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November 12th, 2004 13:00

Is Flow Control needed?

Do I need to enable Flow Control (Tx, Rx, Both or Auto-negotiate) on our 3324 and 3348 switches and the end-point NICs?
 
All end-user PC's and most networked printers are auto-negotiating 100m-full with the switches. A couple of older printers and one laptop are capable only of 10m (full or half). The server is 1000m-full to the G1 port on the 3324. The 3324 links to the 3348 at 1000m-full with CAT-5e via the G2 ports.
 
The 3324 and 3348 switches come factory-defaulted to Flow Control disabled. Checking various PC NIC's found that, depending on brand/model, some come defaulted with flow control enabled, some not, and none appear to include an "auto-negotiate" option like the switches. Also, some NICS have only an option for "Flow Control", and others have separate options for "Tx Flow Control" and "Rx Flow Control". 
 
I'm assuming that flow control is only applicable to full-duplex but don't know when/if it is really needed and, if advisable to use, how to match the NIC and switch settings, given the disparate options.
 
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