I work for a medical software company. The software we sell and support replaces the TCP/IP transport layer with a proprietary layer that uses a random, non-standard length, encrypted UDP packet. It's non-routable but works fine in a local environment. Bad software design I know, but I didn't write it, I just have to support it. It works really good except when a Linksys switch or router is involved. Ninety percent of my customer's network performance problems go away when I pull the Linksys gear and replace it with Netgear, D-Link, 3Com, AOpen or generic no-name crap. No problems with any other brand, just Linksys. I think the Linksys chipset or firmware is so rigidly designed that anything out of the M$ ordinary world causes it to barf and lockup. -- www.blackcube.org The Texas State Home for Wayward and Orphaned Computers

At 08:03 PM 1/14/2006, you wrote: Well, I've seen several brands of switches fail to recognize not-that-old hardware made for the Windows market, too. There's at least two types of auto-negotiation going on here, right - full or half duplex as well as auto-cross-over detection. No doubt in an effort to make Ethernet more plug-and-play and less prone to tech support calls, I see more and more consumer devices performing auto-crossover without that being a large bullet-point on the outside of the box. Another variable is how contemporary equipment responds to long lengths of Ethernet. Lengths still within the spec, but apparently not within the range designed or tested by the manufacturers. If it worked with a 25-foot hank on the test bench, they ship it. When I try it with a 100-foot run, it doesn't recognize it. Above the physical layer, there's plenty of goofiness in level 2, too. Wireless "bridge" devices these days are performing all sorts of MAC spoofing that'll throw you for a loop. - John

At 7:46 PM -0600 1/14/06, James Rice wrote: I've got a newer Linksys 16-port 10/100 switch (purchased in the last year or so). So far I've had pretty good luck with it. I've got a VAXstation 4000/vlc and a PDP-11/73 connected to it, and if it can handle running DECnet/E through it, then it's pretty good in my book. It also has an *old* Asante Ethertalk to Localtalk converter box connected. I think the 10/100 hub the switch replaced was a Linksys, and it wouldn't work right with DECnet/E, but then I replaced it when I realized how bad of performance I was getting transferring a few GB of data via 100Mbit, there was just plain something wrong with the Hub. I do like keeping an older 10Mbit hub around with a 10Base-2 port on it (even though I do own a 10Base-2 to 10Base-T converter box, as I've got a DECserver 90L+ and an Amiga 3000 that require 10Base-2. I had a really nice 8-port 10/100 Netgear switch, but the ports quickly started dying. Plus the 8-port 10/100 Linksys hub had some dead ports as I recall, and I had a 24-port Intel 10/100 switch with a lot of dead ports, that finally gave out on me. All in all, I don't have a lot of faith in hubs or switches lasting very long. So I'm personally inclined to attribute such problems to switches that are going bad, than Linksys switches not working well with older hardware. Zane -- -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |