Ref: 17310018
Title: Configuring Two EtherLink 16 Adapters in One PC
date: 12/27/90

Copyright 3Com Corporation, 1991.  All rights reserved.

Two EtherLink 16 adapters can be installed into one PC.  For example,
when installed under Netware 386, the adapters perform internal IPX routing
between two Ethernet networks.  (This is commonly known as Novell
Netware Internal Bridging.)  Unfortunately, heavy packet traffic on the
internal bridge requires a significant amount of server processing, resulting
in slower throughput than over a repeater or dedicated high performance
MAC-layer bridge.  Therefore, in most cases you would not want to install two
adapters into one PC.

However, should you choose to install them, follow these steps:

1.  Boot the computer using a DOS disk that has no drivers loaded.

2.  Install one adapter at a time, then configure and run the diagnostic
program on each adapter.

Make sure that there are no conflicts between devices accessing the AT
bus.  The interrupt, I/O base address, and shared memory RAM base address
used by each EtherLink 16 adapter must be unique.  These parameters cannot
be used by other devices or software, including memory managers.

3.  After each adapter has been configured separately, reinstall them both
in the computer.

4.  Install the network operating system software.


In the following example, two EtherLink 16 adapters were installed in a
Compaq 386 SX PC with IDE internal hard drive, not using shared memory, and
running Novell Netware 386 3.1 server software.

    Note:  Settings shown in this example have not been subjected to
           exhaustive testing and do not apply to all configurations.

1.  The EtherLink 16 adapters were configured as follows:

    Settings                 Adapter 1       Adapter 2
    ---------------------------------------------------
    RAM Base  Address (mem)  D0000, 64K      C8000, 32K
    Interrupt (int)          10 (Ah)         9 (9h)
    I/O Base Address (port)  300             310

2.  The 3C507.LAN driver was copied onto the installed NetWare 386 server
using the Install NLM.   This menu-driven program allows drivers including
the 3C507.LAN to be uploaded from a copy of the System-2 diskette.

3.  Using the system options for the Install NLM, the AUTOEXEC.NCF file for
the server was modified to include these lines:

    Load 3C507 port=300 mem=D0000 int=A
    Bind IPX to 3C507 net=BBBBBBBB
    Load 3C507 port=310 mem=C8000 int=9
    Bind IPX to 3C507 net=FFFFFFFF

(The value for net= is an assigned unique hexadecimal IPX network identifier.)

4.  Upon startup, the server executed and initialized the two adapters using
3C507.LAN loaded by the AUTOEXEC.NCF file.  The server startup display looked
like this:

    IPX Internal network number 000ABCDE
    12/7 10:23am:  Bindery open requested by the SERVER
    Loading module 3C507.LAN
        This module is using 14 NetWare 386 V3.00 API calls.
        You should upgrade to a Netware 386 V3.10 module when available.
    IPX LAN Protocol bound to 3C507 EtherLink 16 driver for 386 V1.0
    Loading module 3C507.LAN
        Previously loaded module was used reentrantly
    Several boards are using the 3C507 LAN driver:
        1.  3C507 EtherLink 16 driver for 386 v1.0 using I/O Port 300h,
              Memory D0000h to DFFEFh, Interrupt Ah, Frame type:
              ETHERNET_802.3
        2.  3C507 EtherLink 16 driver for 386 v1.0 using I/O Port 310h,
              Memory C8000h to CFFEFh, Interrupt 9h, Frame type:
              ETHERNET_802.3
    Select board to bind:

5.  At the prompt, 2 was selected as the secondary adapter for
initialization.  Two Ethernet networks became available via IPX for Netware
operation.

For further information, refer to Tech Library article 17310017,
"Configuring the Etherlink 16 for Performance," and to the EtherLink 16
Installation and Configuration Guide.