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Cheap 8-bit RJ-45 Network cards (eBay) $5.95

QuantumII said:
The Setup software inside the ZIP file can configure those cards from software. My card has a resistor over each IRQ jumper, and it's software configurable. So is the card address..
Click to expand...

Do you need to configure it each time you boot your XT? or only once?
 
per said:
Do you need to configure it each time you boot your XT? or only once?
Click to expand...

Only once it seems. I can check now, wait 2 secs ;)

EDIT: It stores the settings..

Now I need to find out how to use the packet driver with it.
 
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QuantumII said:
Only once it seems. I can check now, wait 2 secs ;)

EDIT: It stores the settings..

Now I need to find out how to use the packet driver with it.
Click to expand...

Nice to hear. Then it problably got some EEPROM somewhere on the card. What of the programs do you use to set them?

As of I know, Try to type:
SMC_WD 0x60
If error, try:
SMC_WD 0x60 <card IRQ nr> <card I/O adress> <Memory base>
If still error, try:
SMC_WD 0x60 -O
of everything above fails, try:
SMC_WD 0x60 -O <card IRQ nr> <card I/O adress> <Memory base>

Remember to use "0x" before any number, and that the numbers are in hexadecimal. If you want to use small TPC-IP without an included stack, you should also run the Trumpet TCP-IP stack driver (mainly at interrupt vector #0x61).
 
per said:
Nice to hear. Then it problably got some EEPROM somewhere on the card. What of the programs do you use to set them?

As of I know, Try to type:
SMC_WD 0x60
If error, try:
SMC_WD 0x60 <card IRQ nr> <card I/O adress> <Memory base>
If still error, try:
SMC_WD 0x60 -O
of everything above fails, try:
SMC_WD 0x60 -O <card IRQ nr> <card I/O adress> <Memory base>

Remember to use "0x" before any number, and that the numbers are in hexadecimal. If you want to use small TPC-IP without an included stack, you should also run the Trumpet TCP-IP stack driver (mainly at interrupt vector #0x61).
Click to expand...

My card's address is 0280 , IRQ is 3 and memory base is D0000

What would the command look like for that ?

SMC_WD 0x60 3 0280 D0000 ?

EDIT: oh, the program to configure the card is setup.exe from WDPLUS.ZIP (linked above)
 
QuantumII said:
My card's address is 0280 , IRQ is 3 and memory base is D0000

What would the command look like for that ?

SMC_WD 0x60 3 0280 D0000 ?

EDIT: oh, the program to configure the card is setup.exe from WDPLUS.ZIP (linked above)
Click to expand...

Ok. Try:
SMC_WD 0x60 0x03 0x280 0xD0000
 
QuantumII said:
Ok, I'll try it tonight.

What is the 0x60 ? I don't see that anywhere in the card setup program ? is it a default hardcoded address or something ?
Click to expand...

That's the Hardware interrupt vector the Packet driver installs on. I haven't researched how the ethernet cards/drivers works with the system, but it works with the C-Net tech. ethernet card in my 486. I'm sure Mike has some more info on this.
 
I tried this now, and got this error message:

Memory address should be less than 65536

This is the line I wrote:

smc_wd 0x60 0x03 0x280 0xD0000
 
Hmm, just a guess here, maybe 0xD000, not 0xD0000? I looked at the resources on this laptop but the memory addresses are super high on this P4.
 
QuantumII said:
Yeah, I'll try. Thanks :)
Click to expand...

Here is the installation instructions for the Crynwr driver:

SMC (formerly Western Digital) (also IBM) SMCWD

usage: smc_wd [options] packet_int_no [-o] [int_level
[io_addr [mem_base]]]

The SMC_WD driver runs the SMC (formerly Western Digital)
E, EBT, EB, ET/A, and E/A Ethernet cards (but not the Ultra),
and also on the IBM Microchannel Ethernet cards with POS ID's
0xEFE5, 0xEFD4 and 0xEFD5. The ISA SMC_WD requires three
additional parameters -- the hardware interrupt number, the I/O
address, and the memory base address. The ISA defaults are 3
and 0x280 and 0xd000. The MCA SMC_WD picks up its default
parameters from the POS registers, so you only need specify them
it you have multiple adapters. The smc_wd cards do not enable
their memory until configuration time. Some 386 memory mappers
will map memory into the area that the card intends to use. You
should be able to configure your software to leave this area of
memory alone. Also the driver will refuse to map memory into
occupied memory. The occupied memory test fails on some
machines, so the optional switch -o allows you to disable the
check for occupied memory.

If you get the error "PROM ADDRESS Invalid", use EZSETUP to set
all the parameters again (to the same values). Occasionally
wayward programs will write to locations that don't belong to
them. This can corrupt the EEPROM checksum on the card.
EZSETUP will restore the correct checksum.
Click to expand...

