3Com 3C971-F ATMLINK User manual

®
3C971-F ATML INK
™ ∏
PCI 155 F
IBER
N ETWORK A DAPTER
U
SER
G
UIDE
Part No. 09-0897-000
April 1996

®
L IFETIME W ARRANTY
3Com’s ATMLink
™
, EtherLink
®
, TokenLink
®
,
Fast EtherLink, FDDILink
™
, and 3Com Impact
™
ISDN ISA adapters have a Lifetime Warranty.
To ensure the very best 3Com service and
support, take the time to complete the product
registration card.
Any defective 3Com adapter will be repaired or
replaced, at 3Com’s option, for as long as the
adapter resides in its original IBM
®
Personal
Computer, Personal System/2
®
, or compatible
computer (driver software is covered by the
standard 90-day limited software warranty).

Customers in the countries shown below should send the
completed registration card to the appropriate address.
Customers in other non-U.S. locations should send the
registration card to the U.S. address on the front of the card.
■
Asia
3Com Asia Ltd., Marketing
Department
Room 2506-07, 25/F.
Citibank Tower
Citibank Plaza, Central
Hong Kong
■
Australia, New Zealand
3Com Australia, Marketing
Department
99 Walker Street
Level 7
North Sydney
New South Wales 2060
Australia
■
Belgium, Netherlands,
Luxembourg
3Com Benelux B.V., Marketing
Department
Nevelgaarde 8-9
3436 ZZ
Nieuwegein
Netherlands
■
France, Israel
3Com France, Marketing Department
Immeuble McKinley
BP 965
1, Avenue de l’Atlantique
91976 Les Ulis Courtaboeuf Cedex
France
■
Germany, Austria, Switzerland
3Com GmbH, Marketing Department
Gustav-Heinemann-Ring 123
D-81739 Muenchen
Munich
West Germany
■
Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal,
Malta
3Com Mediterraneo Srl,
Marketing Department
Via Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1
20093 Cologno Monzese MI
Italy
■
Japan
3Com Japan, Marketing Department
Shinjuku Sumitomo Building 23F
2-6-1 Nishi Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo 163-02
Japan
■
Sweden, Finland, Norway,
Denmark
3Com Nordic, Marketing Department
Torshamsgatan 39
Box 1110
164 22 KISTA
Sweden
■
United Kingdom, Eire
3Com UK Ltd., Marketing
Department
Pacific House
Third Avenue
Globe Park Marlow-on-Thames
Buckinghamshire, SL7 1YL
England

®
3C971-F ATML INK
™
PCI 155 F
IBER
N ETWORK A DAPTER
U
SER
G
UIDE
Part No. 09-0897-000
Published April 8, 1996

3Com Corporation ■ 5400 Bayfront Plaza ■ Santa Clara, California ■
95052-8145
© 3Com Corporation, 1996. All rights reserved. No part of this documentation may
be reproduced in any form or by any means or used to make any derivative work
(such as translation, transformation, or adaptation) without permission from 3Com
Corporation.
3Com Corporation reserves the right to revise this documentation and to make
changes in content from time to time without obligation on the part of 3Com
Corporation to provide notification of such revision or change.
3Com Corporation provides this documentation without warranty of any kind, either
implied or expressed, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. 3Com may make improvements
or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this documentation
at any time.
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT LEGENDS:
If you are a United States government agency, then this documentation and the
software described herein are provided to you subject to the following restricted
rights:
For units of the Department of Defense:
Restricted Rights Legend: Use, duplication or disclosure by the Government is
subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c) (1) (ii) for restricted Rights in
Technical Data and Computer Software clause at 48 C.F.R. 52.227-7013. 3Com
Corporation, 5400 Bayfront Plaza, Santa Clara, California 95052-8145.
For civilian agencies:
Restricted Rights Legend: Use, reproduction or disclosure is subject to restrictions
set forth in subparagraph (a) through (d) of the Commercial Computer Software -
Restricted Rights Clause at 48 C.F.R. 52.227-19 and the limitations set forth in 3Com
Corporation’s standard commercial agreement for the software. Unpublished rights
reserved under the copyright laws of the United States.
If there is any software on removable media described in this documentation, it is
furnished under a license agreement included with the product as a separate
document, in the hard copy documentation, or on the removable media in a directory
file named LICENSE.TXT. If you are unable to locate a copy, please contact 3Com
and a copy will be provided to you.
Unless otherwise indicated, 3Com registered trademarks are registered in the United
States and may or may not be registered in other countries.
3Com is a registered trademark of 3Com Corporation. 3TECH and ATMLink are
trademarks of 3Com Corporation. 3ComFacts is a service mark of 3Com
Corporation.
CompuServe is a registered trademark of CompuServe, Inc. Windows, Windows NT,
and Microsoft are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Novell and NetWare are
trademarks of Novel, Inc. Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation.
Other brand and product names may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their
respective holders.

