I have an iMac with OS 9 which will not do 10/100 ethernet
negotiation with a linksys router. Is there a download
that would update the TCP/IP stack?

What I'd really like to have is a user option to do
"100 Mb Only" which would goose the NIC accordingly.

Thanks,

Rick
Merrill

Rick Merrill <RickMerrill[at]comTHROW.net> writes:

> I have an iMac with OS 9 which will not do 10/100 ethernet
> negotiation with a linksys router. Is there a download that would
> update the TCP/IP stack?

Ethernet is has nothing to do with TCP/IP. The 10/100 is determined
by the Ethernet hardware / chips and controlled by the device
driver. I'm not sure how much control OS 9 gives for
hardware.

Ethernet is usually quite good in determining what speed it should
work at. The issue may be a bad Ethernet cable in which the
auto-negotiation determines that the cable can't handle 100Mbit and
so uses the slower speed. That's one possibility.

> What I'd really like to have is a user option to do "100 Mb Only"
> which would goose the NIC accordingly.

I'll let someone else answer as I've never used OS 9. FWIW, under OS
X you could probably use the 'Unix' command 'ifconfig' to adjust
things but that does not apply in your case.

--
David Magda <dmagda at ee.ryerson.ca>, http://www.magda.ca/
Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under
the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well
under the new. -- Niccolo Machiavelli, _The Prince_, Chapter VI

On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 17:03:25 -0700, David Magda wrote
(in message <86d6cqcf5e.fsf[at]number6.magda.ca>):

> Rick Merrill <RickMerrill[at]comTHROW.net> writes:
>
>> I have an iMac with OS 9 which will not do 10/100 ethernet
>> negotiation with a linksys router. Is there a download that would
>> update the TCP/IP stack?
>
> Ethernet is has nothing to do with TCP/IP. The 10/100 is determined
> by the Ethernet hardware / chips and controlled by the device
> driver. I'm not sure how much control OS 9 gives for
> hardware.
>
> Ethernet is usually quite good in determining what speed it should
> work at. The issue may be a bad Ethernet cable in which the
> auto-negotiation determines that the cable can't handle 100Mbit and
> so uses the slower speed. That's one possibility.
>
>> What I'd really like to have is a user option to do "100 Mb Only"
>> which would goose the NIC accordingly.
>
> I'll let someone else answer as I've never used OS 9. FWIW, under OS
> X you could probably use the 'Unix' command 'ifconfig' to adjust
> things but that does not apply in your case.
>
>

The very earliest i-mac is able to negotiate at either 10 or 100, so the
inability to do so most likely lies somewhere else. I have never seen or
heard of being able to modify this capability within OS 9.

Steve

Steve wrote:

> On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 17:03:25 -0700, David Magda wrote
> (in message <86d6cqcf5e.fsf[at]number6.magda.ca>):
>
>
>>Rick Merrill <RickMerrill[at]comTHROW.net> writes:
>>
>>
>>>I have an iMac with OS 9 which will not do 10/100 ethernet
>>>negotiation with a linksys router. Is there a download that would
>>>update the TCP/IP stack?
>>
>>Ethernet is has nothing to do with TCP/IP. The 10/100 is determined
>>by the Ethernet hardware / chips and controlled by the device
>>driver. I'm not sure how much control OS 9 gives for
>>hardware.
>>
>>Ethernet is usually quite good in determining what speed it should
>>work at. The issue may be a bad Ethernet cable in which the
>>auto-negotiation determines that the cable can't handle 100Mbit and
>>so uses the slower speed. That's one possibility.
>>
>>
>>>What I'd really like to have is a user option to do "100 Mb Only"
>>>which would goose the NIC accordingly.
>>
>>I'll let someone else answer as I've never used OS 9. FWIW, under OS
>>X you could probably use the 'Unix' command 'ifconfig' to adjust
>>things but that does not apply in your case.
>>
>>
>
>
> The very earliest i-mac is able to negotiate at either 10 or 100, so the
> inability to do so most likely lies somewhere else. I have never seen or
> heard of being able to modify this capability within OS 9.
>
> Steve
>
>

Thanks for trying. The only 'fix' I've found is to put a 10 meg hub
between the iMac and the LinkSys router. I have seen this problem and
solution elsewhere when the NIC or h/w driver was not the latest. - RM

I had a similar problem - my son's Macintosh would work when it was
directly connected to the cable modem but refused to work when
connected to a Linksys router. The problem was that I had incorrectly
wired the ethernet cable - it would work at 10 Mbits but not at 100
Mbits! I rewired the cable and everything is working perfectly!