RE: Full-duplex operations

2000-09-25 Thread Leigh Anne Chisholm

I remember coming across a knowledge base article on Microsoft's site that indicated 
poor performance with NICs set to full duplex was because Windows NT didn't support 
full-duplex operation.  This was one of those cases where when the Microsoft Help Desk 
tech had the client change the client's full-duplex settings to half-duplex, and the 
PC's performance increased drastically, an incorrect assumption was made.  I found 
this article when my husband indicated he was experiencing poor performance at work 
with a new network card in their server.  I gave him the knowledge base article - and 
it fixed his problem.  For many months, I didn't realize the knowledge base article 
was in error.  Windows NT DID support full-duplex, and the driver he was using WAS 
full-duplex capable.  My husband was just plugged into a hub, rather than a switch - 
and as you know, full-duplex on a hub will NEVER work.  Voila.  A little more 
knowledge, and the true cause of the problem was found.  If the aut!
hors of the book (OR... perhaps it was something the EDITOR added) saw this knowledge 
base article, they accepted it as fact and didn't fully understand that Microsoft 
misunderstood the problem.  

DON'T for a second blame Microsoft for having incorrect information in their knowledge 
base.  There's just as many Cisco "gurus" who don't understand enough about 
Microsoft's products to be able to draw correct inferences about why something isn't 
working properly.  The best understandings of how things work is when you have enough 
information to see the whole picture - not just one side (Cisco / Microsoft).  Anyhow, 
I digress.

Here's another possibility as to where this myth started:

Q217305 - Full Duplex Support with Windows NT
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q217/3/05.ASP?LN=EN-USSD=gnFR=0


  -- Leigh Anne


 -Original Message-
 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of
 Mike Peterson
 Sent: Monday, September 25, 2000 7:18 AM
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Subject: Full-duplex operations
 
 
 
 
 Hi all,
 
 By studying the Book : CISCO LAN SWITCHING by Kennedy Clark I found
 this NOTE on Chapter 1 page 15 :" Windows NT4.0 does not support
 FULL-DUPLEX operations because of drivers limitations.Some SUN 
 workstations 
 can also experience this, expecialy with Gigabit Ethernet."
 
 Has anyone study this? Can I have more details regarding Win NT 
 limitations 
 with full-duplex operations?
 Priscilla , Bruce what do you know about this problem?
 Thanks, in advance to everyone.
 
 Mike Peterson
 _
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RE: Full-duplex operations

2000-09-25 Thread Chuck Larrieu

I believe we have had this discussion in a slightly different form in the
past. There have been numerous problems with NIC's of all sort, full duplex,
half duplex, auto-negotiate, etc and their ability to connect to Cisco
switches. I believe that most of these problems have been corrected with
either newer NIC's or NIC driver upgrades.

I myself have run Windows NT servers full duplex dating back to NT 3.51,
both on Compaq servers and on Dell PC's  with NT server installed over the
original OS.

Having run into mistaken beliefs along these lines in several places, and
coming from folks with impeccable credentials, and having acted this way
myself at times,  I tend to believe that most of us in general learn
something from experience, file it away, and never revisit it. That's why
you will read in some places that IGRP has a max diameter of 100 hops, why
you should never use weighted fair queueing with frame relay, and why 3Com
3C509 NIC's will not function when plugged into a Cisco Cat 5000 switch. All
of these things were true at one time, or under certain circumstances. They
are no longer true.

The statement in the book is not correct in and of itself. But one needs be
aware that with older NIC's, and older NIC drivers, that there have been
problems with Cisco switches.

And yes I point to Cisco in particular, because in my case, the 3Com 3C509's
worked just fine in an HP switch ( the one OEM'd by Kalperna - HP2916? -
which eventually was bought by Cisco ) but did not work at all in a Cisco
Cat 5000. On the other hand, 3Com 3C905's worked just fine in the Cat. So I
labored for a couple of years under the assumption that the 3C509 did not
work. I am told that it does now, using recent drivers.

Chuck



-Original Message-
From:   [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Marc
Quibell
Sent:   Monday, September 25, 2000 9:36 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject:Re: Full-duplex operations

IMO, It's a strange statement to say "Windows NT doesn't support full
duplex" especially since the duplexing is done between the NIC and the
switch port. Am I missing something here?

Marc

""Mike Peterson"" [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote in message
[EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...


 Hi all,

 By studying the Book : CISCO LAN SWITCHING by Kennedy Clark I found
 this NOTE on Chapter 1 page 15 :" Windows NT4.0 does not support
 FULL-DUPLEX operations because of drivers limitations.Some SUN
workstations
 can also experience this, expecialy with Gigabit Ethernet."

 Has anyone study this? Can I have more details regarding Win NT
limitations
 with full-duplex operations?
 Priscilla , Bruce what do you know about this problem?
 Thanks, in advance to everyone.

 Mike Peterson
 _
 Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

 Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
 http://profiles.msn.com.

 **NOTE: New CCNA/CCDA List has been formed. For more information go to
 http://www.groupstudy.com/list/Associates.html
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 Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]



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