[lug] Knowledge shopping list

Nate Duehr nate at natetech.com
Mon Oct 22 16:45:38 MDT 2001 

'Tis true.  Some of the serious unsung heros of the Linux movement are
those plugging away twiddling bits in unknown hardware with no docs
trying to get the drivers working for the "rest" of us.  :-)

I still want to personally thank Ethan Benson someday and BenH for all
their tireless work on the LinuxPPC kernels.  Hell, they have to fight
Linus half the time to get him to even take their patches... and Ethan's
work on yabin/yaboot is incredible with all the undocumented stuff he's
had to wade through in Apple's OpenFirmware/OpenBoot.

But after all that hard work on their part, I can just plop a Debian CD
in the drive of my iMac and it boots.... well, kinda.  :-)  Drive
partitioning is still a bit evil on the Mac, but Ethan's docs and a
little guessing and I made it through.

On Mon, Oct 22, 2001 at 06:26:21PM +0000, Greg Horne wrote:
> I took a look at the source and I understand what you mean when you say they 
> are evil!  Though, it's amazing to me that I've never had any problems with 
> the Realtek NICs.  Furthermore, I suspect that the reason I had no problems 
> was due in part to the hard work of the driver writers.  Yay them!
> 
> Greg Horne
> 
> >From: Nate Duehr <nate at natetech.com>
> >Reply-To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> >To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> >Subject: Re: [lug] Knowledge shopping list
> >Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 16:29:58 -0600
> >
> >RealTek's are evil.  See some of the comments in the kernel driver
> >source for how much they are hated and feared by the driver writers.
> >
> >You'll NEVER get 100Mb/s throughput from the RealTek 100Mb/s cards.
> >Their DMA stuff is broken, and their other ways of accessing the card
> >only allow the kernel to send the card four packets at a time.
> >
> >Uggh.
> >
> >The source comments do a better job of complaining about RealTek than I
> >do, however... :-)
> >
> >On Wed, Oct 17, 2001 at 07:04:09PM +0000, Greg Horne wrote:
> > > <rant>
> > > On a side note:
> > > I hate FA311's with a passion :)
> > >
> > > Experience #1
> > > Uninstall old 10Mb NIC install FA311TX
> > > Installs just fine...tells me to restart...explorer.exe horribly crashes
> > > every reboot.  WSPWSP.dll is a cause of the problem.  I guess the new 
> >NIC
> > > messed up MSPROXY client and made windows unhappy.  FA311=evil
> > >
> > > Experience #2
> > > Unistall old 10Mb NIC (clients computer) install FA311TX
> > > Installs just fine...tells me to restart...NTLDR not found upon boot.  I
> > > reinstalled windows (not fresh) and everything works just fine.  
> >FA311=evil
> > >
> > > I know lots of other people have had good experiences (like my 
> >co-worker),
> > > but not me.  I'll stick to my trusty RealTek8139 or FA310TX.
> > >
> > > Greg
> > > </rant>
> > >
> > >
> > > >From: Chris Wade <cwade at veripost.net>
> > > >Reply-To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> > > >To: "'lug at lug.boulder.co.us'" <lug at lug.boulder.co.us>
> > > >Subject: RE: [lug] Knowledge shopping list
> > > >Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 11:18:45 -0600
> > > >
> > > >Thanks for the info, FA311 it is.
> > > >
> > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > From: Greg Horne [mailto:jeerygh at hotmail.com]
> > > > > Sent: Monday, October 15, 2001 6:21 PM
> > > > > To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> > > > > Subject: Re: [lug] Knowledge shopping list
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > If your NIC is an FA311TX, then that's your problem.  It seems that
> > > > > FA310TX's are supported and I think 312 but not 311's.  I
> > > > > believe there is a
> > > > > patch on www.netgear.com
> > > > >
> > > > > Greg Horne
> > > > >
> > > > > >From: Chris Wade <cwade at veripost.net>
> > > > > >Reply-To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> > > > > >To: "'lug at lug.boulder.co.us'" <lug at lug.boulder.co.us>
> > > > > >Subject: [lug] Knowledge shopping list
> > > > > >Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 12:59:13 -0600
> > > > > >
> > > > > >Thanks all for all the help and information on telnetd
> > > > > security.  I am
> > > > > >inspired to put together a 'knowledge shopping list' with
> > > > > all the things I
> > > > > >am going to need to know to get my setup working the way I
> > > > > want it.. any
> > > > > >pointers to technical docs, previous threads etc. would be greatly
> > > > > >appreciated... :)
> > > > > >
> > > > > >Here's what I have (hope my ascii graphics come across well):
> > > > > >
> > > > > >Internet
> > > > > >  |
> > > > > >  V
