From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Aug 21 13:41:09 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5298D16A505 for ; Mon, 21 Aug 2006 13:41:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@collaborativefusion.com) Received: from mx00.pub.collaborativefusion.com (mx00.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.89.199]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7C58B43D5E for ; Mon, 21 Aug 2006 13:41:00 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from wmoran@collaborativefusion.com) Received: from collaborativefusion.com (mx01.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.89.201]) (TLS: TLSv1/SSLv3,256bits,AES256-SHA) by wingspan with esmtp; Mon, 21 Aug 2006 09:40:59 -0400 id 00056412.44E9B7EB.00004838 Received: from Internal Mail-Server (206.210.89.202) by mx01 (envelope-from wmoran@collaborativefusion.com) with AES256-SHA encrypted SMTP; 21 Aug 2006 09:34:38 -0400 Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 09:40:58 -0400 From: Bill Moran To: Javier Henderson Message-Id: <20060821094058.5e232d85.wmoran@collaborativefusion.com> In-Reply-To: References: <041701c6c523$4bc5cfa0$c802a8c0@lucy> Organization: Collaborative Fusion X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 2.2.7 (GTK+ 2.8.20; i386-portbld-freebsd6.1) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Dave Raven , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Cisco/BSD auto-negotiation X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 13:41:09 -0000 In response to Javier Henderson : > > On Aug 21, 2006, at 9:11 AM, Dave Raven wrote: > > > Hi all, > > I'm currently looking into a problem with a Cisco 3640 router and a > > FreeBSD 4.9 unit, connected via a crossover cable, that are not > > negotiating > > correctly. > > > > If you force the media setting to full or half duplex it has constant > > collisions on the interface, and if you let both autonegotiate the > > cisco > > keeps resetting (every ~20 seconds) its network card. > > > > Are there known issues with this, or any known fixes? > > I've not seen this problem with my systems, all of which have Intel > NIC's (fxp and em), they all correctly negotiate with the Cisco gear > I've tested (a 2651XM and a few Catalyst switches running both IOS > and CatOS). I've not seen the constant negotiation you report above. > I've FreeBSD systems running 4.10-RELEASE, 5.5-RELEASE and 6.1- > RELEASE, all up to date with security patches. While the canonical answer to this is "FreeBSD 4.9 is old, you should upgrade and see if the problem goes away" ... I don't think that's going to help, although you _should_ upgrade. We have a wide range of hardware here. Lots of Cisco switches as well as lots of Dell switches and some off-brand. Our experience has been that some network hardware is garbage. Period. In every case where we've had a problem similar to yours, the problem followed a particular piece of hardware. We've found the Dell switches are particularly prone to this kind of problem ... i.e. no matter what make/model of NIC we plug in to a Dell switch, we have autonegiotiate issues. We've also found certain brands of NIC are problematic no matter what brand of switch you plug them into. In 90% of the cases, we've found that forcing the duplex/speed and turning off autonegotiate fixes the problem, in the remaining 10% of cases, we've had to replace the hardware. Looks like you've already tried forcing the speed/duplex. Considering the cost of NICs these days, I'd just throw that one out and buy a replacement. -- Bill Moran Collaborative Fusion Inc.