From: becker@super.org (Donald J. Becker) Subject: Re: Need 3c501 driver Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 17:41:27 GMT
In article <michaelw.726417607@mcshh.hanse.de> michaelw@mcshh.Hanse.DE (Michael Will) writes:
>nelson@crynwr.com (Russell Nelson) writes:
>> I am sure somebody out there has hacked a 3c501 driver for Linux. If
>> you have one, please email it to me.......
>
>>Go buy yourself a real Ethernet card. You can get NE2000 clones for
>>under $100 now...
>
>Not utterly helpful. suppose he has got the 3com for free becaues someone
>bought a ' real ethernetcard' ?
>
It was a helpful comment. A thinnet cable and "T" connector are worth
more than an ancient 3c501. Think of the 3c501 as an 8088 motherboard
that "he got for free because someone bought a 'real motherboard'".
It won't work with linux and you shouldn't even try.
The 3c501 is an ancient product with documentation that's no longer
being printed. It has a single packet buffer that is shared between
transmit and receive. By this I mean that when you have a packet it
cannot receive another packet. While you are offloading
that packet it cannot receive a packet. While you are loading a new
packet to transmit it cannot receive a packet. While you are waiting
to transmit it cannot receive a packet. While... well, you get the
idea -- you miss most packets. And I haven't even started describing
the bugs.
-- Donald Becker becker@super.org Supercomputing Research Center 17100 Science Drive, Bowie MD 21114 301-805-7482