[9fans] OT: 3c590C, 3c509B-C repeated carrier loss with e-tech wireless router

[9fans] OT: 3c590C, 3c509B-C repeated carrier loss with e-tech wireless router

[Axel Belinfante]

Off-topic question (partly on-topic because plan 9 is one of the
O.S.'es demonstrating the problem (I also tried linux and windows 98)).

This quesion is about a wireless router (brandname: E-tech,
http://www.e-tech.nu/), that includes a four-port 10-100Mbit switch.
When I connect the subject-mentioned (10Mbit) 3com etherlink III cards
to it, the link comes up nicely, but when I start to ping the router,
in a couple of seconds (after a couple of packets) the link goes down,
comes up after 2-3 seconds, works for a while, gets down again,
comes up etc., packet loss 30%-40%.
Shifting the pci card to another slot, or removing all other cards
(except for the video card) dit not make a noticable difference.

Connecting such a 3com card via a cross link cable to another machine,
it works ok. Also with our normal (university/faculty) net it works ok.

I tried the wireless router with four other cards, which worked fine:
one 10Mbit that linux identified as realtek 8029 pci (ne2k-pci driver)
one 100Mbit that plan 9 identified as i82557,
a 10Mbit xircom rem56g10 realport ethernet+modem (with linux),
and a 10-100mbit pcmcia card (in linux, which reported autonegotiated
half-duplex)

Any ideas, anyone? (I suspect some sort of auto-negotation failing?)

3com card details:
   3c590C  (pci, combo) 03-0046-000 rev A
   3c509B-C (isa, combo) assy 03-0021-002 rev A


Axel.

Re: [9fans] OT: 3c590C, 3c509B-C repeated carrier loss with e-tech

[Mark Valiukas]

Axel Belinfante wrote:

> Any ideas, anyone? (I suspect some sort of auto-negotation failing?)
>
> 3com card details:
>    3c590C  (pci, combo) 03-0046-000 rev A
>    3c509B-C (isa, combo) assy 03-0021-002 rev A

I never leave these on auto-negotiate at home. I always select a
media type. I've had problems with the 509b's detecting coax, and
with them detecting the network when connected to some oddball
gear (a hub of dubious provenance that I can't remember the brand
of right now)

Haven't had a problem since forcing the settings with the appropriate
3Com configuration utilities.

Re: [9fans] OT: 3c590C, 3c509B-C repeated carrier loss with e-tech

[Axel Belinfante]

Switching off auto-negotiation by forcing use of the 10Base-T interface
didn't seem to solve the problem. Howevever, forcing use of the aui(?)
(external transceiver) interface, and using an external utp transceiver
seems to 'solve' my problem.

Axel.

I wrote:
> > Any ideas, anyone? (I suspect some sort of auto-negotation failing?)
> >
> > 3com card details:
> >    3c590C  (pci, combo) 03-0046-000 rev A
> >    3c509B-C (isa, combo) assy 03-0021-002 rev A

Mark Valiukas responded:
> I never leave these on auto-negotiate at home. I always select a
> media type. I've had problems with the 509b's detecting coax, and
> with them detecting the network when connected to some oddball
> gear (a hub of dubious provenance that I can't remember the brand
> of right now)
>
> Haven't had a problem since forcing the settings with the appropriate
> 3Com configuration utilities.