100Mb/s full duplex link

UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users
1

Hi,

I have been trying to connect two computers directly through their LAN cards. One is a 3com 3c905c 10/100 Mbit/s card and the other is an Intel i217-lm 10/100/1000Mbit/s card. I have connected them through a CAT 6 cable. Whenever autoneg is turned on, the PCs connect in the 10Mb/s mode, and if I try to force the 100Mbit/s mode through ethtool. the link does not establish. I have tried connecting the same cable to another PC and observed download rates close to 100Mbit/s.

I am not sure what I am missing here.

Your help is much appreciated.

2

The first thing I'd check are the configurations of the cards themselves.

I know for sure that the 3c90xcfg.exe utility allows you to set various options including data rate and full/half duplex, etc.

Perhaps one of the cards has been "strapped down" by a previous user for some reason. Have you got the configuration tools for these cards?

3

Hi,

Thanks for the response. I must have said that I am running Linux on both the machines. I tried to set rates using ethtool, which did not work.

Thanks.

4

Yes, but the 3c905 can be configured using a DOS based utility which puts the settings onto the card itself. If the data rate has been set to a maximum of 10MB/s, then that's the fastest it will go until someone runs the utility again and changes it.

Search Google for "3c90xcfg.exe"

5

Should I get the file and run it under Wine? Would you recommend doing it in a certain way.

Thanks.

6

Run it anyway you can. In older machines with a floppy drive I've seen the config utility put onto a DOS bootable floppy and run from there.

Just go for it. Either the environment will run it or it won't. You'll soon see if it talks sense and displays the cards parameters.

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Also, search to see if there's any similar utility for the Intel card.

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Perhaps pull the card out and put it into a Windows/DOS box. Set the parameters on the card and then put it back into the Linux box. Once the card parameters are set with the utility, they will stay that way.

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7

I doubt that WINE will help you. It would not run things inside it in "real mode". You'd need to actually boot a DOS environment of some sort.

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8

Thanks guys! I will try to scavenge a Windows machine and let you know how it went.