >There is only one catch with Cisco switches - they don't autonegotiate
> >with 3com, so one has to set the switch ports to 100Mb/FullDuplex.
>=20
> Really???!!! Is this a targetted incompatibility? There is no good reason
> why autonegotiation would work with one type, and not another. The only
> way to tell if a NIC was from 3Com, would be to check its MAC address. I
> wonder if it would work if you change the first three octets of the MAC
> address of the NIC, as this would prove they Cisco are playing silly
> buggers. (The first three octets of a MAC address identify the
> manufacturer.)
This is a widely known and long-standing incompatibility between Cisco
and 3Com etherlike chipsets. There's no good "reason" for it, like
most bugs.
--=20
Nathan Norman - Staff Engineer | A good plan today is better
Micromuse Ltd. | than a perfect plan tomorrow.
mailto:nno...@micromuse.com | -- Patton
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