3Com EtherLink 3C985B-SX Installation And User Manual page 24

3 Installing the Driver Software
NIC Configuration
Parameter
Duplex
Speed
RxFlowControl
TxFlowControl
FDRFiltering
RecvBuffers
Other
Driver Version
6 Ensure that you have set the RecvBuffers value to 32.
7 After NetWare 5.1 has been successfully installed, edit the STARTUP.NCF file: Set the packet receive
buffers parameter to 1024 for each NIC in the system. For more information, see "Editing the
STARTUP.NCF File" on page 21.
8 In the autoexec.ncf file, delete the packet receive buffers parameter (RecvBuffers=32) in the
load statement for this NIC.
Deleting the receive buffers phrase from the load statement will reset the receive buffers parameter to the
default value of 512 for this NIC.
20
Description
When you disable link negotiation while installing a Base-SX or 10/100/1000Base-T NIC, you can select
either half-duplex or full-duplex operation. If you select this field and press <Enter>, you are prompted to
choose between "full" and "half" settings:
When "full" is selected, full-duplex signaling is enabled (default).
When "half" is selected, half-duplex signaling is used.
If link negotiation has been disabled, you can select port speed to be either 10Mbps, 100Mbps,
or 1Gbps.
When you select this field and press <Enter>, you are prompted to choose between "allow" and
"off" settings:
When "allow" is selected, and link parameter is set to "auto," the NIC will negotiate 802.3x receive
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flow control with the device at the other end of the link. If the other device supports 802.3x flow
control, Rx flow control will be enabled.
When "off" is selected, or link parameter is "off," receive flow control is disabled.
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When you select this field and press <Enter>, you are prompted to choose between "allow" and
"off" settings.
When "allow" is selected, and link parameter is set to "auto," the NIC will negotiate 802.3x transmit
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flow control with the device at the other end of the link. If the other device supports 802.3x flow
control, Tx flow control will be enabled.
When "off" is selected, or link parameter is "off," transmit flow control is disabled.
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When you select this field and press <Enter>, you are prompted to choose between "on" and "off"
settings:
Use "on" if the NIC is attached to a full-duplex repeater.
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Use "off" or leave the field blank if the NIC is not connected to a full-duplex repeater.
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NOTE: FDRFiltering is ignored on Models 710011 and 710012. This parameter is included to maintain
driver compatibility with earlier models.
To ensure optimum NIC performance, the NIC driver has a default value of 512 packet receive buffers for
each NIC installed on the network.
NOTE: If performing an initial installation of NetWare 5.1, the install program will not let you allocate
the actual number of packet receive buffers needed by the NIC. During installation, the RecvBuffers
value should be set to 32, the minimum number of buffers the driver requires for each NIC. While this
setting will dramatically affect NIC performance, it will allow installation of the operating system. Once
installation is complete, you need to increase the number of buffers allocated to the system, as described
in "Editing the STARTUP.NCF File" on page 21.
This parameter is reserved for future features or technical support use.
This information field displays the version of the driver software. This field cannot be edited.