Configuring MDGMPORT.SYS and MDGNDIS4.SYS under Windows 95/98


This page provides information about:


  1. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel and click on Network.

  2. Select your adapter from the list of network components.

  3. Click Properties.

  4. Click on Advanced tab.

  5. Highlight the property (parameter) you wish to configure.


Parameters

The LAA is a 12 digit hexadecimal number in the range 400000000000 to 7FFFFFFFFFFF.

Every adapter requires a six-byte node address to identify itself on the network. This node address is either the unique burned-in address (BIA) encoded on the adapter, or is a locally administered node address (LAA) that you have provided. If you do not provide an LAA, the adapter's BIA is used as the node address.

The only restrictions on the value chosen for the LAA are that the first digit of the LAA must be between four and seven inclusive and all LAAs must be unique within a LAN segment.

Normally you do not need to specify an LAA unless you are using communications software which requires one.

Use this parameter to set the ring speed as follows:

On a 16Mbps or 100Mbps token-ring network, the driver supports frame sizes up to 17839 bytes are supported. On a 4Mbps network frame sizes up to 4486 bytes are supported. Many protocols and applications do not actually use frames this large and setting the maximum frame size to a value greater than is required wastes memory in the computer. The default value of 4216 is optimal in most environments.

If the maximum frame size you choose is greater than the media supports, the driver will automatically truncate it and write an error into the event log that contains, as one of the data words, the actual maximum frame size used.

You can use all of the Madge adapters supported by this release except Presto PCI and Presto PCI Plus in 'StatisticsGathering' or 'Promiscuous' mode whereby all frames on the ring, not just those directed at the adapter, are passed up to the protocols. This options is disabled by default. Only enable this option if it is required by an application.

On some adapters there are several different ways of transferring data between the computer and the adapter. This option allows you to override the default transfer type (normally DMA) and use 16-bit PIO instead. (Note, for some adapters 16-bit PIO is the default transfer type.)

Wake-On-LAN is a feature that allows a network adapter to wake-up a PC that has been put into auxiliary power mode when the adapter receives a MAGIC PACKET. For this feature to work you must have a PC that supports Wake-On-LAN, an adapter that supports Wake-On-LAN and the adapter must have its Wake-On-LAN connector attached to the PC.

If you set this parameter to Enabled, the adapter will be put into Wake-On-LAN mode when you shutdown Windows. If a MAGIC PACKET(tm) is then sent to the adapter it will wake-up the PC. If you set this parameter to Disabled, the adapter will be closed down in the normal way when you shutdown Windows and will not respond to MAGIC PACKET(tm)s. For more information about Wake-On-LAN, see Remote PC Wake-Up.

This parameter is designed for use with laptop adapters, such as PCMCIA and CardBus, and will prevent the system from producing an error and shutting down the driver if the network cable is not plugged in.

Some token-ring infrastructure products use Test and XID frames to identify other devices on the ring. Handling of such frames is optional in this driver, but is enabled by default. If you do not have any hardware which requires such frames to be responded to, you can disable this feature, which would slightly reduce the driver CPU utilisation.

Use this parameter to set the MAC open mode as follows:


Permanently Disabling Promiscuous Mode

On the Smart 16/4 PCI Ringnode Mk3 (part number: 51-04), the Smart 100/16/4 PCI-HS Ringnode (part number: 51-07) and the Smart Mk4 PCI Adapter (part number: 51-05), you can permanently disable promiscuous mode by using the Kill_PM parameter.

 

For more information, see Disabling Promiscuous Mode.


See Also: