| From: PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ "Jeffrey A. Lomicka, Maynard MA, DTN 223-4031 17-Dec-1991 1053" 17-DEC-1991 10:56:14.88
To: KALI::MEMIT::FORREST
CC: LEMAN::BRUNNER,EMDS::SEAVER
Subj: RE: Customers seeing odd behavior...
The DEcbridge 90 cannot count FCS errors due to a problem in the DECbridge gate
array that miscounts these errors when they didn't really occur. For similar
reasons, it can't report framing errors or remote failure to defer.
A plan exists to revise the gate array to correct for these problems. This is
not linked to the implementation of RBMS. The RBMS code, when running on new
hardware (if or when it exists), will report these counters, but running on old
hardware, will not.
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| re.: note 14.0, first a comment, then a possible answer, third, some
advice:
1. when asking for an answer a problem such as described in 14.0,
provide as much information regarding the problem as possible. This
should include a description of the topology, the communicants, and the
symptom. For example,
"Everything works fine with DEC equipment (DS5000, DEMPR, LB150)
But with NON-DEC equipment some frames larger than 500 bytes are
getting lost."
What is one supposed to imagine is going on here? Where are the frames
coming from, and where are they destined?
2. This sounds like a "problem" that we have discovered with the new
(90C and 90T) repeaters, which isn't really a repeater problem; these
new devices are less tolerant of out-of-specification timebases in PLS
implementations than previous repeaters. Note well, however, that if a
station is operating within the Ethernet or 802.3 specs., it will work
with a 90C or 90T. If a node transmits outside the spec.,
specifically, with a slow or fast clock, all bets are off. Note also
that the slow clock may cause other perhaps less catastrophically
expressed network problems, such as the ability to communicate with
only a sub-set of the nodes on the net, and perhaps it is time to cull
these transgressors from the installation.
3. Don't panic. When something "goes wrong," don't simply blame the
newest piece of gear. Procede deliberately and methodically towards
the answer. Don't indict early. Gather data, avoid ambiguity, and
communicate.
Thanks,
John Visser
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