C ONTENTS
A
BOUT
T
HIS
G
UIDE
Introduction i
How to UseThis Guide i
Conventions ii
1
I
NTRODUCTION
3C971-F ATMLink PCI Adapter 1-1
Product Features 1-2
Software Drivers 1-3
3C971-F Adapter Installation Kit 1-3
PCI Technology 1-3
2
H
ARDWARE
I
NSTALLATION
Installation Overview 2-1
Tools Required 2-1
Installing the 3C971-F Adapter 2-2
3
W
INDOWS
NT D
RIVER
I
NSTALLATION
Overview 3-1
Multiple LAN Emulation Clients 3-1
Installation Procedures Overview 3-2
System Requirements 3-3
Installing the Adapter Device Driver 3-4
Configuring the LAN Emulation Clients (LECs) 3-14
Removing a Windows NT Driver 3-21
4
N
ET
W
ARE
4.1 S
ERVER
D
RIVER
I
NSTALLATION
Overview 4-1
System Requirements 4-2
Loading the Novell NetWare Server Driver 4-2
Configuring Network Channels 4-6

Editing the AUTOEXEC.NCF File 4-14
Removing a Driver from NetWare 4-15
5
T
ROUBLESHOOTING
Overview 5-1
Startup Problems 5-1
Bootup Problems 5-2
Applications Problems 5-2
Adapter Problems 5-3
A S PECIFICATIONS
Hardware A-1
Memory A-1
Bus Interface A-1
PCI Master A-1
PCI Slave A-2
Interrupts A-2
Diagnostics A-2
Board Dimensions A-2
Power Requirements A-2
Network Connections A-2
Standards Compliance A-2
Environment A-3
B
T
ECHNICAL
S
UPPORT
On-line Technical Services B-1
3Com Bulletin Board Service B-1
Access by Modem B-1
Access by ISDN B-2
World Wide Web Site B-2
3ComForum on CompuServe B-3
3ComFacts Automated Fax Service B-3
Support fromYour Network Supplier B-4
Returning Products for Repair B-5
G
LOSSARY

I
NDEX
L
IMITED
W
ARRANTY
FCC C
LASS
A V
ERIFICATION
S
TATEMENT
CE N
OTICE

F
IGURES
1-1 3C971-F ATMLink PCI Adapter 1-1
2-1 Removing Expansion Slot Cover 2-3
2-2 Adapter Card Installed in Chassis 2-3
2-3 SC Duplex Connection 2-5
3-1 Network Settings Screen 3-5
3-2 Add Network Adapter 3-5
3-3 Selecting the Floppy Drive 3-6
3-4 Loading the 3C971-F Adapter Hardware Driver 3-7
3-5 PCI Adapter Setup 3-7
3-6 Configuring the Signaling Transport 3-9
3-7 Completed Network Settings 3-10
3-8 TCP/IP Configuration with Sample Entries 3-11
3-9 Reboot Prompt for Adapter Driver 3-14
3-10 LEC Configuration 3-15
3-11 LEC ATM Adapter Configuration 3-17
3-12 LECS/LES Reboot Prompt 3-20
3-13 Removing 3C971-F Adapter and Drivers 3-21
3-14 Confirming Adapter and Driver Removal 3-22
3-15 Network Settings After Driver Removal 3-22
3-16 Reboot Prompt for Removing Drivers 3-23
4-1 NetWare 4.1 Installation Options 4-3
4-2 NetWare Driver Options 4-3
4-3 Select Additional Driver 4-4
4-4 Currently Installed Drivers 4-4
4-5 Notes for Selecting a Drive 4-5
4-6 Selecting a Driver from the 3Com Diskette 4-5
4-7 SVC Driver Confirmation 4-6
4-8 Driver Protocols/Parameters Edit 4-6
4-9 Configuring TCP/IP Network Interface 4-8