> > > > > >At&t at home cable modem
> > > > > >(supports NAT)
> > > > > >  |
> > > > > >  V
> > > > > >Hub --> Suse 7.1 Pro w/ everything installed
> > > > > >  |----> Win2000 Laptop, used for VPN to work
> > > > > >  |----> WinME laptop (ugh)
> > > > > >
> > > > > >This setup is okay, we all get out to the internet with it,
> > > > > but I want to
> > > > > >do
> > > > > >a lot more.  Here's what I think I would like:
> > > > > >
> > > > > >Internet
> > > > > >  |
> > > > > >  V
> > > > > >Something better than cable modem for running a server
> > > > > >  |
> > > > > >  V
> > > > > >Suse 7.1 acting as firewall, web server, mailrouter,
> > > > > gateway, development
> > > > > >environment
> > > > > >  |
> > > > > >  V
> > > > > >Hub
> > > > > >  |
> > > > > >  V
> > > > > >Home network consisting of The abovementioned Windows
> > > > > laptops plus an old
> > > > > >PowerMac
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >I've read messages here where people refer to setups like
> > > > > this that they
> > > > > >have running... is this pretty standard?  I know that, at a
> > > > > minimum, I want
> > > > > >to be running Apache w/PHP 4.0.6 with mysql and
> > > > > postgresql... haven't used
> > > > > >postgres at all but would like to learn it... I'm okay with
> > > > > setting up the
> > > > > >Apache/PHP stuff.  I've done that so many times at work it
> > > > > makes me dizzy.
> > > > > >But I also need to figure out how to get my second network
> > > > > card running
> > > > > >(Netgear, box says linux supported but it didn't detect),
> > > > > and then set it
> > > > > >up
> > > > > >so that I can still access the internet from all four
> > > > > machines as well as
> > > > > >get mail routed to the three behind the firewall.  I have a
> > > > > domain pointed
> > > > > >to this box... I use mail forwarding as a registrar service,
> > > > > where all mail
> > > > > >to my domain gets forwarded to a single address, but I would
> > > > > like to have a
> > > > > >lot more control over it (i.e. separate addresses to
> > > > > separate mailboxes).
> > > > > >Will still need to do VPN through the linux firewall to
> > > > > work, and oh yes, I
> > > > > >will want to set up Samba (which I've done) and Netatalk
> > > > > (which I haven't
> > > > > >done).
> > > > > >
> > > > > >At&t requests that you don't run a server w/ one of their
> > > > > cable modems, and
> > > > > >I can understand why... bandwidth shrinks dramatically in
> > > > > the outgoing
> > > > > >direction and tends to clog things up for everybody else.  Is there
> > > > > >anything
> > > > > >else of comparable cost that would be more amenable to this
> > > > > kind of usage?
> > > > > >If not, what am I looking at paying (roughly) if I want to
> > > > > up my outgoing
> > > > > >bandwidth by using some other service?
> > > > > >
> > > > > >Thanks in advance for help with all or just parts of this...
> > > > > >
> > > > > >Chris
> > > > > >_______________________________________________
> > > > > >Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
> > > > > >Mailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lug
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > _________________________________________________________________
> > > > > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at
> > > > > http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
> > > > >
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
> > > > > Mailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lug
> > > > >
> > > >_______________________________________________
> > > >Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
> > > >Mailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lug
> > >
> > >
> > > _________________________________________________________________
> > > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at 
> >http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
> > > Mailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lug
> >
> >--
> >Nate Duehr <nate at natetech.com>
> >
> >GPG Key fingerprint = DCAF 2B9D CC9B 96FA 7A6D AAF4 2D61 77C5 7ECE C1D2
> >Public Key available upon request, or at wwwkeys.pgp.net and others.
> >_______________________________________________
> >Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
> >Mailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lug
> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
> Mailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lug

-- 
Nate Duehr <nate at natetech.com>

GPG Key fingerprint = DCAF 2B9D CC9B 96FA 7A6D AAF4 2D61 77C5 7ECE C1D2
Public Key available upon request, or at wwwkeys.pgp.net and others.

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