Bizarre ethernet problems (Interlan & 4.2 BSD)

[Steve Harpster]

I've been experiencing strange ethernet problems. Maybe someone out
there can help me out. First let me say that we have 3 750's all
running 4.2 BSD with Interlan's controller.

1.	When a tap is unplugged from the controller, then plugged
	back in, the system reboots. No error messages, panics,
	nothing --- it just starts rebooting. I can live with
	this but it's not too friendly.

2.	Because of an incredibly poor design, the cable from the
	controller to the tap quite often comes loose. This is
	noticed because the machine appears down and the lights
	on the controller stay dark. The problem is, none of the
	other machines can talk either. For example, if machine
	A's tap is loose, machine B and machine C should still
	be able to talk but they can't! If machine A crashes,
	everything is okay. The problem only appears when the tap
	is loose (wiggling the cable usually brings all the machines
	back up on the network). Needless to say, this makes it 
	hard to figure out which machine has the trouble.

3.	This is the most disturbing. Every machine appears down to
	the others. The taps are secure. Each controller on each
	machine periodically flashes the carrier sense light. It
	looks like they each detect activity on the network but
	they can't figure out who's doing it.

For the most part, the ethernet works great. Whenever we do any
activity under the floor though and bump the cable everything goes to hell.

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks.
-- 
...ihnp4!tellab1!steve
Steve Harpster
Tellabs, Inc.