Actually, 3com drivers hanging when handling a heavy load of traffic is a Well Known Feature(tm). Increasing max_interrupt_work usually solves the problem. About the performance: 3com has Linux drivers on their websites, these allow you to unlock the full potential of their NICs. Granted, Intel's cards are not too shabby either. Ariel, just wondering; Where do you have a Beowulf cluster? Ariel Biener wrote: > > On Wed, 9 Feb 2000, Ira Abramov wrote: > > > I think that was back in the 2.0 days. EEPro probably still suck. I love > > my 3COMs, never had a problem with one. ever. > > My experience with 3com 905/905B 595/590 cards using 100Mbit is completely > different. Not only that the driver is not stable at 100Mbit FD, it also > hangs ocasionally on very busy servers. > > Even after a fresh start, using either a back-to-back link or via a > 100Mbit switched net (two machines on the same 3300 3com switch), you can > never get more that 60-68Mbit/sec from the 3com, while I can get close to > 85Mbit/sec from the eepro100B. > > In general, with network intensive applications, on 100Mbit FD, the Intel > cards far outperform the 3com cards, and are much more stable and > reliable. > > I am talking about 4-5 brands of PCs, (some DELLs, some others), that are > really "using" the network. We've tested this again and again, even more > so with our new Beowulf cluster, and the results consistently showed the > opposite of what Ira said. > > So, if you ask me, do not use 3com with Linux till 3com releases all the > specs. Fact is that the Solaris x86 driver for these 3com cards is stable. > > --Ariel > > > > > > In general - is there any issues I should know about before buying it? > > > > serious warrenty and onsite service, like any important server. > > > > be sure to have it running an NTP daemon and synching to a UP machine, > > linux SMP system clocks tend to go loopy. > > > > -- > > Ira Abramov ; whois:IA58 ; www.scso.com ; all around Linux enthusiast > > The nice thing about Windows is - It does not just crash, it displays a > > dialog box and lets you press 'OK' first. > > (Arno Schaefer's .sig) > -- > Ariel Biener > e-mail: ariel@post.tau.ac.il Work phone: 03-6406086 > fingerprint = 07 D1 E5 3E EF 6D E5 82 0B E9 21 D4 3C 7D 8B BC -- "You will now die. Make whatever rituals are necessary for your species." - Ur-Quan, Kohr-Ah
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