[CentOS] Failing Network card

[Gregory P. Ennis]

Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
<snip>
> I have been chasing a problem with a pci-e TrendNet(TEG-ECTX) gigabit
> card.  After adding the card to a machine with a new Centos 6.2 install
> and naming it 'eth4' it works well for 6 to 12 hours and then fails.
> The failure is characterized by dropping its connection speed from 1000
> to 100 while not allowing any data to flow in or out.  When this happens
> a shutdown and reboot does not solve the problem, but shutting down and
> then removing the power does solve the problem.
<snip>
> Some additional information that may be useful.  The TrendNet card is
> the second TrendNet card I have used.  The first card had the same
> symptoms, and I deduced the card was bad, and purchased another one. The
> symptoms are the same with the second card.
<snip>
Several questions: do you have another machine on the same network? Does
*it* show the problem, around the same time?

And, finally, did you buy both TrendNet cards from the same vendor? Are
their MACs close? If so, it could be the vendor got a bad batch, either
OEM's fault, or the gorilla who un/loaded it during shipping.

       mark

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Mark,

I have several machines on that network, and only one machine is having
the problem.  The machine is being used as a mail server, web server,
and gateway for the network.  After this problem surfaced with the
failure of the eth4 card (internal network), I created a gateway out of
one of the other machines that is working without incident.  

I did purchase both TrendNet Cards from Fry's.  Fry's was good about
taking the first one back without question, but now that the second one
has failed, I thought it best to look deeper.  I don't have the previous
card's MAC address, but my first thought was that this was a bad card
too. Both the first and second cards did not appear to have any damage
on the boxes or the card itself.  Before I tried to get a third card
from a different manufacturer I wanted to post things here to see if
there was an obvious problem I am missing.  

Thanks for your help!!!

Greg