Ethernet Adapter

[Dillegm]

Hey guys,

I was (bored) looking in my ethernet adapters settings (in the properties
window through the device manager). Under the Advanced tab, you can change a
few of the properties for this adapter.
I know what a few of them do, but a couple got me.
"Adaptive Interrupt" - enabled by default
"Flow Control" - Disabled by default
Just because I can't help experimenting, I changed "flow control" to
enabled. The adapter disabled itself, then re-enabled itself and reconnected
to the network. Nothing seemed to drastically change.I was just wondering
what the actual definitions were, in terms from you guys. It's a VIA Rhine
II Fast Ethernet Adapter, in case you need to know.

On another note, ever since Time Warner took over our local Adelphia office
and tech center, and upgraded or modem to a wireless router/modem combo
unit, we haven't been getting all of our e-mail. I looked in the router
settings, but none of the security (e-mail, virus, pop-up) crap is enabled.
Anyone else have this problem?

Thanks alot

Edward M (Dillegm)

 

[Paul]

Hey guys,

I was (bored) looking in my ethernet adapters settings (in the
properties window through the device manager). Under the Advanced tab,
you can change a few of the properties for this adapter.
I know what a few of them do, but a couple got me.
"Adaptive Interrupt" - enabled by default
"Flow Control" - Disabled by default
Just because I can't help experimenting, I changed "flow control" to
enabled. The adapter disabled itself, then re-enabled itself and
reconnected to the network. Nothing seemed to drastically change.I was
just wondering what the actual definitions were, in terms from you guys.
It's a VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter, in case you need to know.

On another note, ever since Time Warner took over our local Adelphia
office and tech center, and upgraded or modem to a wireless router/modem
combo unit, we haven't been getting all of our e-mail. I looked in the
router settings, but none of the security (e-mail, virus, pop-up) crap
is enabled. Anyone else have this problem?

Thanks alot

Edward M (Dillegm)

See "Flow Control Parameter" here. Apparently something called "Pause Frames"
are used. Maybe it has something to do with gigabit networking, and
congesting a gigabit switch ?

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/063my/UG/winnt.htm

Adaptive Interrupts are described here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/78jhu/intro.htm

"In light traffic, the adapter driver interrupts the host for each
received packet, minimizing latency. When traffic is heavy, the
adapter issues one host interrupt for multiple, back-to-back incoming
packets, preserving host CPU cycles."

The only problem I ever had with email, was with the MTU on my router.
Once I bumped the MTU down on the router, I was able to finish downloading
large emails. But that doesn't sound like your symptoms. The reason
playing with MTU was necessary, was my provider's email server had ICMP
disabled, and suffered from the "Black Hole" problem. This page explains
the protocols for that kind of thing.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0704.mspx

Paul

 

[Dillegm]

See "Flow Control Parameter" here. Apparently something called "Pause
Frames"
are used. Maybe it has something to do with gigabit networking, and
congesting a gigabit switch ?

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/063my/UG/winnt.htm

Adaptive Interrupts are described here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/78jhu/intro.htm

"In light traffic, the adapter driver interrupts the host for each
received packet, minimizing latency. When traffic is heavy, the
adapter issues one host interrupt for multiple, back-to-back incoming
packets, preserving host CPU cycles."

The only problem I ever had with email, was with the MTU on my router.
Once I bumped the MTU down on the router, I was able to finish downloading
large emails. But that doesn't sound like your symptoms. The reason
playing with MTU was necessary, was my provider's email server had ICMP
disabled, and suffered from the "Black Hole" problem. This page explains
the protocols for that kind of thing.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0704.mspx

Paul

Thanks for the links, pretty interesting stuff.

My mail is deffinately screwed up. I'm not receiving some people's messages,
and people aren't always receiving mine. Plus, I have gone from about 40-60
junk mails, down to nothing. I belong to a few newsletters that aren't
coming in also. I have looked through all my mail setiings and nothing is
out of place. I am using Vista now, with "windows mail". This problem seemed
to start about the same time I installed Vista, but that doesn't make sense.
I know that installing a new OS isn't going to screw up e-mail, but it is
awfull ironic. I should probobly call TW to see if there is some problems. I
know eventually, us old adelphia users will have to drop our "adelphia.net"
addresses and get new "rr.com" addresses. Personally, I think that is BS,
but I was told that by an RR rep. Now, here is the weird part. Another
family member of mine has Vista also, and the same modem/router combo on
(Powerlink)TW-RR as well. She is having the SAME problem.
I know that technically we still get our internet service from Adelphia
Powerlink equipment, and they haven't totally changed everything over. Maybe
this is a problem due to equipment handling/switch-over.
We have RCA (Thompson) 875 Modem/Wireless and Wired combos that TW gave us.
I looked on Thompsons website, but they don't have this model listed.
http://www.thomson.net/EN/Home/MiniSites/BAP/Cable/ModelList.html?category=cab modems DOCSIS
The Modem doesn't have a model number on it, just a serial number with the
first 3 digits are 875. So, for all I know that may not be the model.

Anyway, thanks for you help agian.
Cheers
Edward M (dillegm)