Here's an interesting article from toms hardware: http://www6.tomshardware.com/network/20010820/nic-08.html which they have done some test of various nics. I believe that Dell based servers, with the intel nic's, all have had options to upgrade the intel drivers. It was my understanding that the intel nic chipsets were off loading tasks faster than the older Dell's could keep up with. I also think that Intel has driver updates to fix/patch many of these concerns. I personally, with much supportive information, prefer to us 3Com nics for servers and business based workstations. I have had more problems with 'drivers' for most nic cards either 3com, Intel, linksys, d-link, etc. than any other 'hardware' related nic problem. A good starting point for troubleshooting nic problems would be to 1st ensure that the most updated nic drivers are installed for your operating system. For us Dell users it is also a good idea to routinely check the Dell site for updated/upgraded bios too. I had updated a dell server from A05 to A11 yesterday and it solved A Lot of network problems. A good 'fine' tuning of your w2k server is also essential to it's performance or failure. w2k will run 'out of the box' but you should take the time to properly set it up and 'tune' it for what it's being used for. There are many resources available for tuning a w2k server here are some: www.regedit.com www.is-it-true.org www.pureperformance.com www.speedguide.net and many many others. There is a massive amount of imformation within the ipswitch kb's or this lists archives for the tuning and set up of imail on w2k servers too.
As a final note and not mean to through flames out here but the simple i/o of data stream via sockets is not such a difficult task. The difficulties arise when that 'pure laboratory grade stream' gets slammed with DDos, ping floods, icmp slams and other non essential protocols trying to share the path. Huh.. today we had a company that didn't understand why web ramp with 2 phone lines wasn't enough to support his business.. so the journey begins.. ~Rick ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dev" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 6:19 PM - SATCOM Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] FIXED! Imail SLOW When Running On Fast W2K Hardware > > Wednesday, December 11, 2002, 2:17 PM, Joseph Mann > (Ipswitch) wrote with a straight face: > > > As you probably are aware I just wanted to mention > > that IMail doesn't interact directly with hardware. > > You're kidding, right? Maybe in an MS Press book it > doesn't interact with hardware. In real life, software > breaks when it is fed the unanticipated--even through a > driver and Hardware Abstraction Layer! > > A very simple example: Not too long ago, some Win32 > apps began having their installation routines bomb. > Why? Because of TOO MUCH disk free space being reported > back by the driver on new large capacity disks (causing > an overflow condition). That installer software > "doesn't directly interact with the hardware" either, > but a bigger harddisk than the programmers ever > imagined possible broke it just the same. > > Coding for unanticipated conditions has always been a > challenge. How many remember programs that were > hard-wired to install and run only on the C: drive? > Heck, how many remember the timing loops used to > control execution speed in some 8088 DOS programs, and > that those programs became instantly unusable when run > on a 386? > > Look, I really like Imail's administrative simplicity > and functional elegance. That's why--when wearing my > consultant hat--I've recommended it to many clients. > > But with all due respect, the userbase experience here > is clear: Imail has issues running on some popular > server hardware. If not, how is it that dozens of other > commercial mail daemons, and Win2K itself, work > absolutely flawlessly with these allegedly "faulty > buffering" NICs? > > My intuition tells me that Imail probably has an aging > core codebase that is in need of a rewrite for today's > realities. Loyal supporters like me hope you are hard > it work on it. > > In the meantime, perhaps Ipswitch programmers could > check if any of the user-tweakable Intel NIC driver > settings would help Imail function more reliably. > > Several posters here have expended a lot of time and > effort to help define and narrow the problem. Now get > to work and FIX IT so I can continue recommending Imail > solutions to outside clients! :) > > > Regards, > > Dev > > -------------- > Dev Anand, MCSE,CCNA,A+ > Network Manager > Biomorphic VLSI, Inc. > Westlake Village, CA 91362 > dev_at_biomorphic_dot_com > pcpro_at_vcnet_dot_com > ___________________________________________________________________ Virus Scanned and Filtered by http://www.FamHost.com E-Mail System. To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