4-10 Change IPX Frame Type 4-9
4-11 Locating the Channel Number 4-9
4-12 Selecting the Channel Number 4-9
4-13 LECS/LES ATM Network Address Entries 4-10
4-14 Setting the Network Number 4-12
4-15 Prompt for Additional Channels 4-13
4-16 Reselect the Driver for Additional Channels 4-13
4-17 Selecting the NCF Files Editor 4-14
4-18 Selecting the NCF Files Editor 4-16

ABOUT THIS GUIDE
Introduction
This guide describes how to install the 3C971-F
ATMLink™ PCI 155 Fiber adapter and the network
drivers into a host computer system. It is intended for
system administrators or those with equivalent
technical experience. Throughout this guide, the
3C971-F ATMLink PCI 155 Fiber adapter is referred
to as the 3C971-F adapter.
How to Use This Guide
The following table shows where to find specific
information in this guide.
If you are looking for: Turn to:
Information about the 3C971-F adapter, or
an overview of PCI technology Chapter 1
Instructions for installing the adapter or
connecting the adapter to the network Chapter 2
Instructions for installing the Windows NT™
driver Chapter 3
Instructions for installing the NetWare™server
driver Chapter 4
Troubleshooting assistance Chapter 5
Adapter specifications and
cable requirements Appendix A
Information on 3Com’s technical support Appendix B

ii ABOUT THIS GUIDE
Conventions
The following tables list text and icon conventions
that are used throughout this guide.
Text Description
Text represented
as screen
display
This typeface is used to represent displays that
appear on your terminal screen, for example:
NetLogin:
Text represented
as commands This typeface is used to represent commands that you enter, for example:
cd /usr/tmp
Keys When specific keys are referred to in the text, they
are called out by their labels, such as “the Return
key” or “the Escape key,” or they may be shown as
[Return] or [Esc].
If two or more keys are to be pressed simultaneously,
the keys are linked with a plus sign (+), for example:
Press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del].
Notice Icons Type Description
Information
Note Information notes call attention to important features or instructions.
Caution Cautions alert you to personal
safety risk, system damage, or loss
of data.
Warning Warnings alert you to the risk of
severe personal injury.

1INTRODUCTION
3C971-F ATMLink PCI Adapter
The 3Com®ATMLink™3C971-F adapter supports a
data rate of 155 Mbps over a standard
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network for
Microsoft®Windows NT™workstations and Novell®
NetWare™file servers with Intel®x86-based
processors. The 3C971-F adapter is a full-size,
single-slot PCI bus ATM adapter utilizing SONET
OC-3c for multimode fiber. Packet-to-cell
fragmentation and cell-to-packet reassembly
functions take place in the hardware, which converts
upper layer protocol data units (PDUs) to and from
ATM cells for optimal performance.
Figure 1-1 3C971-F ATMLink PCI Adapter

1-2 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Product Features
The 3C971-F adapter supports the following features:
■155 Mbps SONET OC-3c over multimode fiber
■AAL5 ATM adaptation layer
■Switched virtual circuit (SVC) software driver
■UNI 3.0/3.1 standard signaling for switched virtual
circuit (SVC) connections
■ATM Forum standard LAN emulation client
■LAN emulation configuration server capability
■Communication with up to four LAN emulation
servers
■PCI Local Bus specification revision 2.1 compliance
■32-bit, zero wait-state PCI DMA master
■Up to 64-byte burst transfers
■PCI commands that support efficient use of cache
lines
■Dual-function memory management for cell-FIFO or
on-board packet reassembly
■Hardware-based segmentation and reassembly
(SAR) functions
■EEPROM for initialization parameters (configuration
space and IEEE address)
■LEDs for software status and active line

Software Drivers 1-3
Software Drivers
The ATM device drivers for the 3C971-F adapter are
standard Windows NT NDIS and NetWare ODI
drivers for Intel PCI-based hardware, and conform to
the following:
■ATM Forum LAN emulation standard, version 1.0
■UNI 3.0/3.1 signaling, implemented in Windows NT
as a standard Transport Driver Interface (TDI)
running in kernel mode, and implemented in
NetWare as a standard NetWare Loadable Module
(NLM).
3C971-F Adapter Installation Kit
The 3C971-F adapter installation kit contains the
following:
■3C971-F ATMLink PCI Adapter
■ 3C971-F ATMLink PCI 155 Fiber Network Adapter
User Guide
■ATMdisk software diskette containing software drivers
and README text files
README text files contain important information
made available after the printing of this manual.
PCI Technology
The PCI local bus is a high-performance bus that
provides a processor-independent data path between
the CPU in a PC and high-speed peripherals. This
interconnect mechanism is designed specifically to
accommodate multiple high-performance peripheral
devices that support networking and disk
subsystems, graphics, full-motion video, and
multimedia.

