====================================================================
               BSDwall Network Card Support Disk
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I. What this Disk Is

This disk is a bootable OpenDOS floppy obtained via free download
from the drdos.org site.   It includes DR-DOS utilities that may
be of use in managing hard drives (FORMAT, UNFORMAT, SYS), and a
more reliable (and GPL'd) FDISK than DR-DOS's, from Brian E. Reifsnyder
(reifsnyderb@mindspring.com) but primarily contains configuration programs 
for various network cards found to work with OpenBSD in firewalls.

These programs may be used to set the Plug&Play (PNP) status
of the network cards, their Interrupt (IRQ) number, port memory
location, and whether their "Boot PROM" is on and if so, to what
memory location.


II. What this disk Is NOT

This disk does NOT contain any drivers for these NICs.  It cannot be
used to get them working with DOS, Windows, or anything else.  It can
only be used to change settings on the cards.


III. Copyright

Everything on this disk, except the batch files, is copyright by DR-DOS
or by the manufacturers of the various cards.  I have taken the liberty of
assuming that, since they all provide this content freely on the Net,
they will not object strenuously to my passing it along in this 
integrated form, as part of a free software project.

The intent of this material is to make the hardware in question
MORE USEFUL to owners of that hardware.  If any hardware manufacturers
would rather make the buying public more reluctant to use their products,
they have only to ask me to remove the offending material.   BSDwall will
get along with the other products.

The amazing 4K program, EZedit, has been released for free distribution by its
author, Craig Hessel, who is a freaking genius and a generous gentleman.


============================= THE BEEF ==============================


3COM Network Cards
-------------------

This disk has config programs for every (ISA) 3COM NIC I could locate, as well
as the internal help file for the 3COM Etherlink III configure program,
and some helpful advice for 3COM users in "3comINFO.txt".

3COM cards are to be preferred if you can afford them; they are plentiful
at 1/3 of their new price in used parts shops, and are still available
new...unlike just about every other ISA NIC on the market.

The IRQ, memory, and Boot Prom settings needed to make 3COM cards work
with OpenBSD vary between models:

MODEL                 IRQ    Memory    Boot PROM    OpenBSD Name for NIC

Etherlink Plus         5      310        n/a         eg0
Etherlink II (3c503)   9      250        D8000       ec0
Etherlink III (3c509)  any    any                    ep0

...but I myself had trouble with Etherlink III cards set to 11/210.

I have tested:  11/300, 11/320, 10/210, 7/210, 7/360, 12/360
and found them all fine.  For three of these, I've supplied batch 
files that set an Etherlink III directly without going through the
menus in the config program.

For Etherlink III (all models)

Batch Command      Settings

3COM11           IRQ=11, memory=220 ** PREFERRED
3COM7            IRQ=7,  memory=360 ** Conflicts with Printer if any

Normally, just run "3com11" and you're done - but if it doesn't work
for some reason, try 3com7.  I can't see somebody using their
firewall also for printing.

"3C509" should really read "3C5x9x".  Any card with any character where
I've put "x" should work: 3c509B's are the most common, but the program
will also set 3c579 cards that fit in the EISA bus.

WARNING:  Do NOT use TWO 3COM cards in one firewall!!

They will work, but you will see a dramatic slowing of throughput
on long file downloads.  Reason unknown -- may relate to buffers
used by the driver.  I have not verified whether this problem occurs
with one ISA 3COM card and one PCI 3COM card, or with two PCI cards;
but it is a strong effect with two ISA cards - up to 75% speed loss.

And two 3COM EISA cards (3c579) cannot even work in one machine - they
both get handed IRQ 11 automatically.


All configure programs on this disk are for ISA cards; I have never had to
do any configuration on a PCI network card for OpenBSD or Linux, so there
should be no need.



NE2000 Clone Network Cards
--------------------------

All the other NIC cards supported on this disk are NE2000 clones.  These
have a bad reputation, mostly deserved.  But with only a few concerns,
all of the cards mentioned here seem to work quite well with OpenBSD.

One card not mentioned, but recommended, is the A/Open ALN-101.  A/Open
seems to have discontinued them in favour of the AON-101, but the earlier
card worked better with BSD.   It ran as a true "Plug&Play" card, as
ne3 (or ne4 for the second one if you use two), completely automatically
configured by BSD itself.   THERE IS NO NEED FOR A CONFIGURE PROGRAM.

The AON-101 says it is Plug&Play, but OpenBSD doesn't agree - you must 
turn off Plug&Play and manually configure it with the SETUP.EXE program
included on this disk.  (Use the AON101 batch command.)

There are only 3 acceptable settings for non-PNP NE2000 clone network
cards for BSD:

IRQ    Memory    Boot PROM    OpenBSD Name for NIC

 9      240        D8000       ne0
 10     300        n/a         ne1
 9      280        n/a         ne2

NOTES:

For ne1 and ne2, be sure that "boot prom" is turned OFF by the configure
program you use.  Also be sure Plug&Play, if any, is turned OFF.

For ne0, note that the memory location for the Boot PROM, "D8000" may
be shown only as "D800" with the last zero missing.  Don't be fooled.

Some of the configure programs here allow settings to be done from
the command line.  Where possible, a batch file is supplied to just
directly set the card to No PNP, IRQ 10, memory 300 (the "ne1" setting)
and save you finding your way through the menus.

When you have to set things yourself, note that often settings don't 
take effect until after a full turn-off, turn-on cycle.   Do a complete
"cold boot" before starting OpenBSD.


Here are the cards so far tested, their config programs, and the
batch files that start them on this disk:


CARD BRAND & MODEL     Config Program    Batch file    Batch file to set ne1

A/Open ALN-101           (not needed)
A/Open AON-101           Setup.exe       AON-101
GVC-2005                 Setup.exe       GVC2005
GVC-2003                 NicSet.exe      GVC2003
AT/LANtic                AutoNic.exe     Atlantic      Atlanten
AT-2000                  Diag.exe        AT2K          AT2K10
D-Link 220               DLink220.exe

NB: I gather the DLink220.exe program works on other D-Link models as well.

In fact, if you have any kind of NE2000 clone, one of these programs may
configure it.  I found by pure chance that the GVC-2005 card, which can NOT
be configured by the NicSet.exe program used by the GVC-2003, can be 
perfectly configured by the "setup.exe" program provided by A/Open for 
the AON-101.

NE2000 clone cards of many brands probably use only a few different chip
sets, so you may well be able to use one card's program to configure 
another.

Needless to say, NO WARRANTY is provided on that last statement...or
anything else provided by the BSDwall project.


NOTES:

1) The file AT2000.txt is also provided, it has considerable help for the
DIAG.EXE program provided with the AT-2000 card.

2) A batch file called FIX.BAT is also provided to automatically run the 
command:

FDISK /MBR 

If you get OpenBSD to install, but it will not boot beyond one line saying
"partition 3", then try running FIX.   This command rewrites the starting
block on your hard disk that may not be right for running OpenBSD.
