networking woes (HELP!)

[Annette Myjak]

We are having some bizarre networking problems with our Interactive 386/ix
systems and are at a complete loss as to where to begin to isolate the
causes.  

Background:  we have a heterogenous network running over thin wire ethernet
	which consists of 7 suns (Sun OS4.1), 3 386s (ISC 2.2) and 1 data 
	general (System V something or other).  the suns and the data
	general have no trouble seeing and/or talking to each other.

Problem 1:  when the 386's are first booted, they can ping the other
	machines and packet loss is in the 0-15% range.  over several
	minutes however, packet loss rapidly approaces 100%, and then
	the 386's can't see/talk to ANY of the other machines.  if 
	we manage to get logged into another machine before 'losing'
	the connection, response time is VERY slow.

	rebooting the 386's temporarily restores the ability to ping	
	other machines, but we again rapidly reach the 100% packet loss
	problem.

The weird part:  we experinced this problem several months ago after
	the addition of a second 386 to the net.  moving a user's home
	directory from one sun to another seemed to clear it up (why?
	beats me! shouldn't have made a difference.)  things have run
	pretty smoothly for a couple of months until the addition of
	the third 386 to the net last week.  now this problem has
	cropped up again.


Problem 2:  the 386's have difficulty seeing/talking to the other machines
	CLOSEST to them in the network configuration.


If any one out there in net land has had similiar problems, or can
provide some pointers as to where to look to isolate the causes of
this nonsense, we'd appreciate hearing from you.  

Please e-mail responses to arm at sps.com.  (i've been out of the office
for a week, and am WAY behind reading news.)  if there's enough interest,
i'll post a summary of any responses i get.

thanks!

annette myjak
arm at sps.com