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ReadMe-ANT
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1995-08-08
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37KB
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1,256 lines
Introduction
What's New?
*configure etherX multiple
*eXtest commands
*showstat command
Downloading new drivers from the Internet
Downloading via WWW
Downloading via anonymous FTP
Configuration Commands
Default
Terse
Verbose
Single
Multiple
LiveWireTest
NoLiveWireTest
Strict
Ignore
Enable
Disable
Selftests and the *eXtest commands
A couple of obscure points
Statistics and trouble shooting
The *showstat command
Summary of *commands described
Obtaining further assistance
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction
This release of ANT's network device drivers for its ethernet cards conform
to the new DCI4 interface specification. Additional support for PC cards has
been added to the drivers, along with a separate program to collect statistic
information and present it tidily.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
What's New?
The major enhancement of interest to PC card users is the ability to
configure for multiple operation. This is a software trick that makes one
ethernet card appear to be two cards, permitting RISC OS and the PC card to
connect to differently named interfaces. Together with a network client such
as OmniClient, this makes it possible to view the same network file server in
both RISC OS and PC windows at the same time. This feature is available in
both the Ether3 and EtherB drivers. See the section on configuration
commands for usage details.
For easier network administration, a *command has been added that runs the
selftests. This can be used at any stage (selftests are normally only run
when a network protocol first connects to an ethernet interface). See the
section on selftests for
The *showstat program collects statistics from any module that understands
that ANT Statistics Protocol and presents them tidily. Currently, all our
DCI4 network drivers and the Mbuf Manager are capable of supplying statistics
suitably. We intend to increase the range of programs supporting this
protocol.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downloading new drivers from the Internet
You can download the latest network device drivers from our WWW and anonymous
FTP sites on the Internet.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downloading via WWW
For general information on our DCI4 drivers, you should access the URL
http://www.ant.co.uk/dci4/
For specific downloading options, access the URL
http://www.ant.co.uk/dci4/download.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downloading via FTP
Important: if your FTP client permits you to vary the transfer mode, ensure
that you have selected image (binary) transfer mode before downloading new
device drivers or programs.
For a traditional FTP client, the following information is relevant:
host: ftp.ant.co.uk
userid: anonymous
password: <your email address>
directory: /pub/dci4/
When using an FTP client built into a web browser (such as ANT's Fresco), the
following URL should be used:
ftp://ftp.ant.co.uk/pub/dci4/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Configuration Commands
In general, the configuration options available are the same across Ether3,
EtherB and EtherP modules with the same version number. The EtherP module
does not use CMOS RAM to store its configuration options, as there is none
allocated (to the parallel port) that it may safely use. Instead, EtherP
takes an argument string when being loaded that contains the necessary
configuration options. Most of the configuration options are paired
together. For example, the verbose option is paired with the terse option.
The general form for configuration is:
*Configure <driver-name> <option> [slot]
Where:
<driver-name>
is Ether3, EtherB or EtherP
<option>
is one of the options listed below
[slot]
specifies a specific expansion card slot to apply the configuration
option to. This paramater is optional. It is used when an Ether3 module
is controlling more than one expansion card and it is desired to update
the configuration options associated with only one of them.
By way of example, the following illustrates how to configure "verbose"
operation:
For Ether3 modules:
*configure Ether3 verbose
For EtherB modules:
*configure EtherB verbose
For EtherP modules only:
The RMload command in the startup file in the files subdirectory of the
!Internet directory that loads the Ethernet module requires the options
appending. A standard startup file contains a section similar to this:
| Load driver and initialise Ethernet interface, if required
IF "<Inet$EtherIPAddr>" <> "" AND "<Inet$EtherDevice>" <> "" THEN rmload inet:drivers.<Inet$EtherDevice>
This should be changed to something similar to
| Load driver and initialise Ethernet interface, if required,
| including configuration options
IF "<Inet$EtherIPAddr>" <> "" AND "<Inet$EtherDevice>" <> "" THEN rmload inet:drivers.<Inet$EtherDevice> verbose
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Configuration option: default
Applicability : ether3, etherb
Description:
============
Selecting this configuration option restores all configuration options to
their default values.
Example:
========
*configure ether3 default
This restores the configuration of an Ether3 card to the default values.
These are equivalent to:
*configure ether3 Enable
*configure ether3 Strict
*configure ether3 NoLiveWireTest
*configure ether3 Terse
*configure ether3 Single
Notes:
======
This restoration happens automatically if the values recorded in CMOS RAM are
detected as being incorrect (say because a different type of card was
previously installed in the same expansion card slot the last time the
machine was used).
With EtherP, simply supply no command line arguments when the module is
loaded.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Configuration option: terse
Paired with : verbose
Applicability : ether3, etherb
Description:
============
1) When performing selftests, terse operation causes printing to only
occur if an error is encountered.
2) Terse selftests perform a quicker memory test than verbose
selftests.
3) Terse operation generally omits printing a count for a statistic if
the value is zero.
Example:
========
*configure ether3 terse
This configures an Ether3 card to operate in terse mode.
Notes:
======
Terse operation is often the most convenient in normal use.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Configuration option: verbose
Paired with : terse
Applicability : ether3, etherb
Description:
============
1) When performing selftests, verbose operation always prints the test
being conducted and the test result.
2) Verbose selftests perform a more extensive memory test than terse
selftests. This adds notably to the time it takes to perform
selftests, but can be a useful diagnostic aid.
3) A verbose configuration lists all available statistics, including
those that are zero.
Example:
========
*configure ether3 verbose
This configures an Ether3 card to operate in verbose mode.
Notes:
======
See also the *showstat command.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Configuration option: single
Paired with : multiple
Applicability : ether3, etherb
Description:
============
When configured for single operation, each ethernet card presents one
software interface to network protocols. This is the more traditional
mode of operation, as contrasted with multiple operation.
Example:
========
*configure ether3 single
This configures an Ether3 card to operate in single mode. This causes
an interface named "ea0" to be presented in software to the rest of
the system.
Notes:
======
-------------------------------------------------------