[ale] Interface dropping packets, how to fix safely?

[Christopher Fowler]

I've seen things like this happen on cheap 10/100 switches that can be
had for $20.00.

I've got one switch that seems to hate SMB traffic.  Everything else
transfers fine.

On Thu, 2004-08-19 at 00:50, Dow Hurst wrote:
> A "sync;init6" fixes the problem immediately.  With hardly any traffic 
> for a couple of days after the long transfer that caused the problem, it 
> still was painfully erratic and slow.  The reboot fixed the problem and 
> the interface is fast again.
> Dow
> 
> 
> James P. Kinney III wrote:
> 
> >Dow,
> >
> >This smells like a dying nic to me. Give it a rest to cool down
> >thermally and see if it's performance improves. If it does, replace it.
> >
> >On Wed, 2004-08-18 at 19:18, Dow Hurst wrote:
> >  
> >
> >>eth2: VIA VT6102 Rhine-II at 0x9000, 00:0e:a6:a2:f6:3d, IRQ 11.
> >>eth2: MII PHY found at address 1, status 0x786d advertising 01e1 Link 43e1.
> >>eth2: Setting full-duplex based on MII #1 link partner capability of 43e1.
> >>
> >>
> >>I am seeing a number of dropped packets on this interface.  This is a 
> >>remote machine so I have to be careful what I do.  Is there a known way 
> >>to find out if the switch this interface is connected to is running 
> >>half-duplex?  Can I just find out the driver flags to switch it to half 
> >>duplex without too much risk?
> >>
> >>Initially after boot there wasn't any apparent problems, however, after 
> >>a long upload of a lot of data the interface is almost unuseable with 
> >>long delays between letters typed while using SSH.
> >>
> >>Note this later /var/log/messages entry:
> >>eth2: Setting half-duplex based on MII #1 link partner capability of 0000.
> >>eth2: Setting full-duplex based on MII #1 link partner capability of 43e1.
> >>
> >>eth2      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0E:A6:A2:F6:3D
> >>          inet addr:152.13.214.246  Bcast:152.13.215.255  Mask:255.255.254.0
> >>          inet6 addr: fe80::20e:a6ff:fea2:f63d/64 Scope:Link
> >>          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
> >>          RX packets:2138379 errors:0 dropped:19647 overruns:0 frame:0
> >>          TX packets:1343549 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> >>          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
> >>          RX bytes:2265150739 (2160.2 Mb)  TX bytes:128588389 (122.6 Mb)
> >>          Interrupt:11 Base address:0x9000
> >>
> >>Running mtr to track the route and see where the delays are shows that 
> >>the last interface, namely this interface, is the big delay with an 
> >>order of magnitude higher time than any of the hops between me and the 
> >>machine.  I'm still in Acworth, GA while the server is at UNCG 
> >>Greensboro NC.
> >>
> >>Thanks for your help!
> >>Dow
> >>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>Ale mailing list
> >>Ale at ale.org
> >>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >>
> >>!DSPAM:4123e3d721594769117387!
> >>    
> >>
> >>------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>Ale mailing list
> >>Ale at ale.org
> >>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale