Suns and ShineNet ethernet repeaters

[Chris Wilson]

Can anyone help with with this problem? We have an with a mixed set of
Suns, MicroVaxes, IBM AT compatibles, and Encore Multimax and Annex
terminal servers all on one ethernet. I had planned to split the ethernet
into several parts connected by an ANC-500 4 port repeater.  However, my
local supplier is having trouble supplying the ANC so he has loaned my a
two port LONGSHINE ShineNet repeater as a temporary measure.

All well and good, except that none of my Suns will communicate properly
with any other hosts on the other side of the repeater.  Communication is
good between any non Sun host across the repeater and between Suns on the
same side of the repeater.

The problem is that the Suns are not correctly receiving large packets.
Using the spray and etherfind utilities I can see the Suns receiving
packets of less than 500 characters correctly, but as the packet size
increases above 500 they drop more and more packets until the packet size
reaches 1200 where all packets are dropped.

The symptoms are that you can get a connection with rlogin or telnet
across the repeater and login successfully but as soon as a large packet
is sent the connection hangs. This does not occur with any other type of
machine, even with large packets.  I've tried two different ShineNet
repeaters with similar results. The problem occurs with all of our Sun
4/110's and 3/60s under SunOS 4.0.1 and 3.5.

Does anyone know what is going on? Are the ShineNet repeaters incompatible
with Suns in some way? Will the problem go away when I install the ANC
repeater? What else could I be doing wrong? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Chris Wilson
Austek Microsystems Pty. Ltd.
Technology Park, Adelaide, SA 5095
Australia

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