From: Marc Powell [mailto:marc at ena.com] > From: Joshua Baker-LePain > > On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 at 2:53pm, Marc Powell wrote > > > > > > Anyone any idea what is wrong here? > > > > > > Just a thought but have you hard-coded speed and duplex all the way > > > through? Don't trust auto-negotiation. > > > > Just a dissenting opinion here on that last bit. No less a source than > > Donald Becker often advises *strongly* against disabling auto-negotiation. > > Yes, some switches *cough*Cisco*cough* historically did it very badly. > > But that was then, not now. And, AIUI, it's actually part of the gbe > > standard. > > Sure, let me rephrase my original wording -- "I don't trust > auto-negitiation." =) I say that for two reasons -- The problem I've found with hard-coding speed and duplex is that it MUST be done on both sides of the link. If one side is hard-coded and the other side is trying to negotiate, the speed will be detected properly, but the duplex will not. This can result in one side of the link running at full and the other side running at half. Obviously, problems will occur. If both sides support (and are configured for) negotiation, there shouldn't be a problem. Likewise, if both sides are hard-coded, there shouldn't be a problem. Bowie