From: Jan van Hoek (NL) 

>> Maybe the server's NIC driver
>> is having trouble auto-negotiating
>> speed/duplex settings with the switch?

Good theory!! We have similar problems with a well known brand that has
onboard LAN adapters. Sometimes (and always unexpected) they loose their
settings, and (best case) disappear out of sight as a result. In that case,
we are in luck as the cause is clear and the solution too.

It can be worse, however. After rebooting with wrong settings, and trying
(and re-trying) to get in touch with the rest of the world, the LAN traffic
gets polluted, even to the extent that we get "collisions"
(whoever heard of that phonomena since the invention of switches instead of
hubs??). Those collisions are bad enough to even be noticed by our WAN
provider who monitors our routers.

Lawyers will haunt me if I mention the brand name here openly (hint: 4
letters). But since the last batch of 100 boxes (servers and workstations
counted together), we blacklisted the brand in question. Of course they
insist that we are the only ones with that problem (what's new??).
--
-- Jan van Hoek (NL)
-- Sun 30 May 2004 20:13 CET

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5