3Com (R) Corporation Installation CD for the 3Com Firewall PCI Card Family (3CRFW200 and 3CRFW300) Release Notes and Frequently Asked Questions This file contains the release notes and answers to some frequently asked questions to help you obtain maximum performance from your 3Com Firewall PCI Card (3CRFW200 or 3CRFW300). This information is updated regularly on the 3Com World Wide Web site (http://www.3Com.com). Special Note: Your 3Com Firewall PCI Card allows you to place a hardware firewall inside of every desktop and server system that contains or provides access to valuable information. It can also be used to provide access control to and from the protected system. Your purchase includes a 3CR990 Network Interface Card that has been specially modified to communicate with the 3Com Embedded Firewall Policy Server. The card is “pre-licensed” so you do not need to purchase a separate EFW Client License to upgrade it to a Firewall. During EFW installation the EFW client installation program may display a dialog indicating that the EFW will install an older version of your card driver than the version already on your system. It asks you whether you wish to overwrite your existing driver with the older driver included with EFW. You should always keep the newest driver for your card. As a firewall, the 3CRFW200 and 3CRFW300 do not currently support all of the features of the 3CR990 family of products. Unsupported features include: · DynamicAccess Loadbalancing and Failover Technology · Managed Boot Agent Functions · DMI Agent Functions Additionally, the following operating systems are not currently supported: · Novell Netware Server (any version) · Novell Netware Client (ODI16 and ODI32 Drivers) · Windows 95 · DOS* (partial support is included) · Linux This information supercedes any other included documentation. Table of Contents ----------------- Release Notes Compaq Deskpro EN Series SFF Advanced Feature Set (Broadcast Limiting) Webest Technology International Inc. Tower Computer (*.Sys) Toshiba Equium 7100s Dell PowerEdge 2300/350 system Installing the 3Com 10/100 PCI NIC on a Multiprocesser System TCP Segmentation offloads 802.1p Windows 2000 Advanced Tab Offloads WinDiag Re-install when Upgrading to Windows 2000 Frequently Asked Questions 3Com Technical Support Release Notes ============= Compaq Deskpro EN Series SFF ---------------------------- 3Com has observed during testing that the 3Com 10/100 PCI NIC w/3XP (3C990B) may not work reliably if it is installed in the upper PCI slot. If this situation occurs, 3Com recommends that you install the card in an alternate PCI slot. Advanced Feature Set (Broadcast Limiting) ----------------------------------------- The Broadcast Limiting feature which allows a user to help limit broadcast storms by enabling a limiting threshold has not been enabled in this version of the product. Webest Technology International Inc. Tower Computer (*.Sys) ----------------------------------------------------------- 3Com has observed during testing that installing the 3Com 10/100 PCI NIC w/3XP (3C990B)in the extended PCI slot may cause mouse operation to drop out. If this situation occurs, 3Com recommends that you install the NIC in a different PCI slot. Toshiba Equium 7100s -------------------- 3Com has observed problems during testing and recommends that the 3Com 10/100 PCI NIC w/3XP (3C990B) not be installed in a Toshiba Equium 7100s that is running Windows 98. Dell PowerEdge 2300/350 system ------------------------------ 3Com has observed that this system is unable to power up when a 3Com 10/100 PCI NIC w/3XP (3C990B) is installed on a primary bus PCI slot. 3Com recommends that you move the NIC to a secondary bus PCI slot for this system. Installing the 3Com 10/100 PCI NIC w/3XP (3C990B) on a ------------------------------------------------------ Multiprocessor System --------------------- 3Com has observed that the 3Com 10/100 PCI NIC w/3XP (3C990B) may not install on a multiprocessor system that has been populated only with one processor. This problem has been observed on Windows 2000 only and the build was (2072) Release Candidate 1. If the problem occurs, please consult Microsoft. TCP Segmentation Offloads ------------------------- Although the 3Com 10/100 PCI NIC w/3XP (3C990B) can process large send offloads (LSO) from the Windows 2000 operating system(s), this feature is disabled by default in the released version(s) of Windows 2000. 802.1p Windows 2000 Advanced Tab Offloads ----------------------------------------- 802.1p traffic prioritization offloads are possible from the Windows 2000 operating system and can be turned on/off for the 3C990B NIC. However, setting traffic priority for applications in Windows 2000 must be done through Windows 2000. WinDiag Re-install when Upgrading to Windows 2000 ------------------------------------------------- After performing an upgrade to Windows 2000 from either Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT 4.0, the 3C990B NIC Windows diagnostics utility must be reinstalled. You can reinstall the diagnostics utility by using the installation utility located on the EtherCD. Frequently Asked Questions ========================== Q: How do I create installation diskettes? A: The following procedure is recommended for installation diskette creation: 1. Insert the EtherCD (that shipped with this product) in your CD-ROM drive. The EtherCD Welcome screen appears. 2. Click "NIC Software." 3. Click "Create Installation Diskettes." The EtherCD Diskette Creation Utility will be invoked and will guide you through the steps for creating diskettes. Q: Which PCI slot is best for my 3Com 10/100 PCI NIC w/3XP (3C990B)? A: 3Com PCI NICs are designed to work in any PCI slot, including "slave-only" slots. The NICs perform best in those slots that support bus-mastering data transfers. Refer to your owners manual for information on which slots support bus-mastering data transfers. Q: Which PCI slot(s) are "bus mastering" in my PCI machine? A: Generally, if you have three PCI slots in a machine, one slot is designated as a "slave-only" slot (that is, it does not support bus-mastering data transfers). Slots are not always marked clearly to distinguish between slave-only and bus-mastering slots. Refer to your owners manual or contact your computer manufacturer for this information. Also, make sure that you have the latest version of your system BIOS. Q. Does my PCI NIC support shared interrupts? A. The drivers for the 3C990B NICs support shared interrupts. However, because there is no industry-standard way to support shared interrupts, other NICs may support them differently, or not at all. if you have another PCI NIC that does not support shared interrupts (for example, a SCSI host NIC), either contact the manufacturer for a shared interrupt driver or try running the system setup program to assign it a different interrupt. Q: What interrupts should I avoid using with my 3Com 3C990B NIC? A: You should avoid using any interrupts used by ISA/EISA boards that do not properly support shared interrupts (level-triggered). If you do not know or are unsure whether your NIC supports shared interrupts, then avoid using them. In addition, try to avoid using the same interrupt as that of your local hard drive (normally IRQ 14 for IDE drives and IRQ 11 for most SCSI host NICs), because not all hard drives support shared interrupts at this time. For Novell NetWare servers, you should also avoid using IRQ 7 or 15. These IRQs only support non-shared devices and may cause problems if they are shared between two devices. Q: I've purchased an HP Pavilion machine and I want to connect it to my network. Are there any issues? A: The HP Pavilion PC is designed for home use, as a stand-alone multimedia machine. HP does not recommend using this PC as a network PC. The following issues could arise when installing a PCI NIC in these PCs: - Unavailable resources - PCI bus errors - PCI device detection problems 3Com and HP are working together to resolve this problem. Q: Which version of emm386.exe should I use with the NDIS 2 driver? A: 3Com recommends that the emm386.exe that is supplied with the installed operating system be used. The emm386.exe supplied with LAN Manager may be incompatible. 3Com Technical Support ====================== Access the latest networking information on the 3Com World Wide Web site by entering the following URL into your Internet browser: http://www.3com./com/ Please refer to the NIC user guide for complete technical support information. This information is also available in the SUPPORT.TXT file located on the EtherCD. 3Com is a registered trademark of 3Com Corporation. (%VER README.TXT - Release Notes v1.0.0)