I've got two Linux boxes in my room here connected via the campus network, going additionally through a hub in the room. Both of the boxen are running kernel 2.1.122, although I've also tried 2.0.36 and the results are the same.
Anyway, the problem is that one of the boxen, a 486/25 with an NE2000 clone card, causes problems for the other Linux box (a Pentium II with a pair of SMC EtherPower IIs) when I try to access it via the net. Sometimes it works. Other times, nothing at all happens for up to a couple of minutes--pings don't come back, telnet sessions stop, ftp stalls. This doesn't happen when accessing the Linux box from a Windows machine in the same room. It doesn't happen when a keyboard is attached to the machine's console and you type at the keyboard. Also, sometimes ftp sessions *from* the 486 stall. I tried enabling the `CPU is too slow for network' option in the kernel options, but it didn't help. Does anyone have a suggestion? This is really mysterious behavior. I'm considering trying a different network card. Thanks, Ben.
