From: coffler@jeck.amherst.nh.us (Jeff Coffler)
Subject: Stallion Multi-port Serial Cards - stay away if not running SCO!
Reply-To: coffler@jeck.amherst.nh.us (Jeff Coffler)
Organization: Private system
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 21:47:58 GMT


Some time ago, when talk came up about multi-port serial cards for UNIX PCs,
I mentioned some good experiences that I had with the Stallion On-Board/E
(EISA) multi-port serial cards.

Well, a lot has happened since then ... and it's time that I updated those
that might have seen my original posting.

At the time, I had fairly good luck with the Stallion On-Board/E serial board.
I liked it because:

  (1) it's fairly inexpensive (compared to others),
  (2) it's expandable (most aren't in that price range), and
  (3) it has EISA capabilities for a reasonable cost.

Well, sometime after my posting, I ended up finding a problem with the board.
After working with technical support, they verified that I found some sort of
problem (probably a driver problem, but maybe a hardware problem), and they
started working with me to try to isolate the difficulty.

Briefly, the problem was a flow control problem.  At times (only
intermittently), the board would drop characters.   Technical support
verified that it was a problem because their diagnostic utility reported
buffer overflows.

Anyway, Stallion asked me to install an ISA board to see how the problem may
change, and they sent me an ISA board at no cost.  This was back when I was
running DELL SVR4 Issue 2.1.  Those that ran that version may recall that
DELL used to pre-install kernel drivers for all of their products, and that
made it very difficult to find space in low memory for cards that you may add.

Stallion made several suggestions of where to place it, and finally gave me bum
advice about what to remove such that my system was hosed.  (Wonderful; I needed
to reinstall UNIX from scratch).

The next day, I made my request very clear from them.  I wanted clear, consise
directions about how to install the card.  They were insisting that it was my
hardware that was causing the problems, but it wasn't (I only have a dumb serial
card, a video card, and a SCSI card - no network cards or anything like that).
I insisted that they would encounter my problem if they simply tried to install
their driver on a plain, vanilla DELL SVR4 Issue 2.1 system.  They said they'd
get back to me.

Well, when they got back to me, they got back to me with the message, "We have
decided that we no longer support the DELL UNIX Product".  After discussion, I
learned that they decided not to bother finding the problem as a top priority
since most of their business was with SCO.  Cute, huh?  They supported DELL
when I asked them before buying the board, and then dropped support as soon as
the going got tough and they'd need to spend time to solve the problem.  Since
DELL sells the ISA version of the board, they decided that DELL would offer
support for the Stallion driver on DELL Unix (I'm not sure if DELL Computer
agrees with this, but it doesn't really matter to me).

The sales end of the company was still nice about it (one of the things I had
liked about Stallion was that their pre-sales *AND* post-sales support was
really good ... in retrospect, EXCEPT for technical support :-) ), and they
offered to give me a full refund (which I of course accepted).  Of course, at
that point, I was pissed.  If they hadn't given me a full refund, I would have
taken them to court (they told me they supported DELL Unix just months before,
as I was making my purchasing decision).

So, I can no longer recommend Stallion on any hardware unless you run SCO (which
they do support).  Even if you run SCO, if you plan on upgrading, best to stay
away from Stallion - just in case!

Just out of curiousity, I called Digiboard and asked them how to install one of
their ISA boards on DELL Unix (*ANY* low-memory card would have the problem on
that release of DELL Unix).  They responded, "Oh, that O/S is a pain, but we
can most certainly give you exact steps of what it takes".  A much warmer and
fuzzier feeling!  Fortunately, the new version of DELL Unix (Issue 2.2) doesn't
have the problem (DELL now longer pre-installs drivers in the kernel).

Since then, I've started field testing a new Digiboard product (the PC/Xem).
This is a 16-port product (expandable to 32 ports), capable of 115k BPS across
all ports, and still relatively cheap (only about $200 more than the Stallion).
You can also buy ISA or EISA at virtually the same price.  This seems to fit
the bill for me (I can't ever imagine needing more than 16 ports, but in case
I somehow do, I can still get another 16 at minimal cost).  Also, the board
works!  (Naturally, one of the first things I did was put it through the paces
that the Stallion card failed with).

-----

Since then, Digiboard has proved to be a good company to do business with. They
aren't quite as helpful as Stallion (they wouldn't offer any loaner or give me
an upgrade opportunity since they didn't have what I needed when I was ready to
buy), but they do (1) stand behind their product, and (2) their product works.
In the end, the last two points are most important, after all!

If anyone has questions, or wants more details, feel free to contact me via
MAIL.

	-- Jeff
-- 
Jeff Coffler                            UUCP:      ...{decvax,mv}!jeck!coffler
Southern New Hampshire                  Internet:  coffler@jeck.amherst.nh.us

                {Disclaimer: What I say is my personal opinion}
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