Hi Folks, I've got a Sid box (kernel 2.4.8) with two Linksys Etherfast v.2 NICs which have worked flawlessly for several years now (confirmed by tulip-diag). I recently got a SB4100 cablemodem and had ATT install a line.
My problem is that I'm having to reset (ifdown/ifup) the interface *often*, like every two or three minutes, which makes broadband nearly useless. (Some days are better, but lately it's gotten very bad. Indeed, dhclient sometimes fails to negotiate a lease after sending out a ping and getting 100% packet loss). iptraf reports that eth1 sends an arp request to the ATT router and fails to get a reply. It tries a second time, then just sits there broadcasting the arp request. Bah! syslog reports "receive_packet failed on eth1: network is down", but after I bring eth1 down, which may or may-not tell me anything. The cablemodem, however, does not appear to lose sync: receive, send, and online lights are steady-on. How do I isolate the problem? That is, how do I determine if it's the Linksys NIC, the Linksys NIC/cablemodem connection, a weak upstream cablemodem signal, a weak downstream signal -- the tech had to install a new line to make up for signal loss due to excessive splitting elsewhere in the house, but he left apparently satisfied that there was enough signal on the new line -- or something altogether else which I haven't considered but you folks might catch? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Best, Don
