[vortex] 3c59x not responding after some idle time

[Kai Duebbert]

Disclaimer: I am by no means a network expert, so please don't shout at me 
too loud, if I am talking nonsense.

> This sounds like the old `sleepy NIC' problem, which was
> caused by some Cicso gear at the other end of the link.
> The problem was that after a while the switch simply
> assumed that the host had disappeared.   But you're
> using BNC/AUI, which probably rules this out.
>
> Could you please describe your physical network?

Uh, this is actually a problem. The server is in the university/research 
network (http://www.lrz.de) and the documentation for it is terrible due to 
the sheer size of it (for several universities, etc.). To find somebody 
responsible is about the same problem and it can take easily a day (I guess, 
this doesn't really sound like german work style. ;). But I know that they 
are always using Cisco where they can, so I'd guess they do in my case as 
well.

> Are you able to reproduce the problem using 10baseT or 100baseT?

Do you mean by using a hub between the AUI and the server? Or said in a 
different way: there is only an AUI cable in the room.

> Was this information gathered while the machine was in its
> unresponsive mode?  If not, could you please gather this info
> when the NIC is misbehaving?

This was gathered while in responsive mode. I won't be able to get this 
information tonight, but I will try to get it tomorrow morning (CET that is).

Regards,
Kai

-- 
Kai Duebbert
eMail: kai@duebbert.de
http://duebbert.de