Re: Why is the iSeries so slow

Marty / Ken / Kirk,

This thread intrigues me because I have a client with a 270 and both a T/R and
100M ethernet subnets.  FTP times are fine on both subnets, though the 100M is
faster.  Even the T/R is significantly faster than it was on a CISC model 200,
going to the same local PC.

Originally they were T/R only on the 200, and have both T/R and ethernet on the
270.  The T/R is used for pre-existing PCs; ethernet for any new PC's added.

They haven't had any issues with performance with both interfaces active --
until Monday (two days ago).  As a point of reference, the ethernet card is not
configured as *AUTO, it is set to 100M and *Half duplex with a frame size of
1496.  The T/R card is set to 16M *Half, and a frame size of 16393.  Forwarding
it turned on to allow traffic between the two subnets.

This has worked well for them -- until Monday.  What happened?

They decided to switch the UPS and FedEx shiping scale systems over from T/R to
Ethernet.  This was because the vendors' reps were more familiar with ethernet
and in theroy could provide better support and handle a replacement without the
client providing T/R cards.

The cables were switched on the weekend and emulation sessions and ODBC
connections tested to make sure the real-time exchange of data would work.
Everything seemed set.  (I wasn't there, but did talk to them on the phone.)

Monday emulation sessions and ODBC still worked fine, but Windows would not
locate or print to a laser printer in the front office on the same subnet, so
day-end reports had to print at the scale instead and sneaker-net to the office.

I don't think the 400 is necessarily part of the issue here, and perhaps it is
related to auto negotiation of speeds between the PC, switches, and printer.

At any rate, I wanted to add another voice saying I've seen T/R and Ethernet
coexisting in the same 270 quite nicely, without FTP transfer speed issues.  So
like the others, I suspect a configuration or other network issue, not the 400
per se.

Doug

PS - I'm also open to suggestions on the printer issue, but will now suggest
they force the PC adapter line speed from AUTO to a set value.