[ale] if networking unused for a while, requires 'networking restart' to regain functionality, huh ?

[Courtney Thomas]

Greetings !

Under debian 2.4.17, when I first bootup, all is well including internet 
access through Freebsd 4.3 doin' NAT.

However, if I let it lie still for various periods of time, when I 
attempt to, say, retrieve email from the web, I find that I get an error 
about being unable to connect to the server. And sure enough I'm unable 
to even ping the Freebsd box [the web router] until I 'networking restart'.

I don't find this to be the case with other boxes accessing the web this 
way, so assume the debian box is misconfigured some way.

But,....I do see output on an xterm from time to time saying........
'page link out of sync. Restoring....'
'eth0 timed out, Network cable problem ?'

Ping also produces a lot of duplicates after restarting.

I have changed the cable to a new one and am still seeing this.

I am using a D-Link 620, a parallel port device, with no problem 
installing 'de620' with modprobe. [All PCI slots used up.] In fact when 
I first bootup I don't even see the above messages about 'out of sync' 
and 'timed out'.

It's a 10 not 100Mbps but runs as well as any other 10Mbps nic I've used.

BTW, I don't get such maladies on the same box running 2.4.6 instead of 
2.4.17, but I need 2.4.17 for Mosix functionality.

What's wrong, and what is the most productive resolution technique for 
such an ailment, please ?

Appreciatively,
Courtney


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