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- From: seifert@netcom.com (Rich Seifert)
- Subject: Re: 802.3 Non-Compliance (?)
- Message-ID: <p2hn!w#.seifert@netcom.com>
- Date: Mon, 31 Aug 92 20:32:20 GMT
- Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
- Followup-To: comp.dcom.lans.ethernet
- References: <1992Aug28.194558.4752@iplmail.orl.mmc.com>
- Lines: 30
-
- In article <1992Aug28.194558.4752@iplmail.orl.mmc.com>, more@tcc.orl.mmc.com () writes:
- > In this meeting (which unfortunately I wasn't in), the vendor made the statement
- > that Netware Servers violate the 802.3. His statement was that when a netware
- > server detects a collision, that rather than following the random backoff,
- > in the Ethernet world, the Netware server immediately attempts to retransmit
- > the collided packet(after sending the jam sequence). This vendor stated that
- > because of this, TCP/IP based systems running on the same ethernet as Novell
- > netware servers could experience some performance problems due to the
- > noncompliant nature of the netware server. He further stated that for this
- > reason, NASA has put a ban on Novell Netware at it's sites.
- >
-
- I agree with you, this is a lot of BS. A NetWare server uses the same
- controller hardware as anyone else; Novell has long been out of the
- NIC business. The backoff algorithm is implemented in the silicon on the
- NIC, and there is very little that NetWare can do about it.
-
- Now, it is true that older releases of NetWare used the 802.3 MAC
- without using the 802.2 Logical Link Control. This "strictly"
- violates the 802 specifications, but has nothing at all to do with
- hogging the wire through manipulation of the backoff algorithm.
-
- In any case, current releases of NetWare (2.2, 3.11, etc.) fully
- support 802.2.
-
- --
- Rich Seifert Networks and Communications Consulting
- seifert@netcom.com (408) 996-0922
- (408) 996-2860 FAX
- "... specialists in Local Area Networks and Data Communications systems"
-