Frequently Asked Questions about eMASTER+ ISA and EISA Fast Ethernet Adapters Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about eMASTER+ ISA and EISA Fast Ethernet adapters, to help you get up and running as quickly as possible. Q: Is an ISA or EISA bus fast enough for Fast Ethernet? A: Yes. The ISA bus runs at 8 Megabytes, or 64 Megabits, per second. That's plenty of bandwidth for running one Fast Ethernet segment at normal traffic levels. The EISA bus runs at either 8 or 33 Megabytes (in burst mode), translating to 64 or 264 Megabits, per second. So an EISA machine will give you enough bandwidth to run one or two Fast Ethernet segments. Q: Do the EISA Fast Ethernet adapters support Direct Memory Access (DMA)? A: The EISA Fast Ethernet adapters support DMA on machines that properly implement 32-bit extended DMA. For machines that don't support this DMA mode, the adapter's DMA can be disabled using the DMA_DISABLE keyword. For NetWare servers: LOAD EMXSA.LAN DMA_DISABLE For NetWare workstations: Link Driver EMXSA DMA_DISABLE Q: Do the ISA Fast Ethernet adapters provide a Boot PROM socket? A: Yes. An important feature of the ISA Fast Ethernet adapter is an available socket to support workstation remote booting. A boot PROM for the ISA Fast Ethernet adapters will be available in the near future. Q: Do the ISA Fast Ethernet adapters support Plug and Play machines? A: Yes. The ISA Fast Ethernet adapters support both Plug and Play, and non-Plug and Play, machines. Plug and Play machines will assign an interrupt and an I/O address to the adapter automatically. For non-Plug and Play machines, the adapter default settings are interrupt 10 and I/O address 300. To change those settings on non- Plug and Play machines, run the EMDIAG utility. Q. Can I use NetWare's System Fault Tolerance (SFT) III solution with my Cogent EISA Fast Ethernet adapter? A. Yes. All of the EISA Fast Ethernet adapters can be used as the network adapter for Novell's SFT III for both NetWare 3.x or NetWare 4.x. Mirrored Server Link (MSL) drivers for SFT III are not currently available. Q: Is Novell's 32-bit client for Windows 95 compatible with my Cogent adapter ? A: Yes. The Novell 32-bit client for Windows 95 is compatible with the regular Windows 95 driver supplied on your eMASTER+ diskette in the \WIN95 directory. Q: What kind of interrupt does my Cogent ISA or EISA Fast Ethernet adapter use? A: The ISA and EISA Fast Ethernet adapters are designed to utilize unshared, edge-triggered interrupts. Q: Do the EISA Fast Ethernet adapters support automated configuration via the EISA Configuration Utility (ECU) for my system? A: Yes. We do recommend (especially for systems that combine PCI and EISA slots on the same bus) that you download and use the most recent ECU available for your system. Below are the BBS numbers for a number of popular system manufacturers. System Vendor BBS System Vendor BBS A.I.R. 408.428.1735 Gateway 2000 605.232.1735 ACER 408.428.0140 Hewlett-Packard 408.553.3500 ACEROPEN 408.383.2770 IBM 919.517.0001 ALR 714.458.6834 Intel 503.645.6275 American Megatrends 404.246.8780 IVY 408.956.9084 AREA (Gigabyte) 714.993.1581 LION NICE 408.954.0687 AST 714.727.4132 Micron 208.465.8982 ASUS Germany 49.2102.448690 Micronics 510.651.6837 ASUS Taiwan 886.289.64667 Mylex 510.793.3491 ASUS U.S.A. 408.956.9084 Orbit I.G. 313.721.8959 Award Software 415.968.0249 Shuttle computers 408 956 5712 Cogent Data 360.378.5405 SuperMicro 408.451.1114 Compaq 713.378.1418 Tangent 415.342.7047 Digital Equipment Inc. 508.568.5481 TMC 408.946.6932 Dell 512.728.8528 Tyan 408.956.8171 copyright 1996 Cogent Data Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. Current as of April 11, 1996