nic processors disabled by default in Win2k and XP!

[Jorden]

Originally posted by Technoid
Whats the diferences betven 3c905B and 3C905C ?

The only things I could find was that the 905C has Remote wake up cable, KeepAlive packets diminish IP address-aging problems and Heartbeat Alert monitors for physical removal or power failure, where the 905B doesn't.

Btw, does the Heartbeat Alert mean you can hotswap these cards?

[dZeus]

ehm, my 905b-tx also has a wol connector.

THe 3c905c-tx has an integrated bootrom which you can't disable completely (YUCK). You'll always get the 'press N to boot from network' messages for each NIC installed with these cards. The 905b-tx has a socket on the card for such a chip, which of course isn't installed in my config

I think that the 3c905c-tx also has some ACPI? or APM enhancements that the 3c905b-tx doesn't

[isochar]

Jammrock, do you run a firewall in XP? If so, how did you get around the problem with the network connection timing out when offloading is enabled? (I have the 3CR990-TX-97 too )

[Guru]

Originally posted by dZeus
THe 3c905c-tx has an integrated bootrom which you can't disable completely (YUCK). You'll always get the 'press N to boot from network' messages for each NIC installed with these cards. The 905b-tx has a socket on the card for such a chip, which of course isn't installed in my config

?????? I don't get "it"!

[dZeus]

what's the part you don't get?

[Tempest]

Yep I also have both a 3C905B-TX and two 3C905C-TX adapters. I think the difference is very much the one that dZeus described, 3C905C-TX equipped workstations can be managed using a remote connection and booted using remote data, while 3C905B-TX workstations can not (without the add-on).

[Gurm]

The problem, getting back to the original point of this post, is that 3Com (and other card makers) put in "features" that "offloaded" work from the CPU. This, however, created network timing NIGHTMARES. I still remember one machine that, on a 100Mbit network under NT4 (which DID NOT have this registry switch enabled by default), got a whopping 100Kbit/sec. because of timing problems.

Nowadays, that switch is superseded by the new Windows Driver API, such that 3Com (or whoever) can offload as much work from the CPU as they want - so long as they do it in a safe, Kosher manner.

- Gurm

[SteveC]

I'm using a 'Compaq NC3121 Fast Ethernet NIC' (http://www.compaq.com/products/netwo.../nc3121nv.html) I think based on the intel 82558 chipset. Is it worth me changing this registry setting for win2k?

[Gurm]

SteveC:

No, because changing that registry setting won't gain you any speed, and WILL gain you instability.

- Gurm