The problem is due to your Intel Etherexpress. That card is _evil_. They are to slow for fast LANs and get out of sync. I tried to use one (given as a loan) for some months last year, There were zillions of similar bug reports on comp.os.linux.networking.
While I agree that this answer is unsatisfactory as the system shouldn't hang, all I can recommend is to simply get a new card. I switched to a supercheap NE2000 clone that can be had for 30-35 US. And I have no problem at all. Not one byte lost. -- Dirk Eddelb"uttel http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/~edd
