Ethernet adapter problems

[Brian D. Horn]

In article <16128 at hydra.gatech.EDU> scott at prism.gatech.EDU (Scott Holt) writes:
>
>We have a number of RS 6000s connected to our campus network -
>a network which sees quite a bit of traffic. From time to time,
>the ethernet interfaces in the machines will simply shut off.

	Note: I haven't seen this on a 6000, but odds are good that what
I have to say follows.

	On EVERY piece of hardware using the Intel 82586 I have found
that the chip gets itself wedged into an "impossible" state under conditions
of heavy traffic, especially broadcast traffic.  I have seen this in
at LEAST 5 different hardware platforms INCLUDING one built by Intel.
The only solution I have seen is having the device driver have a watchdog
timer check for such a condition and pull on the reset line if and when
the condition is detected and restart the I/O.