3Com Corporation
ETHERDISK DISKETTE FOR THE ETHERLINK III AND FAST ETHERLINK
PCI AND EISA BUS MASTER ADAPTERS
This EtherDisk diskette supports 3Com's family of bus mastering PCI and EISA
network adapters with a common driver set. Products included in this family
are the EtherLink III PCI and EISA TPO and Combo adapters and the Fast
EtherLink 10/100BASE-T adapters. Key product features include:
- Parallel Tasking architecture for highest performance
- Bus mastering for low CPU utilization and optimal overall system
performance
- Guaranteed compatibility with PCI compliant systems, or your money back
(fully operational in both bus master and slave PCI slots)
- Ease of installation with AutoLink, Autoselect media type for EtherLink
III PCI and Autoselect link speed for Fast EtherLink
- Broad driver support, including NetWare, NDIS 2.01, NDIS 3.0, and others
- SNMP manageability
- Lifetime warranty
- Full duplex enabled for switched 10 Mbps environments
This diskette includes new drivers that were not available on the
previous diskette. The new drivers include the Windows '95 driver, the O/S2
NDIS 2.01 driver, the O/S2 Netware ODI driver, and the Packet Driver.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND RELEASE NOTES
This file contains the release notes and answers to some frequently asked
questions about the PCI and EISA environments to help you get the most out
of your 3Com Fast EtherLink/EtherLink III PCI and EISA adapters. This
information is updated regularly on 3Com's CompuServe forum (Ask3Com) and on
the 3Com BBS (bulletin board service).
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: Do I have to configure my 3Com PCI adapter for my computer?
A: PCI is a self-configuring bus architecture. Most of the time you will
not need to do anything except install the board in your system; PCI then
takes over from there and does the rest. However, on some PCI computers
(mostly with PCI-ISA/EISA combination buses in the same machine), you may
be required to manually configure the computer's BIOS after installing your
PCI adapter. If you need to configure your system manually, refer to the
owner's guide for your system. In addition, at the end of this document we
have provided some hints on how you might go about doing this. For example,
we have seen during our testing that the AST Premmia GX P90 seems to require
you to run the EISA configuration utility once you install the board to make
sure that the I/O base address of the device does not conflict with other
devices in the system.
Q: Which PCI slot is best for my 3Com PCI adapter?
A: 3Com PCI adapters are designed to work in any PCI slot in the system,
including "slave-only" slots. 3Com's PCI adapters will reach their full
performance potential in those slots that support bus mastering data
transfers. Refer to your owner's manual for information on which slots
support bus mastering data transfers.
Q: Which PCI slot(s) are "bus mastering" in my PCI machine?
A: Generally, if you have three PCI slots in a system, one slot will be
designated as a "slave-only" slot (i.e., it does not support bus-mastering
data transfers). We have found slots are not always marked clearly to
distinguish between slave-only and bus mastering slots. It is best to refer
to your owner's manual or contact your system manufacturer for this
information. Also, it is best to contact your system manufacturer and make
sure that you have the latest version of your system's BIOS. At the end of
this document we have included some phone numbers for leading PCI system
manufacturers.
Q: Which interrupt should I use with my 3Com PCI adapter?
A: Unless your system is a PCI-ISA/EISA combination computer that requires
manual configuration, you should not have to worry about setting interrupts.
However, if your computer is not self-configuring, you will need to set
your PCI adapter's interrupts manually. To do this, you may need to set a
jumper on your motherboard and/or set the interrupt in the system's BIOS.
In either case, you will need to assign the PCI interrupt (INTA) to any
available interrupt not being used by an ISA or EISA add-in board already
in your system. Keep in mind that the interrupt configuration on your
computer's motherboard and in your BIOS must match each other. Since PCI
supports shared interrupts, multiple 3Com PCI adapters can use the same PCI
interrupt in the system (except as noted below).
Q. Does my PCI adapter support shared interrupts?
A. The drivers for the Fast EtherLink/EtherLink III PCI adapter support
shared interrupts. However, because there is no industry-standard way to
support shared interrupts, other adapters may support them differently, or
not at all. If you have another PCI adapter that does not support shared
interrupts (for example, a SCSI host adapter), either contact the
manufacturer for a shared interrupt driver or try running the system setup
program to assign it a different interrupt.
Q: What interrupt should I avoid using with my 3Com PCI adapter?
