Wiring for Fast Ethernet
What are the specifications for
Fast Ethernet wiring?
10Base-T Connections for Fast Ethernet
Do your Fast Ethernet Cards
support 10base-T connections?
Use of Net.Tulip Driver
I notice that the CorNet Fast
Ethernet cards use the Intel 21143 chip. Why can’t I just use the Net.tulip
driver provided with QNX 4?
"Bad Card Type" Message
When I start Net.ct100tx, I get a message “Bad card type” and the
driver does not run. What is happening?
Shield vs Unshielded Pair Cabling
Can I run your Fast Ethernet cards
with shielded twisted pair cables?
Netinfo - 1command bug
When I do a “netinfo - l” command
for your cards, I see a data rate of 1Mb/s. I thought your cards ran at 10 or
100 Mb/s, not 1Mb/s. Why am I seeing 1Mb/s?
QNX 6 Drivers
Do you have drivers for your Fast
Ethernet cards for use with the QNX 6 Operating System?
"ct100txcfg" Program
What is the “ct100txcfg” program used for?
Network Boot Speed
I have a boot ROM for the Fast
Ethernet card. If I network boot at 10Mb/s, will the driver run at 10Mb/s once
the OS is started?
Changing MAC (Ethernet) Address
How can I change the MAC
(Ethernet) address of the network card?
100base-TX Fast Ethernet
requires Category 5 Unshielded Twisted Pair cable, which is commonly known as
"Cat. 5 UTP".
Yes. Simply by plugging
in the appropriate live network cable the card will detect and configure itself
to the appropriate network type.
Net.tulip
may work with our cards in your system but there is no guarantee that it will
work correctly. In addition to offering more driver command line options to
control the link characteristics and better support for our fiber-based Fast
Ethernet Cards, our driver is “tuned and tweaked” to ensure that the following
features work correctly:
1. Full duplex communication.
2. Auto-negotiation and/or auto-sensing of link speed and duplex mode.
3. Operation of the lights on the cards to reflect the current link status.
This is the result of some checks that Net.ct100tx does to make sure that it is only being run against a CorNet Fast Ethernet Card. If you have a CorNet Fast Ethernet card and still get this message, it is likely caused by an outdated version of Net.ct100tx. Please check with Corman Technologies Inc. for a more recent driver.
No. Our cards are only
rated for use on UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) cabling.
For those who want the further details: Shielding on a twisted pair increases
the capacitance of the cable. This increases the current requirements for
circuits driving high frequency signals onto such a pair. Our circuits are not
designed with the higher current ratings. This means that, in practical terms,
Shielded Cable may work, especially if the run is short, but our cards are
intended for such use and you do so at your own risk (either of not working or
of damaging the card).
This is a
bug that is in a few of the older versions of our driver (Net.ct100tx). To
avoid receiving this message, visit our support page on the web site to
download the latest driver. (You may see 0Mb/s – this indicates that the driver
has not successfully negotiated a link speed.)
We do not currently have a driver for QNX 6. We are planning to supply one in the future. For the moment, you can use the devn-tulip.so driver, but you may have some minor glitches. When we release our driver, it will correct these glitches.
This program is intended
to configure the card for use with our Boot ROM chips. Note that the card is
configured, not the Boot ROM itself. Since this is the case, the card can be
configured without the Boot ROM installed.
However, it will have no effect on the operation of the card until a Boot ROM
chip is installed.
For those who want more technical details: The card has a small non-volatile memory
chip (EEPROM). This EEPROM holds configuration information. The ct100txcfg
program modifies the EEPROM contents by adding Boot ROM parameters. The Boot
ROM reads the EEPROM to pick up the boot parameters.
The speed and duplex mode that the driver runs at is entirely independent of the Boot ROM settings. The driver will select a new speed and duplex mode based on the hardware installed and the command line parameters. This means that you could, for example, boot using 10bT Half Duplex and then run the driver using 100TX Full Duplex if your hardware supports it.
Every Ethernet and Fast
Ethernet card is assigned a unique MAC address by the manufacturer. You should
never attempt to change the physical address of an Ethernet card because it
could conflict with the MAC address of another Ethernet card. Having said that,
it is possible to run the driver as if the card had a different MAC address.
Simply use the –m command line parameter when starting the driver and give it
the address that you wish to use.