SUMMARY: 100baseT cards for SS10

From: Nino Margetic (nino@well.ox.ac.uk)
Date: Tue Apr 23 1996 - 22:04:49 CDT


Dear all,

Six days ago I have asked some questions:

1) Are there any 100baseT cards for SS10 machines?
2) Anyone got any first hand experience with them?
3) Would it be better/easier/cheaper to go via the switched 10baseT route?

The answers:

1) Yes. There are two products. One is a single 100baseT card. The other
   is a wide-scsi and 100baseT card (sunswift, part name X1018A).
2) Yes. They work fine.
3) Depends on the network, but consesus seems to be go via switched
   100baseT if you can afford it.

Many thanks for the answers to all the people who have replied to my
original message.

From: Steve Phelps <steve@epic.co.uk>
From: john@starinc.com (John Malick)
From: pete@physchem.ox.ac.uk (Pete Biggs)
From: fallan@awadi.com.au (Frank Allan - Network Manager)
From: js@cctechnol.com
From: jeffm@iglou.com (Jeff Mcadams)
From: Bruce Cheng <cheng@sdsp.mc.xerox.com>
From: amy.hollander@amp.com (Amy Hollander)
From: Tony Jago <tony@fit.qut.edu.au>
From: Glenn.Satchell@Uniq.com.au (Glenn Satchell - Uniq Professional Services)
From: Ben Hardiman <benh@accv.org.au>

Finally, full answers are appened at the bottom of the message.

--Nino

---
Nino Margetic <nino@well.ox.ac.uk> 
The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford. 
Tel: +44 1865 740 005    Fax: +44 1865 742 196 
---

+++++ ------- ++++++ ------- +++++++ ------- +++++++ ------- +++++++ ------ ORIGINAL ANSWERS ----- +++++++ ------ +++++++ ------- +++++++ ------- +++++++ ------- ++++++

Date: Thu, 18 Apr 96 12:11 BST From: Steve Phelps <steve@epic.co.uk> Subject: Re: 100baseT cards for SS10

At 09:03 AM 4/18/96 +0100, you wrote: >Dear all, > >Some questions: > >1) Are there any 100baseT cards for SS10 machines? yes. There is the be interface and the hme (SunSwift) card. The Sunswift card combines Wide Scsi and fast ethernet on the same card. These are both available from SunExpress.

>2) Anyone got any first hand experience with them? yes.

>3) Would it be better/easier/cheaper to go via the switched 10baseT route?

This drastically depends on your setup. What is often ideal is to have a 12xn port 10BASE-T switch with a 100BASE-T uplink to a fast server. 3Com produce such a switch. I think it is called the LinkSwitch 2000, and costs around 3,000 sterling.

We currently have switched 100BASE-T which is v. effective but is also quite expensive (32k sterling for the switches) and might be overkill for your needs.

If you do go for 100BASE-T without switching it is still advisable to segment (subnet) as much as possible, and not put more than 12 nodes per segment. If you find yourself putting way more than 12 nodes per segment and can't subnet then you should consider 10BASE-T switching or routing, or if you can afford it 100BASE-T switching.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Phelps EMG Limited 52 The Old Steine Brighton, UK.

Voice: +44 1273 728686 extn. 406 Fax: +44 1273 821567

GPF encountered in module MICROSOFT.DLL Stack contents: ";;@|Where Do You Want to Go Today?_&..."

-------- Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 07:56:01 -0400 From: john@starinc.com (John Malick) Subject: Re: 100baseT cards for SS10

> Some questions: > > 1) Are there any 100baseT cards for SS10 machines?

Sun sells a SunSwift card, # x1018a, it is both a 100baseT and fast-wide all in one s-bus card.

> 2) Anyone got any first hand experience with them?

I have used them frequently and they work fine.

> 3) Would it be better/easier/cheaper to go via the switched 10baseT route?

It really depends on your overall traffic on your net. Even though 100baseT is faster, its still ethernet which is bogged down quite easily with just 20-30% network utilization. Using switched 10baseT or even switched 100baseT would allow for that direct client to server connectivity thus reducing the utilization and allow ethernet to work efficiently. If you are going switched, I would suggest switched 100baseT to your servers at least and then switched 10baseT to your clients. There are several vendors providing concentrators with both 100baseT and 10baseT ports in one unit.

good luck john@starinc.com

-------- Date: Thu, 18 Apr 96 14:13:56 BST From: pete@physchem.ox.ac.uk (Pete Biggs) Subject: Re: 100baseT cards for SS10

> >1) Are there any 100baseT cards for SS10 machines?

Yes:

SunFast Ethernet Card: X1050A/CC UKL 990/A

Don't know about the rest - sorry :( >2) Anyone got any first hand experience with them? >3) Would it be better/easier/cheaper to go via the switched 10baseT route? >

Pete

============================================================================== Pete Biggs :{) pete@physchem.ox.ac.uk Phone: 01865 275490 (Work) 01865 275410 (Fax) 0802 183421 (Mobile) ============================================================================== key to UNIX: echo '16i[q]sa[ln0=aln100%Pln100/snlbx]sbA0D4D465452snlbxq'|dc

-------- From: fallan@awadi.com.au (Frank Allan - Network Manager) Subject: Re: 100baseT cards for SS10 Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 23:52:14 +0930 (CST)

Nino

we are using the Sun SWIFT card which provides both 100Mbs ethernet and 20MB Fast/Wide SCSI interface on the one S-BUS card. Very reasonably priced - about the same price as the Fast/Wide interface on its own, and works quite well.

