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2020 Spring Cleaning: HP 100BaseVG AnyLAN Linux Network Driver Finally Getting Dropped

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  • 2020 Spring Cleaning: HP 100BaseVG AnyLAN Linux Network Driver Finally Getting Dropped

    Phoronix: 2020 Spring Cleaning: HP 100BaseVG AnyLAN Linux Network Driver Finally Getting Dropped

    Should you still have an HP 100BaseVG AnyLAN network adapter from the mid-to-late 90's, the mainline Linux kernel is finally preparing to eliminate its driver...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    Specified to allow ethernet to work on older CAT3 cable. Meant to help all of the legacy token ring sites and their 4Mbps CAT3 wiring to convert to 100Mbps ethernet without a recabling event.

    Seems people simply upgraded their cabling anyway to CAT5. I know shielding from noise was a problem to running higher speeds on CAT3. Less twist didn't help.

    100BaseVG was originally proposed by Hewlett-Packard, ratified by the IEEE in 1995 and was practically extinct by 1998. In 2001 IEEE recorded the status of its 100BaseVG standard as being a "Withdrawn Standard" (defined as "A standard which is no longer maintained and which may contain significant obsolete or erroneous information.")[1]

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    • #3
      100BaseVG is a standard that itself was withdrawn nearly two decades ago. Half duplex fast ethernet over voice grade cat 3 wiring was interesting at one time, but it is time to let it go.

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      • #4
        *waiting for angry Phoronix members with this kind of ancient hardware*

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        • #5
          In all of my years working with networking equipment (going back to the 1980s that is), and the broad range of equipment that I encountered, I cannot remember ever coming into contact with a network that used this stuff.

          Heck, I remember the days of working on ARCnet and "pre-10Base-T" hardware, but this HP 100BaseVG AnyLAN stuff ... this stuff was truly odd-ball, esoteric, corner case, market niche stuff.

          By the time 100Base whatever was starting to hit the marketplace, every business I worked with or simply met with on a business (sales or service) call had already planned and budgeted the costs of upgrading their network cabling infrastructure rather than trying to stretch the current cable just a few years more.

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          • #6
            Even then there were very large companies who simply moved to 16Mbps token ring and CAT5. I remember all of those silly LSB issues we would have with ethernet Sun equipment on TR networks.

            By the time 100Mbps TR came along, those same companies simply replaced their TR blades with Ethernet ones in the chassis.

            I think it was Compaq who came out with those EISA based NIC's where all you had to do was swap out a module which replaced the TR PHY with an Ethernet one. The Deskpro's had that module plugin right on the planar.

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            • #7
              I would be surprised if you could find a HP 100BaseVG AnyLAN network adapter that still works. I know I was replacing those when they were about 5-8 years old due to capacitor failures even never used one would be failed out box. This could have been a case of maintaining a driver for no functional hardware at this stage and that would explain no one interest in fixing it as well.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by oiaohm View Post
                I would be surprised if you could find a HP 100BaseVG AnyLAN network adapter that still works. I know I was replacing those when they were about 5-8 years old due to capacitor failures even never used one would be failed out box. This could have been a case of maintaining a driver for no functional hardware at this stage and that would explain no one interest in fixing it as well.
                https://harddiskdirect.com/a3402a-hp...k-adapter.html

                HP even made JetDirect cards for it....

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                Last edited by edwaleni; 26 March 2020, 04:29 PM.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by edwaleni View Post

                  https://harddiskdirect.com/a3402a-hp...k-adapter.html

                  HP even made JetDirect cards for it....
                  Please note what I said. That was a model card I was dealing that you open up box put them in computer and they don't fire up any more after they had sat on shelf for 5-8 years.

                  They had two sections if degeneration capacitor and crystal. Either one made the card non functional.

                  Being able to buy something old not opened does not mean it works any more.

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                  • #10
                    This reminds me that many people have a false impression that CAT 5e can’t do 1000gbe. Also most people think that CAT cables are Ethernet cables. I even had a guy tell me that the 568B wiring was invented by Xerox.

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