[LRP] Dec Tulip based NICs

[Kevin Traas]

Well, you're quoting a message I posted from many, many months ago....   My
attitude toward the Kingston / 21143 / tulip driver combination has totally
reversed.

When I originally posted the message below, Kingston was using the 21140
chipset on their cards and I didn't have any appreciable problems in almost
two years.  However, then Kingston suddenly changed from the 21140 to the
21143 on their cards (because Intel bought the chipset from DEC and
deep-sixed the 21140... but that's another story) and Linux (tulip) support
for these cards has been crap ever since.

I've had nothing but problems with these cards and postings to the
linux-tulip lists about them yielded *very* few results.  Lurking on the
list reveals that others are having problems with these cards as well.

My solution?  Switched to Linksys 10/100 Etherfast (PNIC chipset using same
Linux driver) and/or 3COM 3c905b cards in various situations....

I've got a box full of Kingston cards based on 21143's sitting on the shelf
collecting dust now....  Waiting for a tulip driver that works with them or
something....

Later,
Kevin


----- Original Message -----
From: Tom Zacharoff <tomz@esscor.com>
To: <ktraas@netmaster.ca>
Sent: Friday, July 23, 1999 6:29 PM
Subject: Re: [LRP] Dec Tulip based NICs


> You and someone else posted about one year ago...
> >>Can someone make a recommendation for good implementations of the DEC
> >>tulip NIC chip?  I have an ISP built around Linux boxes and a Linux
> >>router and am about to upgrade from 10BT to 100BT.  I want to make the
> >>right choice in a NIC.
> >
> >
> >I've been using the Kingston KNE-100BT (the model might be slightly
wrong -
> >working from memory) 10/100 PCI adapters in various machines for almost a
> >year now.   They work great and haven't had any problems.  (However, I've
> >never actually tested them against other 100Mbps cards/drivers either....
> >i.e. Boomerang/Vortex, Intel, etc.)
> >
> >Later,
> >Kevin
>
> I just got two Kingston KNE100TX cards and am trying to use them with the
> tulip and de4x5 modules. Neither driver nor card work. The only ones I can
> find that cover this card which has a 21143 chip are the tulip and de4x5
> modules. I've made the router work with some crappy old ISA cards that
give
> horrible throughput. I wanted to get it working with enough performance to
> handle a T-1.
>
> What module are you using and what is the line from your /etc/modules that
> controls its loading (extra io= type options)?
>
> Any help you can give is appreciated... :-)
>
> ----------------------------------------------
> Tom Zacharoff
> ESSCOR, Inc.
> System Administrator
> (619) 481-9126 x140
>
>