It will also operate at 10Mbs if required.

cheers Frank

------ Frank Allan (Network Manager) e-mail: frank@awadi.com.au AWA Defence Industries Phone: Intn'l + 61 8 256 0900 PO Box 161 Home: Intn'l + 61 8 263 5723 Elizabeth SA 5112 Australia Fax: Intn'l + 61 8 255 9117

-------- Date: Thu, 18 Apr 96 09:23 CDT Subject: Re: 100baseT cards for SS10 From: js@cctechnol.com

>>> "nm" == Nino Margetic <nino@well.ox.ac.uk> writes:

nm> 1) Are there any 100baseT cards for SS10 machines?

Yes, sun sells one they call it a SunFast Ethernet Adapter. Sun part number X1056A, I think.

nm> 2) Anyone got any first hand experience with them?

We've got 6 of them, soon to be 7. They work fine for us. There is a patch for Solaris 2.[45] for a memory leak in the device driver. It also includes a CD-ROM with 4.1.x drivers.

nm> 3) Would it be better/easier/cheaper to go via the switched 10baseT route?

I don't know.

============================================================================== Johnie Stafford, System Administrator * Phone: (318) 981-1442 C & C Technologies, Inc. * Fax: (318) 988-1016 500 Dover Blvd. * E-mail: js@cctechnol.com Lafayette, LA 70503 * URL: http://www.cctechnol.com ==============================================================================

-------- From: jeffm@iglou.com (Jeff Mcadams) Subject: Re: 100baseT cards for SS10 Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 10:51:59 -0400 (EDT)

Thus spake Nino Margetic >1) Are there any 100baseT cards for SS10 machines? >2) Anyone got any first hand experience with them?

Yes, there are 100baseT SBus cards. We're using 3 (but running them at 10 Mbps right now).

>3) Would it be better/easier/cheaper to go via the switched 10baseT route?

Mostly depends on your network traffic. If all of these machines are basically funnelling data out one router, then you will either need full 100baseT on the whole network, or a switched hub that has a 100baseT connection to the router. (all your hosts are connected via switched 10, and the router or server as your needs may be, has a 100 Mbps connection) -- Jeff McAdams | A feature is a bug IgLou Internet Services | with seniority. e-mail: jeffm@iglou.com | -- unknown

-------- Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 08:39:53 PDT From: Bruce Cheng <cheng@sdsp.mc.xerox.com> Subject: Re: 100baseT cards for SS10

Nino Margetic wrote: > > Dear all, > > Some questions: > > 1) Are there any 100baseT cards for SS10 machines?

Yes. sun sells one. It's not *too* expensive.

> 2) Anyone got any first hand experience with them? Not yet. But I am not aware of much alternative.

> 3) Would it be better/easier/cheaper to go via the switched 10baseT route?

Depend on your network. I'll start with a switching up regardless of what route you pick.

3com sells a 10 meg switching up with a 100 meg pipe for one file server. It's called linkswitch 1000, got great reviews everywhere. It's cheap also. But beaware of the size of your network. There is a limit of how many mac address each switch can support.

If money is no object and you are not bound to many legacy switches, check out baynetworks' 2118 (something like that) - it's a 10/100 switch. 16 ports for around $14k

Hope this helps. -Bruce

ps* 3com, Bay, Cisco all have nice white papers about 10-100mbps transition recommendations. Also, 10mbps switch network still run 10mbps. If the problem is file transfer speed or nfs bottleneck, you'll definitely need to run 100mbps.

> > TIA. > > -- > Nino Margetic <nino@well.ox.ac.uk> > The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford. > Tel: +44 1865 740 005 Fax: +44 1865 742 196 > ---

-- Work: 716-425-6469 | Internet: cheng@sdsp.mc.xerox.com Pager:716-771-8946 | XNS: BC:WBST311:XEROX Fax: 716-425-6238 | MSmail: Bruce_Cheng@wb.xerox.com Address: 820-03F, 200 Crosskeys Office Park, Fairport NY 14450

-------- Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 14:29:37 -0400 From: amy.hollander@amp.com (Amy Hollander) Subject: Re: 100baseT cards for SS10

We got fddi cards for our suns they work great AMy.Hollander@amp.com

-------- Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 10:21:36 +1000 (EST) From: Tony Jago <tony@fit.qut.edu.au> Subject: Re: 100baseT cards for SS10

On Thu, 18 Apr 1996, Nino Margetic wrote:

> Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 09:03:32 +0100 > From: Nino Margetic <nino@well.ox.ac.uk> > To: sun-managers@eecs.nwu.edu > Subject: 100baseT cards for SS10 > Followup-To: junk > > Dear all, > > Some questions: > > 1) Are there any 100baseT cards for SS10 machines? > 2) Anyone got any first hand experience with them? > 3) Would it be better/easier/cheaper to go via the switched 10baseT route? > > TIA. > > -- > Nino Margetic <nino@well.ox.ac.uk> > The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford. > Tel: +44 1865 740 005 Fax: +44 1865 742 196 > --- >

We use a SunSwift SBus Adapter in a SS10. Its working great.