Whitch suggest trying:
Code: 
smc_wd 0x60
or
Code: 
smc_wd 0x60 0x03 0x280 0xD000
if you got multipile cards.
 
per said:
Here is the installation instructions for the Crynwr driver:



Whitch suggest trying:
Code: 
smc_wd 0x60
or
Code: 
smc_wd 0x60 0x03 0x280 0xD000
if you got multipile cards.
Click to expand...

I got it working just by
Code: 
smc_wd 0x60

However, there might be a chance that the Setup-program corrupts the settings for your card. To check if the card is corrupted, run the NADD utility. It will report "impossible to determin card type" or somehting similar if the card is corrupted.

What to do if the card gets corrupted is to insert the W1 jumper and reboot your computer. Then run the setup program and do ONLY set "enable interupts". After pressing F10 and leaving the setup program, you should be able to run NADD and get a positive result, and you will have a working card. Turn off your computer and remove the jumper. Use the line above to install the Packet Driver and you are ready to go.
 
per said:
I got it working just by
Code: 
smc_wd 0x60

However, there might be a chance that the Setup-program corrupts the settings for your card. To check if the card is corrupted, run the NADD utility. It will report "impossible to determin card type" or somehting similar if the card is corrupted.

What to do if the card gets corrupted is to insert the W1 jumper and reboot your computer. Then run the setup program and do ONLY set "enable interupts". After pressing F10 and leaving the setup program, you should be able to run NADD and get a positive result, and you will have a working card. Turn off your computer and remove the jumper. Use the line above to install the Packet Driver and you are ready to go.
Click to expand...
Now that's confusing...

As you have seen, I got the packet driver working, and everything seems to be alright, however, the card is not working (at least not in my 486). What I guess is wrong is the IRQ stuff, and that is so confusing you won't beleve it. Just read:

  1. The card itself got 3 IRQ "jumpers" (4, 5 and 6), but on my card there are soldered a resistor (labeled 000) over only one of them (5). By this, I guess the only possible IRQ for my card is IRQ 5.
  2. NADD (when the settings aren't corrupted), reports that the card should do IRQ 2, 3, 5 and 7.
  3. Setup can set the card to either IRQ 2, 3, 4 or 10(?!), and reports my card is set to IRQ 2.
  4. The packet driver from Crynwr reports that the card is set to IRQ 3.


I have personally no idea about what of those sources I should trust, however I do konw that I shouldn't trust Setup because IRQ 10 doesn't exist on an 8-bit card.
 
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I have the W8003WT, which is an older variant of this card. It supports AUI and RJ45 connections, but the RJ45 is 'LatticeNet' compatible which is not compatible with standard twisted pair RJ45 that is in use today. So I use mine with the AUI port, but that does not make a big difference.

On this card the I/O port, IRQ, ROM size and ROM address have to be set by jumpers. There is no ROM on this card, so that option is disabled. That leaves my IRQ set for 2 and the I/O port set for 0x280.

The card has 8KB of memory on board, the address of which is configured at run time. (Well, that is the default amount of RAM. I just check the RAM chip on this card and it has 32KB, so I might be getting a free performance boost the next time I check it.) The card has enough address lines and address decode logic such that it can move the RAM to anywhere you specify when you first initialize the card with the packet driver. As always, don't specify a RAM location that something else is already using. I would be even more conservative and make sure nothing is within the 32K block of address space as the RAM you specify, just in case your card is like mine.

When I use the packet driver I have to tell it what IRQ and I/O ports the card is set to, and what memory address I want the shared memory to appear at. The IRQ and I/O ports must match what is on the card, but you can experiment with different memory addresses for the shared memory.


Mike
 
mbbrutman said:
I have the W8003WT, which is an older variant of this card. It supports AUI and RJ45 connections, but the RJ45 is 'LatticeNet' compatible which is not compatible with standard twisted pair RJ45 that is in use today. So I use mine with the AUI port, but that does not make a big difference.
Click to expand...

That explains a bit... However, I don't have a AUI cable or an router capable of AUI input/output. The only other computer I got with an AUI port is my 486. It would be bad if I just wasted a lot of shipping costs on a card I can't use.

Does it exist some AUI to 10BASE-T converter?

*Edit*
Jumpers.doc (from the zip file) states that the card should do Twisted pair unshielded Draft Standard, TH99 too, so I really am confused here. It migt also be that the card was sharing DMA channel with my SoundBlaster, but I can't see why that shouldn't be a problem. However, my card don't got the Auto Polarity correction jumper (W20). It is labbeled "WD8003W D 17912".

A setup program that doesn't mistake the card for another card would also be nice.
 
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Hi

Here's what setup.exe displays for my card:

It says memory is D0000..

wdset.jpg
 
QuantumII said:
Hi

Here's what setup.exe displays for my card:

It says memory is D0000..

wdset.jpg
Click to expand...

Try to set it to use all of the 32Kb, and then run "NADD" and see what it reports. What other IRQ's can you set it to?

If it works for you, then I guess that I have to set it up in my XT, not in my full-blown 486.

Do you have other cards installed in the system (except for VGA, FDD, and NIC)?

BTW,
have you gotten the packet driver to work?
 
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