1-4 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
The PCI specification defines two types of PCI
devices: a target and a master. A target is a device
that accepts commands and responds to the
requests of a master. The master, or bus master, is a
more intelligent device that can conduct processing
independently of the bus or other devices. A bus
master device shares the bus with the main
processor and targets. Bus mastering allows a
peripheral device to take control of the system bus
and not rely on the central processor. The 3C971-F
adapter is a bus master device.
The PCI specification supports the following features:
■High performance. The PCI local bus runs at a
clock speed of 33 MHz and employs a 32-bit data
bus that supports multiple peripheral components
and add-in cards at a peak bandwidth of 132 MBps,
up to an order of magnitude greater than that of
other PC buses (ISA, EISA, and MCA).
■Automatic configuration. A PCI adapter has
configuration specifications set in on-board memory
and provides installation information to the computer
at start-up.
■Shared slots. The PCI specification calls for
“shared slots,” which denotes the shared expansion
backplate slot. This shared backplate slot provides
access to one of two types of adapters: a PCI
adapter and an ISA adapter, for example, or a PCI
adapter and an EISA adapter. Only one adapter at a
time can be installed in a shared slot. Manufacturers
are currently producing computers that support the
PCI bus in conjunction with conventional ISA or EISA
buses in the same chassis.
For detailed information about the PCI local bus,
consult the PCI specification.

2HARDWARE INSTALLATION
Installation Overview
This section describes the procedure for installing
the 3C971-F adapter hardware in your host
computer. Follow all applicable instructions included
with your system documentation for installing PCI
bus adapters. Hardware installation consists of
these basic steps:
■Unpack the 3C971-F ATMLink PCI adapter.
■Turn off the power to your computer and remove the
computer cover. Refer to your system
documentation for specific instructions.
■Install the 3C971-F adapter in an available PCI slot.
■Replace the computer cover.
■Connect the appropriate cables.
■Turn on the power to the computer.
Please observe all special notes and precautions.
For technical specifications on the 3C971-F adapter
hardware, see Appendix A.
Tools Required
The only tools required are a grounding strap and a
#1 Phillips head screwdriver.

2-2 CHAPTER 2: HARDWARE INSTALLATION
Keep the 3C971-F ATMLink PCI adapter in the
protective antistatic bag until you are ready to install
it. To prevent adapter damage due to electrostatic
discharge, wear a grounding strap and handle the
adapter only by its edges. Do not touch the
components or any metal parts on the adapter,
except for the backplate.
Installing the 3C971-F Adapter
To install the 3C971-F adapter in your computer,
perform the following steps:
1 Attach a grounding strap to your wrist or ankle
before handling the adapter.
2 Unpack and inspect the 3C971-F adapter for
damage.
3 Turn off the power to your computer and any
attached devices.
WARNING:
Your computer operates with voltages
that can be lethal. Before you remove the computer
cover, carefully review the steps in this procedure
and observe all cautions and warnings to protect
yourself and to prevent damage to the computer.
4 Remove the cover from your computer.
Refer to the system documentation for your
computer.
5 Locate an empty PCI bus expansion slot.
6 Remove the metal expansion slot cover from the
computer chassis, as shown in Figure 2-1.
Save the screw for step 9 later in this section.

Installing the 3C971-F Adapter 2-3
Figure 2-1 Removing Expansion Slot Cover
7 Insert the 3C971-F adapter in the selected slot, as
shown in Figure 2-2.
Figure 2-2 Adapter Card Installed in Chassis
Expansion slot cover
Mounting screw
Expansion slots 32-bit PCI slots
Mounting
screw

2-4 CHAPTER 2: HARDWARE INSTALLATION
8 Press down gently and firmly on the board to
seat it properly.
9 Use the screw removed in step 6 to secure the
3C971-F adapter bracket to the system chassis.
10 Replace the system cover.
11 Connect the 3C971-F adapter to the network.
The connectors and cabling available for the
3C971-F adapter are SC duplex type connectors for
multimode fiber, as shown in Figure 2-3.