Problem with Netgear FA310TX and Motorola Cable Modem

[Adam Kropelin]

On Tue, 25 May 1999, <schell@san.rr.com> wrote:
< snipped description of poor performance with FA310TX and Motorola
Cybersurfer >

Just as a data point for you, Chad...

I have experienced exactly the same problem on nearly identical hardware. I saw
< 50 KB/s with a FA310TX rev D-1 into a Motorola Cybersurfer under both tulip
v0.91 and the Netgear-supplied driver. I compiled the drivers into the kernel
(2.0.36) and used no special options. One thing I did notice was that there
were a large number of collisions on the interface (number of collisions was
about 75% of number of packets Tx'd). Since the cable modem was the only other
device on the cable, this seemed very suspcious.

I have since acquired a 486/66 with a pair of DE205 ISA NICs which is
configured as a NAT box. The Netgear card is now in a RedHat 6.0 (kernel 2.2.7,
tulip v0.91) system connected to the NATter via a DS104 dual-speed "hub". I've
seen transfer rates > 300 KB/s, and the limiting factor at that point seems to
be the 486 (it's pegged hard).

I have a couple other FA310TX D-1 cards and various 10 and 10/100 hubs, so I'd
be willing to experiment. Let me know if I can be of help tracking down this
problem.

Donald: I'd be happy to send you one of these cards if you think you might have
time to look into improving the tulip driver's performance with them. 

--Adam