Ref: 10710039
Title: Macintosh and Netconnect
Date:  7/5/88

Copyright 3Com Corporation, 1991.  All rights reserved.

The following questions are about Netconnect for the Mac.

1.  When I go in to configure more Netconnect buffers, it does not get
reflected in the amount of memory that Netconnect will require.  This
makes it tough to configure memory requirments when you are getting
close to the edge.

2.  With 9k of memory available (according to the 3install program), I
bumped Netconnect buffers up from 6 to 10.  When I booted the server, I
got an error message on the 3Server3 LCD when nectconnect was loading:

    A: more buffers

Please interpret this for me.

3.  What is the rule of thumb to use for figuring the number of
Netconnect buffers?

Answers:

NetConnect buffers are taken out of the Eth -b buffers.  Since Eth
buffers are allocated in Config.sys and NetConnect uses only ones that are
already allocated, it has no memory impact on the RAM available (as
seen by 3Install.)

This explains why your memory allocation doesn't change when you
increase the number of NetConnect buffers.

It also explains why it gives the message "A: more buffers".  It should
actually say "Eth needs more B".

As far as the rule of thumb for NetConnect buffer, it is this:  Allocate
what you need.  Actually the code was optimized for 8 (based on
share message and receive buffers).  I was told that increasing
shouldn't increase performance.

Additional Note:  When installing Token Ring on a 3Server, the
3install program doesn't report memory allocation correctly.
Because TR doesn't have ETH.SYS buffers, the receive buffers
for Share are not calculated with 3install.  Therefore to get
an accurate account of available memory, multiply the number
of receive buffers by 1.5 and subtract the result from the
available RAM displayed by 3install.
