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Conference 7.286::fddi

Title:FDDI - The Next Generation
Moderator:NETCAD::STEFANI
Created:Thu Apr 27 1989
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2259
Total number of notes:8590

1903.0. "DEFEA and promiscuous mode?" by MKOTS3::BLANCHETTE () Wed Dec 13 1995 09:38

Someone from Compaq called here wanting to know if the DEFEA supports
promiscous mode. He wants to use it with an SMS sniffer. I can't find
it documented any where. 

Does the DEFEA support promiscuous mode? Do all of our FDDI cards support it?

Thanks!

Rick
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1903.1Promiscuous mode supported.MAVRIC::POSTNetwork backed up? Give it more fiber.Wed Dec 13 1995 10:1417
    Howdy,
        
    Yes the DEFEA does support promiscuous mode and most of the drivers do 
    allow it to be enabled. The drivers that I know do allow promiscuous
    mode are:
    
    	Novell Server
    	Novell Client
    	NDIS3 (WindowsNT)
    	SCO Unix
    
    The NDIS 2 drivers may, but since NDIS2 stacks do not know about the
    FDDI frame type the driver presents itself to the stacks as an ethernet
    driver and then does on-the-fly packet translation. Therefor you would
    only see frames that are 1514 or less...
    
    -Don
1903.2ThanksMKOTS3::BLANCHETTEWed Dec 13 1995 10:436
Thanks for the quick reply!

I will also take your advice and "give it more fiber" ;^)


rick
1903.3NETRIX::thomasThe Code WarriorWed Dec 13 1995 14:142
Does promisc. mode (in those drivers that could use it) enable reception
of SMT frames?
1903.4NETCAD::STEFANIMachines to humanizeWed Dec 13 1995 14:2219
    No.  As you know, SMT frame handling is done entirely by the on-board
    firmware running on the embedded 68000 processor.  If a driver:
    
    	A. Enables SMT Host promiscuous mode via the Filters Set cmd.
    	B. Processes the SMT Host receive queue in a manner identical
    	   to processing the LLC receive frame queue.
    
    Then the driver can receive all of the SMT frames on the network. 
    Basically, by both enabling the filter -AND- posting host buffers to
    the SMT host queu descriptor block, you'll be telling the firmware to
    copy all SMT frames it receives and post them in on-board queues, for
    the PDQ to then DMA to the host.
    
    I've recently started adding this code to the drivers I support (ODI
    server, SCO UNIX, etc) just in case someone, somewhere down the road
    writes a FDDI LAN analyzer that runs over these drivers.
    
    - Larry
    
1903.5NETRIX::thomasThe Code WarriorWed Dec 13 1995 18:143
Just wondering since in my driver, while SMT frames while not normally be
given to the user, the user can tell the driver he desires them and then the
driver will start returning them to him.
1903.6NETCAD::STEFANIMachines to humanizeMon Dec 18 1995 09:4710
>>Just wondering since in my driver, while SMT frames while not normally be
>>given to the user, the user can tell the driver he desires them and then the
>>driver will start returning them to him.
    
    I didn't know that there's a switch in BSD for enabling this.  I'll
    send you sample code that handles the SMT queuing/processing.  I know
    Rajul was also looking into adding this support for his PDQ-based
    Digital UNIX drivers.
    
    /l
1903.7NETRIX::thomasThe Code WarriorMon Dec 18 1995 09:572
I already have code that does this.  My recieve routines are generic and
can handle either the normal LLC receive queue or the SMT receive queue.