SUN-3 messages - ie0: no carrier

[roy at phri.UUCP]

In article <15 at unc.unc.UUCP> menges at unc.UUCP (John Menges) writes:
>  We are experiencing frequent error messages on our SUN-3 consoles
>  saying "ie0: no carrier".

	First guess, the tranciever cable is loose (a perpetual problem,
due to the brain-damaged way the connectors are designed).  We use a
liberal number of nylon cable ties (attached to whatever) to secure the
xceiver cables and take the strain off the connectors.  On one 3/160, we
went so far as to remove the blank panel next to the CPU board and replace
it with a home-made angle-iron bracket to provide a secure attachment
point.

	Second guess, a flakey tranciever, or cable.  Try running the
external ethernet loopback test (bring down Unix, hit BREAK to get the ">"
prompt, then type "h <CR>" to get a help menu).  Wiggling the cable and
tranciever box while running the test is a good idea if you don't get
static errors.  You might try swapping trancievers with another machine and
see if the problem moves with the tranciever.

	The trancievers we use (InterLAN NT-100's) have a green LED which
lights when the tranciever has power.  If the LED flickers, it's almost
undoubtedly a bad tranciever cable or connection.
-- 
Roy Smith, {allegra,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016