File Name: RELEASE.TXT
Product Name: NI6510-NDISDRV
Description: DOS NDIS 2.01 Driver for the InterLan EtherBlaster
Version: 5.85
Part Number: 158-0284-00
149-0284-00
SECTION 1 - Overview
--------------------
The driver in this directory allows the InterLan EtherBlaster to be used
in DOS-based systems to run networking software written to the NDIS
2.01 specification.
This driver has been written for conformance to the NDIS specification as
described in "Microsoft/3COM LAN Manager Network Driver Interface
Specification - Version 2.0.1.".
Version 1.32 of this driver was included on the distribution diskettes for
Microsoft LAN Manager 2.1.
Version 1.34 added support for the Virtual DMA specification, and was
tested with expanded memory managers such as QEMM, CEMM, and DOS 5.0. It
also addressed a "slowdown" issue encountered at some sites when the NI6510
received packets greater than 1514 bytes in length.
Version 1.35 was qualified with IBM OS/2 v2.0. It passed Microsoft
Conformance Tests under LAN Manager 2.1 (Certificate of Conformance dated
August 14, 1992).
Version 5.01 supports the EtherBlaster as well as previous versions of
the NI6510 card. It passed Microsoft LAN Manager and Windows for Workgroups
NDIS Conformance Testing, Version 2.01 (Certificate of Compliance dated
September 21, 1993.)
Version 5.10 supports the 8 interrupt version of the EtherBlaster.
Version 5.50 supports the PCnet-ISA+ version of the EtherBlaster.
Version 5.70 disables the Guaranteed Access Time (GAT) mode in the Intel
823878I System I/O (SIO) chip, which is found in some PCI/ISA PCs. When
enabled, this mode can cause a violation of ISA bus timing specification for
bus master devices. As a result, the InterLan EtherBlaster is prevented from
accessing host memory in a timely manner. GAT mode can be modified in
PROTOCOL.INI to override the driver default (to turn GAT off). The keywords
are GAT=ON (always turns it on), GAT=OFF (always turns it off), and GAT=NONE
(does not change the system power on default) under the [NI6510_NIF] heading.
Version 5.85 supports the XLerator series and Plug and Play.
Note that the explanations in Section 4 and Section 5 generally apply to
LAN Manager systems. They may or may not apply to other protocol stacks
that use NDIS drivers. Complete details can be found by referencing the
driver section of your network software documentation.
SECTION 2 - Contents of this directory
---------------------------------------
To help you install and use this product, the following files are included
in this directory:
RELEASE.TXT - This file
SAMPLES.TXT - Sample configuration files for commonly used NDIS-based
protocol stacks.
NI6510.DOS - EtherBlaster DOS NDIS Driver
PROTOCOL.INI - Text file that describes the configuration of the driver
and data-link card to the networking software.
You may have to edit this file to match the physical
configuration of your card. For more information, see
Section 4 for an explanation of the PROTOCOL.INI parameters.
The NI6510.DOS and PROTOCOL.INI files are included in the \MSLANMAN.DOS
directory on this diskette in the structure recommended by Microsoft to
allow automatic installation under LAN Manager.
Also included under \MSLANMAN.DOS is the NI6510.NIF file, which is used by
the LAN Manager setup program to display available network drivers. See
Section 5 for an explanation of the NI6510.NIF parameters.
SECTION 3 - Installing NDIS drivers under LAN Manager
-----------------------------------------------------
To install a network driver under LAN Manager, run the SETUP program. Consult
your LAN Manager documentation for more information.
SETUP should make the necessary driver modifications to the CONFIG.SYS and
PROTOCOL.INI files.
For example, if you configured the NetBEUI protocol stack to bind with two
EtherBlaster cards (one with I/O base address 360 and another with 340),
the resulting PROTOCOL.INI file should contain the following:
[NETBEUI_XIF]
DRIVERNAME = NETBEUI$
BINDINGS = "NI6510_NIF", "NI6510_NIF2"
[NI6510_NIF]
DRIVERNAME = NI6510$
IOBASE = 0x360 (NI6510 with I/O base address 360)
[NI6510_NIF2]
DRIVERNAME = NI65102$
IOBASE = 0x340 (NI6510 with I/O base address 340)
The EtherBlaster driver should appear twice in CONFIG.SYS, with the
I/O base address specified as follows:
DEVICE=C:\LANMAN.DOS\DRIVERS\ETHERNET\NI6510\NI6510.DOS /p:360
DEVICE=C:\LANMAN.DOS\DRIVERS\ETHERNET\NI6510\NI6510.DOS /p:340
SECTION 4 - Entries in the PROTOCOL.INI File
---------------------------------------------
The following tables summarize the possible entries and values in
the [NI6510_NIF] section of the PROTOCOL.INI file:
Table 1 - Entries in the PROTOCOL.INI file
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Entry Explanation
---------------------------------------------------------------------
DRIVERNAME Identifies the network device driver. DRIVERNAME is
the base portion of the file name, plus a digit if
more than one EtherBlaster is installed.
DRIVERNAME is NI6510$ for the first NI6510, NI65102$
for the second, and so on.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
IOBASE Indicates the base I/O address for the NIC. If this
entry does not match the NIC's I/O address jumper
settings, the driver reports an error. If this
entry is omitted, the driver looks for the first
available NIC.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
MAXMULTICASTS Sets the maximum number of multicast addresses the
driver supports.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
MAXRECEIVES Sets the number of receives that can be queued
simultaneously.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
MAXTRANSMITS Sets the number of TransmitChain commands that can be
queued simultaneously.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
These entries can have the following minimum and maximum values:
Table 2 - Min/Max Entries
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Entry Minimum Maximum Default
---------------------------------------------------------------------
DRIVERNAME NI6510$ NI6510n$ required entry
---------------------------------------------------------------------
IOBASE 0x300 hex 0x360 hex optional
---------------------------------------------------------------------
MAXMULTICASTS 1 16 10
---------------------------------------------------------------------
MAXRECEIVES 1 8 4
---------------------------------------------------------------------
MAXTRANSMITS 1 50 6
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SECTION 5 - Entries in the *.NIF File
-------------------------------------
Table 3 - Entries in the *.NIF file
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Model Used by the LAN Manager SETUP program to display the
name of the driver.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Path Directory location of all files pertinent to the
driver, i.e. the PROTOCOL.INI file and the driver
itself (NI6510.DOS or NI6510.OS2). The LAN Manager
installation program appends the value of this field
to "@lanroot\drivers\" to create a complete path for
accessing PROTOCOL.INI and the device drivers. Check
the value of "@lanroot\drivers" (or equivalent field
for other network operating systems) if your installation
program can not find the driver or PROTOCOL.INI files.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
DeviceDriver Name of the driver that will be added to CONFIG.SYS.
If more than one driver must be added, then multiple
"DeviceDriver" lines should be specified.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Type Specifies that the driver is an NDIS driver.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Xports Applies to NDIS drivers only and indicates the
transports that this driver has been tested with. A
warning may be generated by the LAN Manager SETUP
program if the user attempts to combine the driver with
a transport that is not listed in the Xports list.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.