# uptime 10:11am up 7 day(s), 1:39, 35 users, load average: 0.95, 0.71, 0.60 # netstat -i Name Mtu Net/Dest Address Ipkts Ierrs Opkts Oerrs Collis lo0 8232 loopback localhost 2953104 0 2953104 0 0 hme0 1500 studpc-1 droid 15018681 0 9155356 0 0 le1 1500 student droid 21173494 0 20869911 17 512900 qe2 1500 xterm-1 droid 14171372 64 9949264 1 427264 qe3 1500 xterm-2 droid 12565611 0 9331910 1 337920

This card also has a Fast Wide SCSI-2 interface on it as well. It can run a 10 or 100 full or half duplex. I have never seen it report a collision. We also have another one of these in a Sparc Ultra Server 170E also working fine (after installing the patches that come with the card on a CD :)

We use it on a 100M switched network. I would suggest you have a look at the 3com Link Switch 1000 to plug your box into. It has 26 switched ports, 1 at 100M, 24 at 10M and 1 expantion slot on the back that can take a fiber module etc. We have found them cheep and fast. You don't need to buy any fancy software to run on a managment box to configure them.

If you have any further question please contact me. Hope this all helps.

--- Tony Jago, System Administrator, E-Mail: T.Jago@fit.qut.edu.au Faculty of Information Technology, Web: http://www.fit.qut.edu.au/staff/~tony Queensland University of Technology. Box 2434, Brisbane 4001, AUSTRALIA. "We need more horsepower!" Phone: +61 7 3864-2573 Fax: +61 7 3864-1959

-------- Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 10:44:34 +1000 From: Glenn.Satchell@Uniq.com.au (Glenn Satchell - Uniq Professional Services) Subject: Re: 100baseT cards for SS10

Sun has the SunSwift: Fast Buffered SCSI with 10/100 MB Ethernet port. Includes driver for Solaris 2.4; Solaris 2.5 includes the driver in the OS. Should work fine with the SS10.

regards, -- Glenn Satchell glenn@uniq.com.au | There's a fine line Uniq Professional Services Pty Ltd ACN 056 279 335 | between fishing and PO Box 70, Paddington, NSW 2021, (Sydney) Australia | standing on the shore Phone 02 380 6360 Pager 016 287 000 Fax 02 380 6416 | looking like an idiot. VISIT OUR NEW WEB SITE http://www.uniq.com.au

> From sun-managers-request@uniq.com.au Fri Apr 19 06:23 EST 1996 > From: Nino Margetic <nino@well.ox.ac.uk> > Reply-To: Nino Margetic <nino@well.ox.ac.uk> > Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 09:03:32 +0100 > Organization: Wellcome Human Genetics Centre - University of Oxford > To: sun-managers@eecs.nwu.edu > Subject: 100baseT cards for SS10 > Comment: *** You are subscribed to the connect.com.au local list exploder > Comment: *** Please send admin requests to majordomo@connect.com.au, > Comment: *** NOT the actual list. > X-Lines: 15 > > Dear all, > > Some questions: > > 1) Are there any 100baseT cards for SS10 machines? > 2) Anyone got any first hand experience with them? > 3) Would it be better/easier/cheaper to go via the switched 10baseT route? > > TIA. > > -- > Nino Margetic <nino@well.ox.ac.uk> > The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford. > Tel: +44 1865 740 005 Fax: +44 1865 742 196 > --- >

-------- Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 14:47:59 +1000 From: Ben Hardiman <benh@accv.org.au> Subject: Re: 100baseT cards for SS10

Hi Nino

I have 2 Sun Sparc 10/30 currently with standard 10baseT cards in them. I have taken delivery of a SunFastEthernet Adaptor 2.0 100BaseT card for each machine. Instructions & documentation seem ok - I expect to have them installed in a couple of weeks. I will let you know how it goes.

Ben

At 09:03 AM 4/18/96 +0100, you wrote: >Dear all, > >Some questions: > >1) Are there any 100baseT cards for SS10 machines? >2) Anyone got any first hand experience with them? >3) Would it be better/easier/cheaper to go via the switched 10baseT route? > >TIA. > >-- >Nino Margetic <nino@well.ox.ac.uk> >The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford. >Tel: +44 1865 740 005 Fax: +44 1865 742 196 >--- > > Ben Hardiman Systems Administrator Draw near to God, Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria and He will draw near to you. 1 Rathdowne Street James 4:8a Carlton South, Victoria, 3053 Australia Phone : +61 3 9279 1126 Fax : +61 3 9279 1240 E-Mail : benh@accv.org.au



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