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Date:      Fri, 2 Mar 2001 21:07:14 +0100
From:      "Marinos J . Yannikos" <mjy@pobox.com>
To:        freebsd-isp@freebsd.org
Subject:   Dead link problems (with crossover cable)
Message-ID:  <20010302210714.A31469@TK147108.geizhals.at>

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I seem to have a non-reproducible but reoccurring problem:

Host A: single CPU, Intel 443GX+ board with D-Link DFE-530TX ('vr')
        Runs FreeBSD 4.1.1-STABLE
        Has a Mylex ExtremeRAID 1100, no other PCI cards.

Host B: SMP system, dual Intel 82557 on-board ethernet
        SuSE Linux 7.0

They are connected with a crossover cable, both ends set to 100mbps
full-duplex. Normally, the connection works fine, but sometimes the link just
becomes unuseable. Host A can't ping B anymore, there are no error messages
in the logs, re-initializing the interface has no effect. Host A is still
accessible from elsewhere through the on-board ethernet adapter ('fxp').
It seems that this happens while the link is very busy (update of B via
rsync, approx. 200MB of data are being transfered). "netstat -m" output looks
OK.

Since the problem can be 'fixed' by rebooting A, I assume that this is where
the problem comes from. The 4.1.1 kernel is almost the stock kernel, with the
following options:

/etc/sysctl.conf:
kern.ipc.shmmax=67108864
kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=1048576
kern.ipc.somaxconn=2048
kern.maxfiles=65536

kernel options:
maxusers    512
options         SHMMAXPGS=16384
options         SEMMNI=256
options         SEMMNS=512
options         SEMMNU=256
options         SEMMAP=256

Can anyone recommend a few things to try? I'm considering:
- a new kernel (this is a production system, so I'd rather avoid 'make world')
- a new NIC for Host A (Intel PRO100? Would it be likely to work better with
  the on-board NICs of B?)
- a switch between the 2 hosts

Has anyone had similar problems? Any input would be much appreciated!

Regards,
 Marinos
-- 
***==> Marinos J. Yannikos <mjy@pobox.com>
***==> http://pobox.com/~mjy

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