A: You should avoid using any interrupts used by ISA/EISA boards that do
not properly support shared interrupts (level-triggered). If you do not
know, or are unsure whether your adapter supports shared interrupts, then it
is best to avoid using them. In addition, you should try to avoid using the
same interrupt as your local hard drive (normally IRQ 14 for IDE drives and
IRQ 11 for most SCSI host adapters), since not all hard drives support shared
interrupts at this time. For Novell NetWare servers, you should also avoid
using IRQ 7 or 15. These IRQs only support non-shared devices and may
cause problems if they are shared between two devices.
Q: Is my 3Com PCI adapter a 3.3 V or 5 V adapter?
A: The 3Com adapter currently being shipped is a 5 V adapter. It will not
fit in a 3.3 V slot.
Q: My AutoLink does not work with my 3Install Account on a NetWare 4.X
server. Why?
A: If you do not have a memory manager installed, you will need
at least 576 K of conventional memory to connect to a NetWare 4.X server
3Install volume with AutoLink. Some of the possible errors returned during
AutoLink that may indicate you are running low on memory are as follows:
"Login-4.084-100: Access has been denied."
"Login-4.084-903: The command Line Syntax is Invalid. For help type Login /?"
"Login-4.084-971: The workstation does not have enough memory to load the
unicode table file"
"Login-4.084-240: This utility was unable to open script file xxxx. Error
executing the program update; No such file or directory."
Q: When I run my AutoLink and connect to a 3Install volume, not all the
files from the 3Install volume are copied to my system. Why?
A: When AutoLink connects to a 3Install volume on a NetWare server, upon
completion, it will indicate that your system has been updated from the
3Install server volume. What is not stated here is that when files on the
EtherDisk diskette are more current than the files on the server volume, the
EtherDisk files will be used to update your system, instead of the files
from the 3Install volume.
Q: My 3Com PCI adapter driver will not load when EMM386.EXE is loaded. Why?
A: Microsoft's EMM386.EXE versions 4.48 and earlier may conflict with some
PCI systems’ ROM BIOS. If you are using EMM386 version 4.48 or earlier,
make sure you run your EtherDisk diskette Installer that allows you to
replace your current EMM386 with an updated version.
Q: The adapter works fine in DOS, but I can't execute programs loaded over
the net when Windows is running. What's wrong?
A: If the EMM386.EXE memory manager is not loaded by your CONFIG.SYS file,
Windows loads an equivalent driver when Windows is started. The problem is
that the EMM386 Windows emulator that ships with Windows 3.1 and Windows for
Workgroups 3.11 is not compatible with PCI computers. To solve this problem,
put the statement
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
immediately following the line
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
in your CONFIG.SYS file. Make sure you are running version 4.49 or newer. If
you are not sure which version of EMM386 you have, run EMM386UP.BAT on the
EtherDisk diskette. This program will update EMM386 if the update is needed.
Q: If my hub port is set up for full duplex operation, should I still use
my 3Com PCI adapter in half duplex mode?
A: No. If a port on the hub is configured full duplex, then the port on the
workstation MUST be configured to match. (Note: Full Duplex operation is
only supported when running in 10BASE-T/10BASE2 modes).
Q: My ACERPOWER system indicates that I have a ROM installed, but one is not
present. Why?
A: The BIOS ACERPOWER (BIOS version V2.0 486/DX2 66 MHz) PCI system
incorrectly indicates (via the PCI information) that there is a ROM on the
adapter on the PCI adapter. Contact ACER to get an updated BIOS to correct
this problem.
Q: Are my Fast EtherLink/EtherLink III PCI ODI drivers "Novell Certified"?
A: Yes. 3Com's Fast EtherLink/EtherLink III PCI ODI drivers are Novell
tested and approved.
RELEASE NOTES
DOCUMENTATION ERRATA: PCI
- On page 3-7 (Fast EtherLink PCI User Guide) and on page 3-8 (EtherLink III
Bus Master User Guide), in the "Multiple Adapters in a Client" section,
change:
If you are using an ODI driver with multiple adapters already installed, and
you have not updated the NET.CFG file, the message below appears:
NetWare DOS ODI client Multiple EtherLink III Adapters found.
Use NET.CFG to specify I/O Port
to:
If you are running an ODI driver with multiple adapters already installed,
specify which adapter you want the driver to recognize by adding the I/O
base address to the NET.CFG file using the PCISLOT=
Filename | Size | Readme | O.S. | Description | |
3com_595.zip | 800KB | 3com_595.htm | This is the Windows 95/NT3.5 drivers for the 3COM 3C595-TX EtherLink III and Fast EtherLink PCI 10/100BASE-T LAN adapters. |
style="display:inline-block;width:336px;height:280px"
data-ad-client="ca-pub-5193782351433030"
data-ad-slot="2063583586">