[rescue] Gigabit Ethernet (Copper) Switch Advice SOught

[Eric Dittman]

> > Now, with 768K +/- DSL, do I need 1000 Mb/sec networking? No, but do I
> > like the IDEA of a gigabit network, YES. It is better if it has any
> > chance of approaching 1000 Mb/sec "bursts".
> ...
> > In my mind, I see a parallel "server to server" network working at 1000
> > Mb/sec speeds, with desktops hanging off 100 Mb/sec Fast Ethernet...
> 
>    Indeed, I really liked the performance increase when I first put my 
> desktop workstation (an SGI Indigo2 at the time) on the FDDI ring with 
> my local web cache.

When I went to GigE I set up a system as a file server.  Access to the data over
the wire is about as fast as data from local drives.  What is limiting the speed
right now is using a 32-bit/33MHz PCI slot instead of a 64-bit/66MHz PCI slot (or
a PCI-X slot) and using Linux instead of NetBSD.  I tried to use the 64-bit/33MHz
PCI slot in one of my Alphastation 500/500 systems, but NetBSD had problems when
I enabled jumbo packets (as in after a random number of packets were transmitted,
the NetBSD system went deaf).  I won't say I'm really surprised, as the Tigon3
driver was not enabled for the Alpha architecture, so there probably hasn't been
much (if any) work done on making sure the driver worked on the Alpha.

So right now I'm just going to leave it as-is until I get an Ultra with 64-bit
PCI slots.
-- 
Eric Dittman
dittman at dittman.net