Asante Technologies 10NIC-PCITM - Manual (Page 21)

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Using the Asanté Ethernet Options Control Panel
Using the Asanté Ethernet Options Control Panel
The Asanté Ethernet Options Control Panel allows you to set the Asanté
10NIC-PCI adapter to full or half duplex mode.
After power-up initialization, the Asanté 10NIC-PCI adapter automatically
connects at 10Mbps in
half duplex mode. On Power Macintosh computers,
you can change the default mode to full duplex operation. Asanté is the first
manufacturer to also include a Macintosh Control Panel called
Asanté Ethernet
Options , which allows you to view and change the Asanté 10NIC-PCI
adapter’s duplex mode (this control panel will not work with other manu-
facturer’s adapters or built-in ethernet).
Full Duplex Mode
Full duplex mode generally allows faster performance, especially on data-
base or file servers. The term “full duplex” refers to the capability of your
networking system to support simultaneous transfer of data to, and from,
the computer at the same time. To use full duplex, your network’s switch,
your adapter card, the adapter card’s driver, the computer, and the com-
puter’s operating system must
all support full duplex. If any one of these
components cannot fully support full duplex operation, you must instead
use half duplex operation.
The Asanté 10NIC-PCI adapter and its driver are designed to support full
duplex operation on PCI Power Macintosh computers. In addition, all PCI
Macintosh computers and their MacOS support full duplex if they are used
with the Asanté 10NIC-PCI adapter and driver.
▲ Important! Full duplex mode only works when your com-
puter is connected to an Ethernet switch . Ethernet hubs do not
support full duplex. Therefore, if you are connecting to an
Ethernet hub, set the adapter to
half duplex.
Half Duplex Mode
In half duplex mode, the computer transmits or receives traffic on a stop-
and-wait basis. Therefore, networking performance suffers somewhat if you
are trying to send and receive large amounts of data at the same time (for
example, on a server). If you are just performing normal, simple, one-way
file transfers from a client, you will not notice this performance degradation.
The Asanté Ethernet Options Control Panel
To open the control panel while the Asanté 10NIC-PCI card is operational:
1 Open the Apple Menu and select Control Panels .