Subject: Help with slow IP-NAT performance...
To: None <port-i386@netbsd.org>
From: John Ruschmeyer <jruschmeyer@unixpros.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 02/11/2000 12:16:47
I'm trying to set up an old P60 (Gateway 2000 P5-60, Intel "Batman's
Revenge" motehrboard) under 1.4.1 as an IP-NAT router between my home
network and a cable modem and having severe performance problems.

My current configuration has two Ethernet interfaces:

	ep0: 3C905B (ISA) using 10Base2 for the house network
	ne1: ISA NE-2000 clone using 10BaseT to cable modem

Connecting from an internal host to the router seems to show acceptable
performance.

Connecting from the router host to the outside world via the cable modem
shows expected performance.

Connecting from an internal host to the outside world works, but has
abysmal performance (i.e., web pages fail to load completely, severe
telnet lags, etc.).

In looking though the archives, I noticed some old posts which seem to
indicate that I may have chosen two of the *worst* cards for this
application. Is this correct?

Also, a couple of really old posts seemed to indicate that I may want to
provide the "link0" and "link1" flags to ifconfig for the 3C509. Are
these still necessary? If so, what do they do? (I can't find their
meaning documented anywhere.)

As an aside, these were not my first choice NICs. I also tried:

	SMC Ultra (ISA): known working, found by probe, but driver
	failed trying to inialize the shared memory.

	PCI NE2k clone (Realtek): BIOS assigned it the same IRQ as
	the NCR 810a SCSI card. (Does 1.4.1 support IRQ steering?)
	Caused SCSI problems until removed.

Any thoughts on how to get either of these to work instead?

-- 
John Ruschmeyer				jruschmeyer@unixpros.com
Unixpros, Inc
PM CHS Support Office			732-427-3193