LOCATION OF DRIVER: \NT\E100.SYS

General Instructions

1. The adapter should be tested with SETUP.EXE prior to setting it up in Windows NT* 3.5. SETUP.EXE is a DOS program and will not run under Windows NT, even in a DOS session. You must boot with DOS to run SETUP.EXE. You will also be able to view your adapter's configuration with SETUP.
   
   
2. In NT, select the Control Panel, then the Network icon, and then "Add Adapter".
   
   
3. A list of available LAN adapters displays. The PRO/100 driver does not currently ship with Windows NT 3.5. Consequently, select "Other <Requires> disk from manufacturer".
   
   
4. Insert the EtherExpress PRO/100 disk in drive A and press Enter.
   
   
5. A dialog box displays "javascript:void(null);". Change the path to "javascript:void(null);", which is the path where the driver (E100.SYS) and setup file (OEMSETUP.INF) are located.
   
   
6. A dialog box displays and asks you to select either PRO/100 PCI or PRO/100 EISA adapter. Click on the installed adapter type and then click OK.
   
   
7. A dialog box displays and prompts you for the SPEED. Select "Auto Detect" and click OK.
   
   
8. NT then performs the binding process. If any additional network software options were installed, NT may prompt you for specific information for these packages.
   
   
9. Restart NT when prompted for the changes to take effect.

CAUTION: If you're installing multiple PRO/100 adapters in your system, they must be installed into your PC before adding the driver in Windows NT network setup.

Advanced Configuration Parameters

These options are configured under the ADVANCED options button. The defaults work correctly for most configurations. Use caution when changing these parameters.

FIFO parameter:
Recommended setting: FIFO=12 (default)

This parameter defines the FIFO threshold for requesting bus access. For systems with high bus latency, this setting should be increased. For systems with low latency, this setting can be reduced. For best performance, set the parameter as low as possible (without causing DMA over/underruns or CRC errors).

ON parameter:
Recommended setting: ON=272 (default)

This parameter limits the number of clock cycles the EtherExpress PRO/100 adapter holds the bus for data transfers. For best performance, set this parameter high enough for the Transmit FIFO to be filled, or the Receive FIFO emptied, in a single bus access.

OFF parameter:
Recommended setting: OFF=2 (default)

This parameter is the minimum number of clock cycles the EtherExpress PRO/100 adapter card remains off the bus between data transfers. For best performance, set this parameter to a minimum, allowing the adapter access as needed.

THRESHOLD parameter:
Recommended setting: Threshold=16 (default)

The number specified by the threshold parameter is multiplied by 8 to produce the number of bytes at which the adapter starts emptying the EtherExpress PRO/100's internal transmit FIFO onto the wire.

For example, specifying Threshold=200 sets the number of bytes to 1600. This is greater than the max packet size for Ethernet, so the adapter won't attempt early transmits. This is the safest setting, but the best performance is achieved when the threshold parameter is as low as possible (without producing underruns).

To experiment, first set it at 16 and then increment it if performance drops significantly. It's probably unsafe to set the transmit threshold parameter below 200 for systems with several busmastering cards, or systems with otherwise high bus latency.

SPEED parameter:
Recommended setting: Auto Detect (default)

This parameter lets the PRO/100 adapter know what speed to use on the Ethernet wire. The choices are 10Mbits/sec, 100Mbits/sec, and Auto Detect. In Auto Detect mode, the adapter detects if its environment can support 100Mbit speed. It then sets the speed to 100 if it can, or 10 if it can't.

MAP REGISTERS parameter:
Recommended settings:

EISA: MapRegisters = 32 (default for NT 3.5 or later)
PCI:  MapRegisters = 10 (default for NT 3.5)
PCI:  MapRegisters = 32 (default for NT 3.51 or later)

Map registers are system resources used in physical to virtual address conversion with bus mastering cards. The MapRegisters parameter specifies how many map registers should be allocated to the EtherExpress

PRO/100 driver.

As a rule, the higher the number of MapRegisters, the better the performance. However, map registers are system resources and if too many are allocated (i.e. more than the OS has available), the driver will fail to load.

NT3.5 currently has a restriction in the Microsoft Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) that causes a shortage of map registers when the computer is configured with extra physical memory. By obtaining an updated HAL.DLL and putting it in NT's SYSTEM32 directory, you can increase the MapRegister parameter for improved performance and support of additional network adapter cards.

WARNING: If the number of specified map registers is not available, the driver won't load or the system may crash when accessing the floppy disk drive!

This applies to:

Intel® PRO/100 PCI and EISA Adapters