Packet driver ?

[ROGER JAMES <roger@boldon-james-limited.co.uk>]

> I am currently using the 3c501 packet driver under windows 3.0 with the -w opt
ion. There is also a driver
> called winpkt that is suppose to be loaded after the 3c501 driver (or any driv
er) when using windows. Is
> this in addition to the -w option? I have had no problems when not using the '
winpkt' driver and using
> the 3c501 -w option.

Doug,

You dont need the -w when you use winpkt. It doesnt matter if you leave
it in it will just have no effect.

What -w does is as follows:-

When an application (e.g. Nos) attaches to the driver, the application gives
the driver the address of a routine that it wants to be called whenever
the driver has packets for it. The -w flag telles the driver to remember
the first few bytes of this routine. Then when it has a packet it checks
the location again to see if the bytes match. If not then it ditches the
packet. This avoids the problem of calling non-existent code if a
hardware interrupt occurs when the wrong virtual machine is running.

The virtual packet driver handles things a bit differently. If an interrupt
arrives in the wrong virtual machine it tells windows to switch to the
right one to process it. This means that fewer packets are lost.

All these are only relevant if you are running windows in enhanced mode
you can safely forget them in other modes.

Hope this helps :-)

Roger F. James          : email         : roger@bj.co.uk
Boldon James Limited    :
Damian House            : phone         : +44 (0)260 280465
West Street             : fax           : +44 (0)260 298030
Congleton               : packet        : g4tot@gb7fci
Cheshire                : amprnet       : g4tot.ampr.org
ENGLAND                 :