Derek,

Excellent!!!

I'l make sure to forward your message on to my buddy Mark. I thank you on his behalf as well.

Best,

DD

>Doug
>
>I've just experienced exactly the same problems as you have described. I upgraded my network to a 3Com SuperStackII 3900 fibre switch, and using the Transcend Network Supervisor software that you can download from www.3com.com I was able to see the following problems.
>
>1) The realtek NIC that I have installed in 1 PC generated 500,000 collisions in 1 week !!!! That's absolutely massive, the entire network of 50 PC's should generate collisions in the single figures bracket in 1 week. The reason is that this NIC cannot successfully auto-negotiate with the switch. It will however auto-sense, giving the illusion that it's 100BaseT. However, when data packets are sent to and fro the switch, the Realtek cannot auto-negotiate. I simply removed this NIC and used another 3Com.
>
>2) Make sure that all NIC's have the latest drivers. The 3Com NIC's that I have, including the 3C905B and brand new 3C905C, in about 25 PC's create a small number of collisions. By upgrading the drivers to the very latest version I lowered these collisions dramatically.
>
>3) The network routines in Win98 are far less stable than Win95, NT, or even Win2000. I cannot provide an answer for this, although not through want of trying. In the end I decided to live with it as I'm in the process of moving all the PC's over to Windows2000.
>
>Hope this has been of use.... Ps - make sure you download the Transcend software from the 3Com site, it's absolutely brilliant, and it's free !!!!
>
>Derek